On one of her last days of high school, Maddie Oliver read a letter from her sixth-grade self. In the first lines, sixth-grade Oliver wished that when she saw the letter again, she'd be an 18-year-old headed off to play Division 1 college basketball.
Oliver is realizing that dream. She graduated from Norwell two weekends ago and will head to James Madison in late June. But she would never have guessed how her recruiting process — one of the more bizarre, drawn-out endeavors in this Class of 2025 — would play out.
"People kept asking me, 'Does this feel like a weight off your shoulders?' And that really can't be more true," she said. "It physically felt like a weight was off my chest, because I just had constant anxiety all the time."
Oliver announced her college commitment just two weeks before graduation and the day after her senior prom. Her first offer didn't come until February. She's still not completely sure what her scholarship entails, but she knows she's guaranteed a roster spot. To reach this point, Oliver has overcome personal loss, self-doubts about her basketball goals and multiple years of struggle and stress to secure her future.
