In Memoriam: Maisa Abudayyeh, 19, leaves imprint on Trevians basketball, Palestinian community and beyond

Maisa Abudayyeh’s time with New Trier girls basketball was limited but her impact was not.

And that legacy will live on, as head coach Teri Rodgers said in a tribute to Abudayyeh, who died on Jan. 28 at the age of 19, that her jersey number, No. 1, will be memorialized by the program.

“She was a special kid,” Rodgers told The Record. “She had a graciousness and humility about her that was really special. She never took anything for granted, never asked for special circumstances and was always grateful to be part of our group, and we were grateful back.”

Following a three-year fight with cancer, Abudayyeh died Jan. 28 the morning after an evening spent with “dozens of family members and friends,” according to an obituary written by her family.

Memorial services for Abudayyeh, a 2023 New Trier High School graduate, were held on Wednesday and Thursday, Jan. 29-30, at Fullerton Funeral Home in Chicago.

She was predeceased by her grandparents, Khairyeh and Khairy Abudayyeh and Fakhreya and Hussein Saadeh, and is survived by her mother, Naima Hussein Saadeh, and her father, Hatem Khairy Abudayyeh; paternal aunts Maysoun Abudayyeh and Omayyeh Amer; maternal aunts Sanaa Saadeh, Asmahan Saadeh Sbitan, Shafeeqa Saadeh, and Khawla Saadeh Shehadeh; paternal uncles Khaldoun Abudayyeh and Murad Abudayyeh; maternal uncle Jihad Saadeh; dozens of cousins in the United States, Palestine and around the world; and “hundreds of loving classmates, teammates, and friends in Chicago and the U.S.,” her obit says.

Maisa Assata Abudayyeh was born on July 8, 2005, in Skokie to parents Naima Hussein Saadeh and Hatem Khairy Abudayyeh.

The family lived in Jefferson Park on the North Side of Chicago, and Maisa Abudayyeh attended Jean Baptiste Beaubien Elementary School. Her love for basketball began as early as fourth grade.

With her mother, Abudayyeh moved to Winnetka after eighth grade and enrolled in New Trier High School. She quickly became a beloved member of the basketball program.

“She was just a big, big part of who we are and what we did those two years she was on varsity and even before then, being in the program for four years,” Rodgers said, adding that Abudayyeh’s teammates “adored” her.

Aside from her love for basketball (Abudayyeh watched and attended many NBA and WNBA games), she was a proud supporter of her Palestinian community.

She and her mother spent several summers in Al-Jib, a Palestinian village near Jerusalem.

“The time she spent frolicking with her cousins on the land of her ancestors was some of her happiest and most memorable moments, and she spoke of them often and fondly,” her obit reads.

Her father, Hatem Abudayyeh, is the executive director of the Arab American Action Network, and Maisa Abudayyeh often participated in marches and protests in support of Palestine. She also was active in supporting immigrant rights and protesting injustices against communities of color.

At New Trier, Maisa Abudayyeh made the varsity basketball team’s playing rotation as a junior in 2021. That season leg pain brought her to the school’s athletic trainers, Rodgers said. Doctors subsequently found a tumor (an osteosarcoma) in her leg. Abudayyeh had bone cancer.

Her diagnosis halted her on-the-court basketball activities, but Abudayyeh remained a vital piece of the Trevians. She stayed on the team and attended games and practices when she could.

She was honored during multiple fundraisers her junior and senior years, and on the girls basketball’s senior night in 2023, Abudayyeh entered the game as a Trevian for one final time and scored a basket.

“She was a hardworking kid and then was a great teammate, even when she was competing for a spot with other kids,” Rodgers said. “She never let this get her down. She was always asking about the team when she was not there. She always picked up energy in the gym. It’s just who she was, and cancer didn’t change her.”

Abudayyeh began her college career at Loyola University in Chicago where she studied political science and pre-law. Those studies continued when she transferred to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where she joined the Chi Omega sorority and the Students for Justice in Palestine organization.

Abudayyeh’s other passions, according to her obituary, included fashion and dining. She kept a running list of restaurants to visit in Chicago and elsewhere. She also loved “The Sopranos” and Italian-American culture.

Dozens of friends and family members surrounded Abudayyeh the night of Jan. 27, and the next morning, “in the arms of her parents,” Abudayyeh died. According to her obit:

“She had fought cancer valiantly for nearly three years, and steadfastly endured hundreds of hours of chemotherapy and other treatment, but never let the disease define or defeat her spirit, even at the very end.”

The Trevians basketball team held a moment of silence for Abudayyeh on Jan. 28.

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