Cancer: How It Changed the Life of a D1 Basketball Star
The story of a young girl coming to America in pursuit of basketball stardom, has her dream ripped away from her due to Ovarian Cancer.
A young girl in the small town of Gostivar, Macedonia, played in the street with her friends and went home to her three-bedroom apartment surrounded by family. The young girl had dreams of playing division one basketball in America. From playing for the Macedonian National Basketball team and representing her country to leaving her family and friends behind when she moved to Nebraska at just 15 years old, Snezhana Serafimoska did everything in her power to increase her chances of playing D1 basketball.
After three years of high school basketball at Nebraska City High School, it was finally time to pursue a college basketball career. Dan Burt, head coach of the Women’s basketball team at Duquesne University, stayed in touch with Snezhana since she played for the Macedonian National team and felt right at home at Duquesne. “As soon as I got to my official visit, I just knew that I belonged here. There were a lot of foreign girls, and I loved the city,” Serafimoska said.
One of the initial problems that Snezhana encountered in her new life in America was culture shock. “I barely spoke English,” Serafimoska said. “So, learning the whole language was one of the biggest things. Then the food, the way people interact with each other, and my family. It was just all different and new for me, I had to learn and accept a whole new culture.”
But once she learned and accepted the new culture and was comfortable in her new role with the Duquesne Women’s basketball team, Snezhana yet again encountered another problem. Snezhana discovered that she had a benign tumor in her femur and would need hip surgery in September of her freshman year.
After putting in a lot of hard work trying to recover and get back to playing condition, her hip still bothered her. She booked another appointment at the hospital, and “they found out that the tumor was back,” Serafimoska said. “The hardware was loose, and I had screws that were broken. So, they told me that it would be best if I medically retired.”
Being told that she had to medically retire and give up on her childhood dreams of playing division-one basketball was devastating. “That's honestly something that I'm still struggling with because it's really just an emotional rollercoaster,” Serafimoska said. “It's something that I've been doing my whole life, and now it’s just over.”
Snezhana was told that she had stage three ovarian cancer and that she would need chemotherapy. “The first month or two, nobody really knew about it,” Serafimoska said. “It was a really hard time. I couldn't really talk to anybody because I wasn't even sure what was going on. But then I got huge support from my team, my friends, and my family. I had to go through four rounds of chemo, and I beat cancer.”
Friend and teammate on the Duquesne women’s basketball team, Amaya Hamilton, was one of the few people that Snezhana trusted to know about her cancer while she still kept it a secret from everyone else. “I was actually on the call with her when she found out that it was cancerous, her tumor,” Hamilton said. “It was so devastating. I'm a health science major. So, she looked to me a lot to help her with all the problems that were going on.”
Because of Snezhana’s positive attitude, there were a lot of times when Amaya was taking it harder than Snezhana was. “I think I was sadder than she was,” Hamilton said. “She was like, ‘okay, this is nothing. I've got this.’ She was trying to keep me strong during her diagnosis, which is pretty crazy. She is a truly fearless person. I've never seen her scared of anything in my life.”
Because of the timing of Snezhana's diagnosis, it was often difficult for teammates, friends, and family to see Snezhana after she learned she had cancer during the COVID pandemic. Because of COVID paired with Snezhana's weakened immune system as a result of her chemotherapy, some days Amaya was limited to sending a kind text or delivering food to her door. “Her door was really the way that we could help her the most,” Hamilton said.
It was difficult for Amaya to keep it a secret. “In the beginning, nobody really knew what was going on,” Hamilton said. “When she was a little down and people wouldn't understand, it was hard for me to keep my mouth shut. And not be like, ‘she's going through one of the hardest moments of her life right now.’”
But, once Snezhana was comfortable, she asked Amaya to share the news with her team. “I just gave them a basic breakdown of her diagnosis,” Hamilton said. “It was really sad, and everyone was devastated. But at the end of the day, we all just knew that we had to be there for her. So, it did make light of the situation in the sense that it really brought everyone together.”
Once Snezhana beat cancer, close friends and family gathered around in the hospital to watch her ring the bell. And later on, Snezhana rang the bell in the weight room at Duquesne, surrounded by teammates. “We had her ring the bell, and we all just cheered for her and had one big group hug,” Hamilton said. “It was such a special moment for all of us to share.”
One of the moments in her battle with cancer that Snezhana was saddest about was losing her hair. But joking about it was a way for Snezhana to cope. “Even her being bald was just hilarious,” Hamilton said. “She would joke about it. Her brother was like, ‘I really can't wait to get to America just so I can slap your bald head.’”
After she got her head shaved, Amaya was tearing up in the corner of the room, while Snezhana, “literally had her phone out taking selfies as she was bald,” Hamilton said. “Doing duck face and making Tik Toks.”
Snezhana is still with the team in a student assistant coaching role. The team decided to help her so that Snezhana could still be around the team and basketball while she finished her master's at Duquesne. “It's really emotional just watching practice because I would obviously prefer to be practicing,” Serafimoska said. “But I'm really grateful that I'm still able to be around the people I care for.”
In her new role, Snezhana helps with recruiting, stats and managing gear. But Amaya says her job is much more than that. “She's really the bridge between the players and the coaches,” Hamilton said. “Something really special about having her on the team is that she truly has a close relationship with every single girl down the line. She's such a great leader, and everybody has a lot of trust in her.”
Because of her love for and dedication to the game of basketball, the players on the team are motivated by having Snezhana with the team. “It really motivates us and makes us thankful for the opportunity to play, and it gives us something to play for,” Hamilton said.
