Maria Marchesano
Photo by: John Nagel
Marchesano's Rebuild of Mastodon Women's Basketball
10/30/2025 10:30:00 AM | Women's Basketball
The improvement of the Purdue Fort Wayne women's basketball team is one of northeast Indiana's most overlooked and underappreciated story. In four years, the program improved from a 1-22 mark to being a game away from the NCAA Tournament.
Also overlooked is that the turnaround kick-started with a music video. Coach Maria Marchesano was taking her new team downtown to participate in the Down Syndrome Association of Northeast Indiana's Buddy Walk when somehow the players convinced Marchesano to participate in a video. With the coach lip-syncing as the players danced behind her, some jumping up for specific lyrics, there was plenty of hair flipping, including by the new coach.
During those three minutes, the players showed more energy, laughter, and smiles than they had in several seasons.
"I mean it was like immediately things were different," said forward Shayla Sellers, a sophomore on that team. "She doesn't want to admit it, but she loves Tik Tok as much as the kids on the team. She wants you to have fun, have a good time, and enjoy life because you only get to play college basketball one time with the people around you, but when it comes time for business, we had to turn it on, because there's a fine line between taking it seriously and having fun."
OK, maybe it was really the hiring of the Fort Wayne-native Marchesano, who was the primary reason for the turnaround, but the video did convince those returning players that things were going to be very different.
"I remember watching it when I was transferring and thought, 'Oh, my gosh, that looks like so much fun,'" said Fort Wayne product Sydney Graber, who was playing at Central Michigan and transferred to Purdue Fort Wayne the next year. "For her to have the courage to do that… You know they work hard, but it was fun, too."
The players learned quickly that working hard and winning is fun. The Mastodons improved from 9-21 to 14-19, 23-13, and 27-9 last year, finishing 18-2 in the Horizon League, the most wins in school history. Marchesano was the perfect coach for Purdue Fort Wayne, not only because of her reputation and local ties as an Elmhurst High School grad, but also because she had rebuilt programs before.
During her first head-coaching stint, Marchesano took over a 2-8 team at Urbana and finished 13-7 the rest of the season. Two years later, she took over an 8-18 team at Walsh and finished 20-10 in two years. After a year as an associate head coach at IU Indianapolis (then IUPUI) in 2016-17, when the Jaguars finished 24-9, Marchesano took over a 9-21 team at Mount St. Mary's that finished 12-18, 15-16, 20-11, and 17-7 with an NCAA Tournament berth.
"I'd been there before, but this one was the toughest," Marchesano said. "Being in my hometown made it even more nerve-racking. It was definitely a daunting task, and then there was the added pressure of being home because I didn't want to come home and fail."
Because, as Kelley Hartley Hutton, Marchesano's boss as Purdue Fort Wayne athletic director, said, everyone in Fort Wayne knows Marchesano – or they know a relation of hers. They've all shown up to home games, too.
"There's like one degree of support," Hartley Hutton said. "She knows everybody, and everybody knows her. She has a lot of friends who are like family, too."
But what Marchesano set out to do was not just build basketball players who would win together, but also a family. Only five players returned that first season, but they bought in quickly.
"That first year was no joke," Sellers said. "She made me contemplate everything about basketball, but I knew in the end it was going to pay off. Obviously, you don't see the light at the end of the tunnel when you are running through the mud, but it was really awesome. I know every single moment that they poured into me, and I'm going to try and point to that for the rest of my life."
The former players – including the eight who graduated after last season – are united in their fear of missing out and pledge to attend as many games as possible. They wonder how returning players Ella Riggs, Jordan Reid, and Hillary Offing will do with leadership roles and more playing time. They also wonder how the nine new players will adjust to a rigorous schedule and to Marchesano's system.
"I love that she does not see the world or basketball or people or situations through rose-colored glasses," Hartley Hutton said. "She's not negative but grounded. She's more pragmatic and sees things in a productive way. She sees the problems so she can address the issues and look for the solutions before they can grow, either on the court or away from the court. She's got that culture that she sticks to."
Marchesano said she's not intimidated by another rebuild, though everyone else is not only hoping for strong results but expects them. She knows what needs to happen, but also realizes it's going to take time, playing time, and coaching time, before things can come together into what this team might become.
The great thing is that she knows her players are talented, and they love practicing and hanging out together away from the gym. Having good kids makes everything easier, though this young team may require more patience as they learn from mistakes they'll make.
The hard part is that none of these players were there at the beginning four years ago. They haven't been through a rebuild, learning to rely only upon each other, and they'll face a brutal non-conference schedule against Purdue, West Virginia, Xavier, Eastern Michigan, Nebraska, Bowling Green, and Northern Illinois.
"We are, in essence, back at square one, but that square is a lot higher than it was four years ago," Marchesano said. "We're going to look completely different in March when these freshmen get the repetitions or practice and some game experience, and these transfers get the repetitions of playing together, and they continue to learn our system. To see where we can be at in February and March is going to be really cool."
Maybe it's time for another video.
Also overlooked is that the turnaround kick-started with a music video. Coach Maria Marchesano was taking her new team downtown to participate in the Down Syndrome Association of Northeast Indiana's Buddy Walk when somehow the players convinced Marchesano to participate in a video. With the coach lip-syncing as the players danced behind her, some jumping up for specific lyrics, there was plenty of hair flipping, including by the new coach.
During those three minutes, the players showed more energy, laughter, and smiles than they had in several seasons.
"I mean it was like immediately things were different," said forward Shayla Sellers, a sophomore on that team. "She doesn't want to admit it, but she loves Tik Tok as much as the kids on the team. She wants you to have fun, have a good time, and enjoy life because you only get to play college basketball one time with the people around you, but when it comes time for business, we had to turn it on, because there's a fine line between taking it seriously and having fun."
OK, maybe it was really the hiring of the Fort Wayne-native Marchesano, who was the primary reason for the turnaround, but the video did convince those returning players that things were going to be very different.
"I remember watching it when I was transferring and thought, 'Oh, my gosh, that looks like so much fun,'" said Fort Wayne product Sydney Graber, who was playing at Central Michigan and transferred to Purdue Fort Wayne the next year. "For her to have the courage to do that… You know they work hard, but it was fun, too."
The players learned quickly that working hard and winning is fun. The Mastodons improved from 9-21 to 14-19, 23-13, and 27-9 last year, finishing 18-2 in the Horizon League, the most wins in school history. Marchesano was the perfect coach for Purdue Fort Wayne, not only because of her reputation and local ties as an Elmhurst High School grad, but also because she had rebuilt programs before.
During her first head-coaching stint, Marchesano took over a 2-8 team at Urbana and finished 13-7 the rest of the season. Two years later, she took over an 8-18 team at Walsh and finished 20-10 in two years. After a year as an associate head coach at IU Indianapolis (then IUPUI) in 2016-17, when the Jaguars finished 24-9, Marchesano took over a 9-21 team at Mount St. Mary's that finished 12-18, 15-16, 20-11, and 17-7 with an NCAA Tournament berth.
"I'd been there before, but this one was the toughest," Marchesano said. "Being in my hometown made it even more nerve-racking. It was definitely a daunting task, and then there was the added pressure of being home because I didn't want to come home and fail."
Because, as Kelley Hartley Hutton, Marchesano's boss as Purdue Fort Wayne athletic director, said, everyone in Fort Wayne knows Marchesano – or they know a relation of hers. They've all shown up to home games, too.
"There's like one degree of support," Hartley Hutton said. "She knows everybody, and everybody knows her. She has a lot of friends who are like family, too."
But what Marchesano set out to do was not just build basketball players who would win together, but also a family. Only five players returned that first season, but they bought in quickly.
"That first year was no joke," Sellers said. "She made me contemplate everything about basketball, but I knew in the end it was going to pay off. Obviously, you don't see the light at the end of the tunnel when you are running through the mud, but it was really awesome. I know every single moment that they poured into me, and I'm going to try and point to that for the rest of my life."
The former players – including the eight who graduated after last season – are united in their fear of missing out and pledge to attend as many games as possible. They wonder how returning players Ella Riggs, Jordan Reid, and Hillary Offing will do with leadership roles and more playing time. They also wonder how the nine new players will adjust to a rigorous schedule and to Marchesano's system.
"I love that she does not see the world or basketball or people or situations through rose-colored glasses," Hartley Hutton said. "She's not negative but grounded. She's more pragmatic and sees things in a productive way. She sees the problems so she can address the issues and look for the solutions before they can grow, either on the court or away from the court. She's got that culture that she sticks to."
Marchesano said she's not intimidated by another rebuild, though everyone else is not only hoping for strong results but expects them. She knows what needs to happen, but also realizes it's going to take time, playing time, and coaching time, before things can come together into what this team might become.
The great thing is that she knows her players are talented, and they love practicing and hanging out together away from the gym. Having good kids makes everything easier, though this young team may require more patience as they learn from mistakes they'll make.
The hard part is that none of these players were there at the beginning four years ago. They haven't been through a rebuild, learning to rely only upon each other, and they'll face a brutal non-conference schedule against Purdue, West Virginia, Xavier, Eastern Michigan, Nebraska, Bowling Green, and Northern Illinois.
"We are, in essence, back at square one, but that square is a lot higher than it was four years ago," Marchesano said. "We're going to look completely different in March when these freshmen get the repetitions or practice and some game experience, and these transfers get the repetitions of playing together, and they continue to learn our system. To see where we can be at in February and March is going to be really cool."
Maybe it's time for another video.
~ Feel the Rumble ~
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