WNBA-bound local hoops star aims to help hospital workers

Mikayla Pivec is about to have one of the most transformative moments of her life.

The WNBA draft takes place Friday, and the Lynnwood High School product will hear her name called, thus beginning her foray into professional women’s basketball.

So how is Pivec spending her time leading into the draft? Doing what she can to play her part in the fight against coronavirus.

In addition to preparing for the WNBA draft, Pivec is working on a project to deliver healthy meals to health-care workers who are on the front lines of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“I wanted to work with health-care professionals during this time,” Pivec said from Boise, Idaho, where’s she’s been hunkering down with her sister Malia, who attends Boise State University. “So I’m reaching out for ideas on how to help health-care workers get healthy meals during this time, whether that’s providing meals directly or supporting local businesses. I’ve gotten a lot of feedback so far and I want to keep working on it the next couple weeks.”

As if Pivec didn’t have enough on her plate already. Pivec just completed her senior season at Oregon State, where the 5-foot-10 guard averaged 14.8 points, 9.3 rebounds and 4.5 assists per game for a Beavers team that was 23-9 and anticipating a high seed to the NCAA tournament, only for the tournament to be canceled as part of measures taken to prevent the spread of coronavirus. She was named All-Pac-12 and an honorable mention All-American.

Now Pivec will head to the professional ranks. She was regarded as a borderline first-round pick in the WNBA draft before early entrants began declaring, and is now considered a solid second-rounder. The draft has three rounds, with 12 selections per round.

Pivec his hired an agent, Eric Wiesel, and as of Wednesday had undergone extensive interviews with three teams — she did not divulge which ones — and was anticipating more.

“I’m super excited about it,” Pivec said about the impending draft. “It’s something I dreamed about growing up, getting the opportunity to play in the WNBA. It’s definitely unique circumstances, given we don’t know when the league is going to start of even if they’re going to play this year (the WNBA has postponed the start of the season, which was scheduled to begin May 15). But I’ll try to stay as ready as possible for the opportunity.”

But Pivec has found a way to fill her time. As impressive as Pivec’s basketball resume may be, her list of off-court accomplishments is just as long. She’s an academic All-American who graduated from Oregon State in three years with a degree in biohealth science, and she’s an active volunteer at homeless shelters in Corvallis, Oregon.

Now she’s putting some of her learning to work in tackling the coronavirus pandemic. Pivec is taking graduate courses at Oregon State this school year, and last quarter Pivec took a class titled, “Innovation and skill building through multidisciplinary teams,” which is designed to bring people from different fields together to collaborate on projects.

“In that class we talked about our different passions, and a couple of mine are cooking and working with hospitals and health-care professionals,” Pivec said. “We looked into how physicians could be provided with healthier meals, so there could be one thing ticked off their list that they didn’t have to worry about. Now with the COVID-19 pandemic there’s additional stress for people in that position. So I want to use my platform to help bring people together and provide those meals.”

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Pivec is currently soliciting ideas from the public about how to best provide meals for health-care workers (suggestions can be emailed to her at pivecm@oregonstate.edu), which she hopes to consolidate into a plan she can start implementing as soon as possible.

“I don’t have any numbers in terms of the scale of the project, it’ll evolve as it continues to grow,” Pivec said. “I definitely want to provide meals, beginning with physicians in Corvallis, then hopefully continue to get revenue. I have no idea what the numbers will be, but I want to light a spark and see how far it goes.”

If Pivec’s success on the basketball court is an indication, that spark could easily turn into an inferno.

Mikayla Pivec is soliciting ideas for her project of providing healthy meals for health-care workers who are on the front lines of dealing with the coronavirus pandemic. If you have any suggestions, email her at pivecm@oregonstate.edu.