Game recognizes game: Founder of La Salle hoops’ student section is a captain of the Explorers’ water polo team, too

Sports build community. La Salle is no exception — and it’s hard to find a community on Olney Avenue that Paige Mitchell is not involved in.

The senior is a vocal captain on the water polo team. When she is not in the pool or the classroom, she is the president of the La Salle Student-Athlete Advisory Committee, engaging with the university to advocate for changes on behalf of student-athletes. If that was not enough, Mitchell is also the founder and president of La Salle’s student section, the Olney Outlaws. The group can be found hosting theme nights at every home basketball game and appearing at other campus sporting events in the meantime.

“We started [the Outlaws] because we found that a lot of students weren’t necessarily coming out to games,” Mitchell said. “So we were trying to find a way to encourage everyone to come out. … It’s grown ever since.”

But before she was building and leading these communities, one found Mitchell when she needed it the most.

During a routine eye checkup when she was in sixth grade, doctors found increased pressure on the back of her eyes. They feared it was a tumor, but an MRI revealed a Chiari malformation, a condition that can occur when one’s skull is atypically small. At the time, she was not experiencing any major symptoms. That changed two years later, though.

“I was having really bad headaches and neck pain. I would get to the end of the day and I wasn’t able to hold my head up,” Mitchell said. “It was just really bad, and then my hands and feet would go numb.”

Mitchell wound up back at the hospital and learned that her Chiari malformation was causing her pain. Her doctors decided that surgery was needed if Mitchell wanted to continue playing sports. So at the conclusion of her eighth grade water polo season, Mitchell underwent surgery. She missed the next three months of school.

While recovering, Mitchell’s current and soon-to-be teammates at North Penn wanted to show their support. Mitchell had to shave a portion of the back of her head for the surgery, so that the surgeon could make an insertion into her skull. So her teammates — “Purple for Paige,” as they called themselves — cut their hair in the same spot, and painted purple ribbons where their hair used to be.

“Our community is really close, and I think that’s something that’s common with water polo. It’s just such a small community,” Mitchell said. “Everybody kind of knows everybody. And you know when something like that happens, everyone just kind of supports each other.”

Mitchell excelled at North Penn, and water polo brought her to La Salle — one of the just 34 Division I women’s programs in the country, as of 2022. With the Explorers, she has extended the sense of camaraderie that found her in middle school to many areas of her life.

“[Mitchell] builds genuine connections with people, and she wants to see all the different communities she’s in succeed to the best that they can,” said Claire Durham, a senior on the water polo team and the social media chair of the Outlaws.

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Mitchell initially started working with La Salle athletics in the spring of her freshman year. As a student worker, she first threw T-shirts to the crowds at basketball games and was in charge of other game-day promotions. But Mitchell wanted more work, so she started showing up at the athletics office during the week, doing whatever was needed.

Her hard work was noticed. Then-associate athletic director Dan Lobacz asked Mitchell to look into ways to increase student attendance at games. She got to work, employing Durham to make the Outlaws’ signature logo and finding other motivated students to join her startup student section. At the outset of her junior year, the Outlaws were unveiled at a men’s soccer match vs. NJIT — equipped with inflatable noisemakers and smoke sticks

“I don’t know how she does it, seriously,” Durham said. “She’s commuting this year, and she will get to school for our 7 a.m. [team] lift, and she will be there on campus till we end practice at 7:30 [p.m.] … If she’s not in a meeting or networking, she’s working either for the athletic department, or for the Outlaws, or doing something for SAAC. You can ask anyone — she’s the one to go to if you want something done.”

A key measure for the Outlaws’ success has been men’s basketball games, the biggest draw on campus. Although the attendance at home games has dipped this season, Mitchell feels the student section repeatedly has shown up. She pointed to the St. Joe’s game on Jan. 31, which she believes had the highest turnout by a student section since she got to campus three years ago.

“Hopefully in five years, the Olney Outlaws will still exist. And, hopefully, the [men’s basketball] team’s a little better, so there’s a little more incentive to get out and go to the games,” said Jimmy Freeman, the Outlaws’ secretary. “Hopefully, when I can go back to those games, I can see a student section there that actually wants to be there and is kind of fired up.”

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A big part of ensuring that the Outlaws are around in half a decade’s time — besides hoping La Salle’s play improves — is choosing enthusiastic underclassmen to take the club to new heights. Although the group has over 100 people signed up for updates, the Outlaws will need someone to run the show next year with Mitchell, Freeman, and Durham graduating in the spring. A line of succession is not yet in place, but Freeman said was “promising” that a few underclassmen have begun attending club meetings.

What is clear is that sports are not leaving Mitchell’s life anytime soon. Along with her involvement on La Salle’s campus, she has previously interned with the Flyers and Phillies. After graduating, she is looking to continue to work in professional sports with the goal to work in group sales and fan engagement.

“I got a lot of opportunities ahead of me, so I’m trying to keep my options open,” Mitchell said.