Beavers Look to Build Team, Community Through Maui Classic

Nine years ago, Scott Rueck met Ben Prangnell (now the president of Basketball Maui.) while coaching at a summer basketball camp in Maui. That relationship has now grown into a destination women's basketball tournament focused on building the basketball community and inspiring young students.

The Beavers host the second annual Maui Classic this season inviting Nevada, Montana State, and Utah State to come to meet them on the island for basketball, as well as community service at local schools in Maui.

"The experience for the community here is amazing," said Prangnell. "Oregon State comes here and helps inspire the academics and athletics in the youth here in Maui. It helps build the entire community."

The tournament helps bring the community of Maui together, with each visiting program going to a school on the island, meeting and reading with the students as the schools finish off their reading competitions that have been running for weeks leading up to the event. Oregon State will visit Pomaika'i Elementary School in Wailuku on Thursday.

In addition to attending the schools, the tournament helps bring people together around basketball, through a partnership with the Boys and Girls Club, as well as the over 120 volunteers that help put on the tournament.

"The vision of this tournament, putting it together, was that we would involve the community in Maui," said associate head coach Jonas Chatterton. "Working with our partners in Maui to have each team visit a school on the island on Thursday is such a cool part of what we are trying to do. We want to help inspire these kids and help them feel a part of it all."

"I'm super excited; last year was such a great experience," said junior guard Katie McWilliams. "The community service aspect of it is awesome, we got to go to a school and read to the kids and see the smiles on their faces and have fun with them. And then we've got the two games over there as well that will be great competition and help us move forward."

The Beavers will also use the trip to continue preparing themselves for the conference season, and help the squad grow even closer as a team.

"Any time you go on the road it's a good bonding moment because you remove the distractions, so it's fantastic for us to go there and be together as a group," Chatterton said. "When you're touching the community like that it binds your team together and galvanizes you as a group."

"I'm super excited to get over there," said sophomore guard Kat Tudor. "We obviously can't forget to do our job over there and win the games, but getting to go over there and build as a team is great. We have a really tight-knit family here and we'll only get better the more we play and travel together."

Oregon State will open the event by taking on Nevada on Friday at 9 p.m. PT.

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Beavers Look to Build Team, Community Through Maui Classic

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