“The special thing about Aiche is that she doesn’t realize how special her story is,” said Raegan Pebley, TCU’s Women’s Basketball Head Coach. “She’s the first one in her family to go to school beyond the fifth grade. There were about five years when Aiche wasn’t even in school as a youngster. Nonetheless, she’s come to America and, holy cow, she’s going to end up with a Bachelor’s Degree. Miraculous.”
Pebley is talking about her senior post player, Aiche Ndao, whose incredible journey could be turned into a Hollywood screenplay.
The story starts about as far away from TCU’s Fort Worth campus as possible – Senegal, West Africa. “I come from a big family,” Ndao said. “When I was 12, I stopped school, like most kids do at that age. I didn’t go. In Senegal, we have big classrooms – like 100 students. You have one classroom. One teacher. That’s it. Back home, we don’t care as much about school. So, I stopped going.”
Then, a series of seemingly chance encounters changed Ndao’s life forever. Ndao met Astou Ndiaye-Diatta, a Senegal native and former WNBA player.
“She was talking all about her experiences in other countries, including America. I had seen America on TV. I say to myself, ‘I want to be like this girl.’ She told me, ‘If you want to go, you have the chance and I know you can do that. But you need to go to school again.’”
About that time, Ndao also started to play basketball. “In 2008, I was playing basketball at a clinic and a man came up to me and started asking me some questions. I was thinking, ‘What is he asking?’ I didn’t speak English. Another guy came over and translated into French. The man asked me, ‘You go to school?’ I say, ‘no.’ He said, ‘You need to go to school if you want to go to the United States.’ I say, ‘ok.’ He said that if I go to school, he would work hard to bring me to America. “
That man was Ray Scott, a retired basketball coach of 30 years and father of Raegan Pebley.
“My parents for years have gone to Senegal and done mission and humanitarian work,” Pebley said. “They would go and work with quite a few orphanages. My mom is an occupational therapist and she would go in with the caretakers and teach the children. My dad would go and work and do some basketball clinics out in the community. Aiche and her dad showed up to a clinic. She and her dad and wanted Aiche to be able to come to America. I think Aiche’s dad saw something extra special in her and asked my dad to help provide his daughter with an opportunity.”
The Scotts were touched by the story and took up the fight to allow Ndao to finish her high school education in the U.S. It was not an easy process. “It was very, very difficult to get her over here,” said Pebley. “And finally it happened.”
Once she arrived in the United States, Ndao’s athletic and academic journey was only beginning. The Scott Family, who have a long history of hosting foster kids and others who just simply needed assistance in their life journey, became a second family to Ndao – and made her academics success a priority.
“One day we were driving,” Ndao said. “’He say to me, ‘Did you do your homework?’ I didn’t say anything. He ask me again, ‘Did you do your homework?’ No, I say. He asked me why? I didn’t respond. He stopped the car and said, ‘If your dad asked you a question, would you respond?’ I said, yes. I started crying. He opened his house to me. Everything I do – the classroom, basketball – I think about my family back home. I also think about the Scott Family. They gave me opportunity.”
Ndao spent two years at Collin College, a junior college in Plano, Texas, working on her academics and improving her game. After, earning an Associate’s Degree, it was time for Ndao to decide where to spend her final two years of eligibility. The journey of her recruitment didn’t send her straight to TCU, but her path eventually brought her to Fort Worth.
“Aiche was actually a difficult recruit,” Pebley said. “I really had to recruit her. Finally, she goes, ‘I just don’t know if I can have my sister be my coach. I don’t know if you are going to push me hard enough. I want you to push me. I want you to make it hard.”
Now, the 6-3 center is months away from a Bachelor’s Degree in Generalized Study. So, how does she want this Hollywood movie to end?
“I want to help my country,” Ndao said. “A lot of people need help back home. A lot of kids need help. I want to show them it’s possible. I want them – when they sit in their rooms – to say, I want to be like this girl. I want them to know that they can be like me.”