Ivy League hoopsters are Division I athletes on the court and exceptionally accomplished and multi-dimensional humans off it. Ivy Hoops Online presents a new series, Off the Bench, that takes fans inside the stories that you might not otherwise know from the stands or via your screen.
Next up is Mataya Gayle ’27, a rising senior on the Penn women’s basketball team, and a psychology major from Woodstock, Ga. While our previous installment highlighted the relationship of two brothers attending Princeton together, here we delve into the experience of a sibling with nine brothers and sisters at home! Through her eyes we see how her birth order and family system have prepared her for the key role she has played, and will play one more season, in the Palestra and beyond:
When Mataya Gayle says she is “the oldest of a lot of kids,” she is not kidding. Born to parents who are both former athletes (her dad played in the NFL), Gayle is the eldest of 10 siblings. The youngest one is only 4 years old.
“My family operates as a community, or, like a team,” Gayle says, and she considers it a blessing. She cannot imagine her life any other way.
Being part of a family of 12 is not just an interesting biographical fact—it is the foundation for this Penn team captain’s leadership style, her sense of herself and even her approach to basketball. As a senior sibling, Gayle has always felt a call to step up and lead the charge, as well as a desire to bring people along.
Gayle believes her family identity has translated seamlessly into the role she has gravitated to on the basketball court. As the point guard, she says, “Everything I’m doing has to be unselfish; it has to be for the team. I have a responsibility to get my teammates the ball, to make plays for them.”
Of course, this means a certain amount of accountability.
“When things are going well, I will get a lot of credit and praise,” Gayle said. “On the other hand, when things are rough, it is also going to fall on me.”
In the current college basketball environment, the conversation is often about money and marketing. It’s more and more transactional. But for Gayle, basketball is and has always been about relationships. Going away to school has made her especially close to the siblings closest to her age, who she refers to as “the big five.”
Penn basketball feels to her like a second family.
Gayle considers herself very lucky to be hooping in this cultural moment. She views Caitlin Clark as the catalyst for the revolution that is women’s basketball.
“Caitlin caused people to look, but then they saw so many great women’s basketball players,” Gayle said.
In her own college basketball journey, Gayle made sure to pursue the Ivy League.
“There’s security here, because you know your teammates are not just going to up and leave, and that isn’t true in other high-level conferences.”
Since arriving in Philadelphia, Gayle has found a passion for developmental psychology – studying how people become who they are over time – and she imagines she will apply that background to a role in sports marketing after she graduates.
“I don’t think I could just sit behind a desk all day,” Gayle said. “I’m interested in learning about people, and maybe about how and why we work the way we do – maybe industrial or organizational psychology.”
Gayle is grateful that being at Penn has opened doors – encouraging her to keep dreaming big dreams —and setting her up to keep leading.
This summer, Gayle is enjoying her work at The Netter Center, an organization that leverages university and community resources to address issues poverty, health, environment, and educational iniquities. Enthusiastic about service, she finds it genuinely fun and meaningful to be giving back to the city of Philadelphia, and has found “a new appreciation for how hard the [staff works].”
In her summer job, Gayle is a coach and counselor, helping kids who live in West Philly to learn life skills and play basketball. Her favorite part is teaching the high school students a lesson, then supervising the high schoolers as they teach the same lessons to the middle schoolers. She also says it has been “super cool” to take them on college visits and expose them to the possibilities of higher education. Given her family of origin, it’s no surprise that working with the kids at the center reminds Gayle of being at home with her big family, and no doubt that has been a part of the pull there for her.
With her senior season on the horizon, Gayle is aware that “this is all we have left.” Her goal, which she knows is the same one all eight teams have, is to “win an Ivy League championship.” Even more, she wants to make the most of every single day she has left with her team.
When Gayle’s rising senior class found out that the Ivy basketball tournament had been moved to the Palestra, they “literally went crazy,” Gayle says.
Gayle was prepared to go wherever she needed to get the job done in her final campaign. That’s what a big sister is primed to do, after all. But knowing she’ll have a chance to play it out at home leads Gayle to imagine the scenario she has most been wishing for the most: seeing her parents and all of her siblings in the stands.
“I’ve visualized them there,” she says, even though it hasn’t been logistically possible to date. “If that’s not a sign for us to do our best, I don’t know what it is.”