The Spire

Matthew Reichert ’28

Staff Writer

If you sat in on one of the Holy Cross Men’s Basketball Team’s practices last week, you might have been able to see BYU’s small forward pull-up from the corner and hit a three. Maybe you had the opportunity to watch Providence’s shooting guard drive into the lane and Utah’s point guard make a nifty pass cutting through traffic. That’s because Holy Cross sophomore shooting guard, Austin Mejia, plays these roles in practice as a member of the scout team. 

The scout team helps prepare the Holy Cross starters by scrimmaging in the style of their upcoming opponent. Performing this role effectively requires diligent film study, a uniquely high basketball-IQ, and the kind of humility that allows a player to direct their best energies towards making their teammates better. These traits allow Austin Mejia to morph into BYU’s 3, Providence’s 2, or run the 1 like he plays for Utah. 

But, when Austin first stepped onto campus he was none of these players. Officially, he wasn’t a basketball player at all. 

Austin decided to come to Holy Cross without commitment from anyone to be on the basketball team. This is not because he lacked offers. Other schools wanted Austin to come and play for them, and their desire was well-founded. 

He averaged 20 points, 5 assists, 5 rebounds, 5 steals, and 3 blocks a game his senior year of high school. He was an all-league selection and a New York State Champion. Austin was excellent at basketball and he loved the game, but Holy Cross felt right. So, he decided to go to a school that didn’t even recruit him. 

Just because he wasn’t recruited did not mean Austin had resigned himself to non-competitive intramural games or the tepid commitments that can mark club sports. He decided he was going to walk-on to a D1 program. 

On admitted students day, through a connection his guidance counselor had to an individual associated with the basketball program, he had arranged to meet with Holy Cross Head Coach Dave Paulsen. He told the coach he wanted to play for the team and the coach — having never seen Austin play and knowing nothing about his basketball ability — made him a generous offer: Austin could serve as a team manager and the coach would give him the opportunity to work himself onto the team. 

Coach Paulsen had made this offer before, but very few had accepted and exactly zero kids had made the team this way. Austin agreed to try. 

Austin rebounded and he made sure players had their equipment. Every practice he did the boring, menial things team managers do. 

Every night he was in the gym. Austin was transforming his game. In high school, he was ball-dominant, a scorer who controlled the floor. If he was ever going to walk-on, he needed to be a different kind of player. He had to learn to fill a role. 

The athlete who had the ball in his hand and drove to the lane, deciding at the last possible moment as he read the twitches of the defender whether to take the lay-up or kick to his teammate on the wing, had to become that teammate. 

He had to become the player who could hang at the edge of the three-point line, wait for the pass, take the open shot, and sink it. So, night after night Austin took jumper after jumper and got better and better. Every day in practice, he waited and waited for the opportunity to prove it. 

The opportunity came the week of Holy Cross’ game against Army last year. Holy Cross was ravaged by injuries and needed someone to fill in for the scout team as the Black Knight’s

center. 

Playing a position meant for someone at least five inches taller in a scheme for a team that was not his, Austin performed exceptionally well. He knew his role—the role of Army’s center — to a degree Coach Paulsen described as “unheard of.” Austin started practicing with the team. 

Sometime following this, Austin officially joined the Holy Cross basketball roster. Sometime following this is the most specific I can be — neither Coach Pauslen nor Austin himself can remember the actual moment. 

At first, this surprised me. A player who dedicated hours upon hours of work to achieve a goal his coach had never seen achieved before and neither can recall the moment this goal was realized? But, when you hear Austin talk about his experience working his way onto the team, his and his coach’s inability to pinpoint the exact moment his role became formalized makes a lot more sense. 

From his first days as manager, Austin was studying with the other players, and he was eating dinner with them. They were his friends. Now it is official and it has been well-earned, but Austin was always a part of the team.