Rampage Magazine April 2022

The Rampage 22 The Trio Sports

by Andrea Stinson

Sports Communication • 2023

Bluefield University student-athletes Jaydn Hoover, Destiny Long and Monay Galloway are known as The Trio, a group of

Coach Mullins offered Long a basketball scholarship to attend BU first, but then soon followed with an offer to Hoover. Finally,

friends who share a special bond and who have been on an incredible adventure together since they were in middle school. Long and Galloway became close friends first through middle school track, and Hoover later joined the trio through basketball. As their basketball careers progressed to East Forsyth High School, the three became even closer to each other.

he invited Galloway to join the Lady Rams, allowing the trio to remain intact and to venture on their college journey together. “We are fortunate to have Monay, Destiny and Jayden as a part of our program,” Coach Mullins said. “Their individual games complement each other so well. Destiny has a natural athleticism that is hard to stop. Jayden has ball- handling skills and a scorer’s mentality, and Monay is the glue to the group.” Outside of basketball, as friends, the three say Long is known as “the goofy therapist,” Hoover is considered “the mother figure,” and Galloway is regarded as “the backbone,”

“To be honest, I started bringing Jadyn around

our friends, and then it just became the three of us,” said Galloway, who served as a go-between and who was ultimately responsible for the creation of the trio. They shared more than just sports, according to Hoover. “We spend a lot of time just hanging out and simply enjoying one another’s company,” Hoover said. The bond, they add, is like a sisterhood that expresses affection and honesty above all else. “I love you,” each of them say to one another with a sincere, affectionate voice. After high school, they each had to decide where to go to college — a decision they say could have become a problem because they did not want the bond of their friendship broken. Originally, they weren’t considering Bluefield University, but during a basketball recruiting trip to see someone else, Coach Corey Mullins noticed the trio. He said he was very impressed with the way they complemented one another, and he soon realized they would be a good fit for BU — and not just one, but all three, better together. Photo by Nathan LePere .

they said as they laughed in agreement. While on their college journey at Bluefield University, they are not only teammates and friends, but also suite mates and roommates. And, the intimacy they share has spread to their families as mothers, fathers, sisters and brothers from each family of the trio family have become close to one another. “We don’t know how our parents became so close,” the trio said. They have a family group chat that keeps everyone in the families up to date on anything that happens while on their college journey. Friendship is a situation of mutual trust and support between two or more people that allows you to include another person in your daily life. This trio appears to know exactly what they want from their friendship and will not allow anything or anybody to stand in their way. The rest of their college journey will be memorable and an unbreakable bond between the trio.

Illustration by Ben Ayers

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