BEARCATS BASKETBALL SHINES

It was a stellar year for Baruch basketball. Just how good were the Bearcats? The men’s team ended the season at 23–6, the women’s team at 23–7. Both teams received invitations to the NCAA Division III tournament. A singular honor was bestowed on Machli Joseph, second-year coach of the Bearcat women, when he was named Coach of the Year by the Metropolitan Basketball Writers Association and the National Invitation Tournament. Chiresse Paradise, the Bearcats’ phenomenal 5'8" sophomore guard, was equally dazzling. She was named 2005–2006 All-Metropolitan Division III women’s college basketball Player of the Year.

Under veteran coach Ray Rankis, the men made it to the NCAA tournament for only the second time in team history. Senior guard Louie Karis was named a first-team selection to the 2005–2006 All-Met Division III Men’s Basketball All-Star Team, while Cheick Fadika, the senior forward/center, was named a second team selection. Congratulations all around to Baruch’s all-star athletes.

Cheick Fadika, the 6'4" forward from the Ivory Coast, has packed a lot of living into his 22 years. Reared by his widowed mother in Abidjan, Cheick left home at 15 to attend high school in Morocco (his native country was suffering from unrest that continues to this day). In Rabat he attended a French-speaking high school, cooked, cleaned, and fared for himself. At age 17, when he came to the United States, Cheick was fluent in French and his native Dioula. His first task was to learn English, a goal he pursued at an upstate New York community college.

Three years later and virtually fluent in English, Cheick is getting ready to graduate from Baruch with a degree in accounting and a job offer from Deloitte & Touche. Somehow, he has done all this and played basketball, too. Last year he was the steady anchor of an outstanding men’s team that compiled a winning record of 23–6 and was invited to the NCAA Division III tournament.

It all happened almost accidentally. When Cheick came to Baruch in the fall of 2003, he wandered into the Athletic and Recreation Complex to check out the athletics facilities. Et voilà! Suddenly he was on the team and playing his heart out. Cheick is pleased with the team’s winning season, but what he values most is the camaraderie and bonding that, win or lose, college athletics at its best engenders.

In addition to his studies and basketball, Cheick is an intern in the audit department of The Princeton Review. He lives in the Bronx with a younger sister and often cooks—West African food and lots of pasta.

Maisie Wong has been playing basketball since the fourth grade, but Baruch almost lost her to C.W. Post and field hockey, her other sports passion. In the end, the sophomore guard chose Baruch because Machli Joseph, the women’s basketball coach who recruited her, “kept up a steady stream of communication,” persuading her that Baruch was the place to be.

Maisie is half Chinese, the daughter of a Chinese immigrant who made a career for himself in the restaurant world. She didn’t grow up in the big city. John Neves, Baruch’s director of sports information, calls her “Laura Ingalls Wilder.” No, she’s not from the prairie, but she’s very much an all-American, small-town girl. Maisie attended high school in White River Junction, Vermont, and began her college career at the tiny, upstate College of St. Rose. Yet, early on, she knew the rustic life wasn’t for her, and after arriving at Baruch, she says, she quickly got over her fear of being at a big-city school.

These days, Maisie lives with an aunt and cousins in Queens and tries to take advantage of New York’s many cultural opportunities. She remains very close to her family (“they’re my favorite people”), including two younger brothers. Maisie can’t say enough about the basketball team and what it has meant to her. The team gave her a sense of focus: playing ball helped her improve her grades. And, she adds with pride, “We accomplished all our goals. We were undefeated in CUNY: we won the CUNY Tournament, and we went to the NCAA.”

—Zane Berzins