CAITLYN WORRY OF UNIVERSITY OF DALLAS, a junior on the women’s basketball team, has been selected the SCAC Character & Community Female Student-Athlete-of-the-Week for the week beginning January 24, 2016.
The SCAC honors the efforts of student-athletes who excel in the field of athletics, and also serve their campus and community.
Worry is studying English at the University of Dallas, and has been involved with the community any opportunity she can get. A lot of her efforts are taken during the summer when she travels home to Lumberton, Texas. The closed knit community has been a platform for the city native to join outreach programs, such as working with her church.
Worry is a member of the United Methodist Action Reach-Out Missions by Youth (UM ARMY). One of the highlights the basketball forward notes is how each summer the church travels to a different town near Southeast Texas and works on different mission projects with different churches from around the state.
“I have participated in this camp throughout high school and now since entering college,” Worry states. “I have been a helper which has been a wonderful experience, because I get to plan different activities for the kids. Additionally I also get to encounter many different work sites and see what different work groups are working on each day, and hear the amazing stories the students tell of how they have affected their clients.”
Worry not only travels with the church, but will stay close to home for the local mission camp that is hosted on the grounds for three days. Since middle school, Worry has participated in this event that offers those involved to be tasked with plentiful community projects. These ranged from doing different jobs that were needed by church members, such as yard work or building a wheel chair ramp. There was also an opportunity for the mission workers to spend a day at the soup kitchen and work in the Food Bank sorting food for people in the local community.
“I now help with this camp each summer which is such an exciting time seeing middle school students grow deeper with God, and also see the joy that people in our small community get when they see these young kids working in the summer heat,” Worry described.
Staying within her basketball roots, the guard does experience the joy of coaching in basketball camps that are hosted by her previous high school, Lumberton H.S. Worry explains, “This week is enjoyable because I get to share the love I have for basketball with younger kids and help them strengthen their skills as well as be a model that hard work and dedication can get you to your dream of playing college basketball.”
Worry has been a member of the Lady Crusaders for three years and has compiled 42 games played in that span. This includes suiting up on the court all 14 times this current campaign. The junior enters the week first on the squad in three-point field goal percentage and second in three-balls made.
Off the court at UD, Worry joined an organization known as Hearts and Hammers her freshman year. This organization fixes small repairs on homes within the Dallas area. One of the projects Worry did with this organization was scrape old paint off the house and then repainted it for an elderly woman.
In high school, Worry actively was involved with Ready Set Teach and Relay for Life. Being an education major, Worry strengthened her passion for teaching with the elementary school initiative. Worry reflects, “This program was always a joy, because it strengthened my love for teaching and it was always a moment of happiness when the kids would get excited when I would walk in the door in the mornings.”