{"id":29386,"date":"2015-02-17T14:49:42","date_gmt":"2015-02-17T19:49:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom2\/2015\/02\/17\/north-andover-man-is-opportunity-knight\/"},"modified":"2026-05-18T16:12:35","modified_gmt":"2026-05-18T20:12:35","slug":"north-andover-man-is-opportunity-knight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/2015\/02\/17\/north-andover-man-is-opportunity-knight\/","title":{"rendered":"North Andover Man is Opportunity Knight"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_10609\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/media-old\/2015\/02\/Brett-with-team-newsroom.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-10609\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-10609 \" alt=\"Brett Hanley (center) with NECC Knights basketball players Bryon Centeno of Lawrence, Matt Jameson of Haverhill, and Matthew Lynch of Plaistow. \" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/media-old\/2015\/02\/Brett-with-team-newsroom-300x200.jpg\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-10609\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Brett Hanley (center) with NECC Knights basketball players Bryon Centeno of Lawrence, Matt Jameson of Haverhill, and Matthew Lynch of Plaistow.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>One of the hardest working members of the Northern Essex Community College Knights Basketball Team may never have scored a point for the team, but he scored plenty of points with the team and its fans this season.<\/p>\n<p>Twenty-three-year-old Brett Hanley of North Andover, a client at Opportunity Works, an adult day program located in Newburyport and slated to move to its new building adjacent to NECC, was hand-selected by the team to serve as the first, volunteer- assistant to NECC <a href=\"https:\/\/www.necc.mass.edu\/blog\/necc\/necc-events\/athletics\/\">Athletic<\/a> Director Sue MacAvoy under a new partnership titled Opportunity Knights.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_10606\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/media-old\/2015\/02\/Brett-with-Basketballs-newsroom.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-10606\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-10606\" alt=\"Brett rolls the basketball rack onto the court in preparation for the NECC home game.\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/media-old\/2015\/02\/Brett-with-Basketballs-newsroom-300x200.jpg\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-10606\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Brett rolls the basketball rack onto the court in preparation for the NECC home game.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Two hours before each of the 12 home Knights\u2019 games, as the players filtered into the Sport &amp; Fitness Center for their pregame warmup, Brett, wearing a gray and blue and yellow NECC t-shirt, could be found performing his own drills \u2013 rolling out the basketball cart, setting up<\/p>\n<p>chairs, filling the coolers with water and ice, sweeping the floor, and greeting players and fans.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe just loves it,\u201d said his father Ted Hanley of his son Brett who has Down\u2019s Syndrome. \u201cHe looks forward to working every game. If he could sleep in his uniform he would.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The volunteer position was perfect for Brett, his father said, because it wove together several of his interests \u2013 basketball, people <a href=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/media-old\/2015\/02\/Brett-with-chairs-newsroom.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-10607\" alt=\"Photos by Mike Dean www.mikedeanphotos.com\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/media-old\/2015\/02\/Brett-with-chairs-newsroom-300x200.jpg\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" \/><\/a>and being a helper.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe has been a good ambassador for the school,\u201d Hanley said.<\/p>\n<p>Brett, who his father characterizes as fiercely independent, isn\u2019t one to sit around. He attends a knitting group, sings in a treble chorus, plays the drums, and listens to Christian music.<\/p>\n<p>MacAvoy says scoring Brett as her assistant was a win for the entire team.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_10608\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/media-old\/2015\/02\/Brett-with-Sue-MacAvoy-newsroom.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-10608\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-10608\" alt=\"Photos by Mike Dean www.mikedeanphotos.com\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/media-old\/2015\/02\/Brett-with-Sue-MacAvoy-newsroom-300x200.jpg\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-10608\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">NECC athletic director sue MacAvoy gives Brett a hand with the ice water cooler.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s been really great to see how the student athletes are with him and how he is with them,\u201d she says. \u201cHe always has a huge smile on his face which makes all of us smile. Brett makes everyone\u2019s days better.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0Bryan Centeno, 21, who is a member of the basketball team, echoed MacAvoy\u2019s sentiment. The movement science major says the team selected Brett from a field of three or four candidates because of his energy and attitude.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere was an excitement when he walked in the room,\u201d said Centeno. \u201cHe walked in and was well dressed wearing a big smile\u2026we liked his energy.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In the future, NECC hopes to employee an Opportunity Knights volunteer for each of its sports teams according to MacAvoy.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>One of the hardest working members of the Northern Essex Community College Knights Basketball Team may never have scored a point for the team, but he scored plenty of points [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":164,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29386","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-archive"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.2 - 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