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Daemen University Athletics

Western New York's Premier Division II Team
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claw 2021

Flores & Basden Are Co-CLAW Award Recipients

5/14/2021 6:04:00 PM

AMHERST, N.Y. - Soccer student-athlete Maddie Flores (Seattle, Wash.) and basketball student-athlete Ziv Basden (Nassau, Bahamas) have been named co-recipients of the Daemen College C.L.A.W. Award for the 2020-21 academic year. This prestigious award is given annually to the graduating student-athlete who best exemplifies the traits of character, leadership, academic achievement and work ethic. The announcement of this year's recipients was made today at the Wildcat Night of Honors, an annual event held at Lumsden Gymnasium to recognize the achievements of the college's intercollegiate teams and student-athletes. 

Flores is a four-year member of the Daemen women's soccer program. In the course of her career, she helped the Wildcats achieve a 30-21-5 overall record while making their first-ever appearances in the East Coast Conference and NCAA tournaments. She will graduate this month with a degree in paralegal studies.

Flores was nominated for the award by Hailey Dietrich, student-athlete success and community engagement coordinator. Highlights of the nomination include:

  • Community Service: Throughout her time here at Daemen, Maddie has immersed herself in the greater Daemen and Western New York communities all while playing Division II soccer. She has completed an internship with the ECBA Volunteer Lawyers' Project where she worked in Eviction Court as an eviction defense intern, helping defendants who were facing eviction in Buffalo. After the internship was done, she continued volunteering for five months. This service was open to all lower income individuals facing eviction in Western N.Y. While there, Maddie performed intakes and initial screenings, did preliminary issue spotting during intakes, and assisted in drafting settlement agreements. She shadowed many WNY pro bono attorneys in negotiations. Additionally, Maddie was a paralegal assistant for Burden, Hafner, and Hansen here in Buffalo. There, she drafted legal memorandums, prepared pleadings for attorney signature, performed investigations of expert witnesses and parties involved in cases, summarized medical records and pleadings, conducted legal research and synthesized results, and reviewed as well as summarized deposition transcripts. She also has volunteered with the Majority Leader's Expungement Clinics for Marijuana convictions downtown. In this role, she helped individuals in Buffalo remove their marijuana conviction records. Currently, she is writing her senior thesis on Mexican American studies in K-12 schools in Washington State and why they need to be required courses. As soon as this is completed she plans to send it to state legislature.

  • Leadership Roles: Maddie is a member of our women's soccer team here at Daemen. She helped lead her team last year to their first NCAA tournament appearance serving as starting goalie. She is a member of our team's leadership committee where they make decisions that would impact the entire team. While at Daemen, Maddie has served on Student Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC) as the community outreach and diversity and inclusion officer, as well as this past year as president. SAAC is the governing body for all athletes which advocates on behalf of their peers and votes on NCAA legislation.

  • Sportsmanship: Maddie is hyper aware of others and is empathetic to their needs. She is someone who would drop anything to help anyone. 

  • Additional Info: Maddie has gone above and beyond as a student and athlete here at Daemen. She has made Dean's List every semester, has played an NCAA Division II sport, and volunteered in numerous capacities in ways that have impacted the WNY area. She plans to attend law school next year and has already received multiple offers from her top choices.


Including a redshirt season, Basden has been a four-year member of the men's basketball program, helping the Wildcats go 58-20 overall and achieve three NCAA tournament berths during his three active seasons. He will graduate later this month with a degree in business administration, and will return to the team as a graduate student next season. 

Basden was nominated for the award by his head coach, Mike MacDonald. Highlights of the nomination include: 

  • Community Service: Ziv serves as the community outreach and diversity and inclusion coordinator for SAAC. He has also volunteered every semester with the Center for Allied and Unified Sports and Exercise (CAUSE). As a representative for his team, he has come to work with kids and adults with varying abilities to teach them how to play basketball and build comaraderie. Each year, our men's basketball program has held basketball clinics at local schools in the area and hosted numerous basketball camps in which Ziv has coached teams and helped out. He also currently is partnered with Western New York Project Play. Their goal is "every child—regardless of location, income or ability—should have access to fun and fulfilling physical activities that build confidence and set them on a path for lifelong success." Through this program, Ziv has helped with marketing, social media planning and data management. His other volunteer involvement has been: West Side Community Center, Soups for Seniors and Team Impact, where he serves as our team rep working closely with his teammate who is a child in the Buffalo community facing a chronic illness. 

  • Leadership Roles: Ziv as mentioned above serves as an executive board member for SAAC, serving as community outreach and diversity and inclusion officer. He has helped with all community service initiatives and diversity and inclusion programming we have done in athletics, including but not limited to NCAA Diversity and Inclusion Week. He is a member of our NCAA Division II men's basketball team where he has helped lead our team to three NCAA tournament berths. He also has been recognized as holding the highest GPA on our team. He also has received Dean's List honors every semester here at Daemen. He is a team representative for Team Impact and was nominated as a Team Impact Fellow. Team Impact "tackles the emotional trauma and social isolation experienced by children facing serious and chronic illnesses by matching them with a college athletic team. Through our two-year therapeutic program that complements their medical treatments, children develop relationships and skills that help them complete the full circle of healing." Ziv coordinates all meet-ups and events for his team and their Team Impact player. He also is a member of Sigma Beta Delta.

  • Sportsmanship: Ziv was selected in 2018 to represent the East Coast Conference at the NCAA Leadership Forum. This conference is comprised of athletes from all divisions who have been hand-picked from their conference because of their exceptional leadership skills. In his role with SAAC, he most recently coordinated reading virtually to Buffalo Reach Academy. 

  • Additional Info: Ziv has truly worked hard to bridge the gap between the greater campus and athletics. He makes a point with all activities we do to make them open to all students and not just athletes. Ziv was also selected to attend the NCAA Diversity and Inclusion Forum last year in Colorado which unfortunately was canceled due to COVID. He has attended the NCAA Leadership Forum for a week in 2018 where he was trained on various leadership skills such as strength-based leadership, emotional intelligence, effective communication through crucial conversations. goal setting, visualization, and sexual assault awareness training through the One Love Foundation. Ziv has also completed the Whole Athlete Initiative training through athletics where he was trained on mindfulness and clear communication. He also was selected to serve on DC Will Lead in athletics which identifies leaders from all teams to do training on leadership to help develop and hone skills to be effective leaders in and outside of athletics. 


Daemen College features the premier NCAA Division II athletics program in the Buffalo-Niagara region, sponsoring 17 intercollegiate teams. For the latest information on Daemen Athletics, follow the Wildcats via social media on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Instagram, or sign up to receive customizable news alerts, e-mail newsletters and weekly schedule alerts.


 
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