Friend Encounters is a weekly series featuring friends who have met celebrities.
Today I feature one of the youngest friends, basketball star in the making, Mikaela Dokes. How this young Michigan prodigy came to love Notre Dame is a bit of a mystery, but Mikaela and her dad Walter talk about it at On the Beat With Mikaela Dokes.
However she got there, Mikaela is a fan of the Fighting Irish. Last November, her dad treated her to a Notre Dame women's basketball game. From the posts on social media, Mikaela appeared to be in heaven watching her team and meeting some of the players. (I think pop Walter was pretty happy, too!)
One of the players was Dara Mabrey, a senior guard and the sister of WNBA player Marina Mabrey. (Regular readers know how I am fascinated by familial connections in sports.) Dara is the third Mabrey to play on the women's basketball team at ND, following Michaela and Marina. Michaela is an Assistant Coach at ND.
Some day, when Mikaela is lighting it up at ND and beyond, Dara might look back at this and recall meeting the budding sup[erstar. That's one of the reasons I wanted to interview Mikaela. I can now follow her career almost from the beginning.
The other reason, the more important reason really, is to give Mikaela extra exposure. I encourage all to follow the Mikaela Dokes Athlete Facebook page. When she's a big basketball star, remember you saw her here first.
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