COAL TOWNSHIP - Actress Katie Hayek, who portrayed Trish Starkey in the film "Mighty Macs," visited Our Lady of Lourdes Regional School Monday afternoon to share with the student body her experiences with making the film and her real-life trials and tribulations.
Hayek, a native of Frackville, graduated in 2002 from Lancaster Catholic High School and then in 2006 from the University of Miami, where she earned a full-ride basketball scholarship and majored in theater arts. She told students how she heard about the audition for "Mighty Macs" through word of mouth and decided to show up.
"I sat in a hall with about 500 girls waiting to go in and take a few shots," she said about the initial audition, where she had to shoot basketball.
After the "basketball" audition, she was called back three times for acting auditions, and eventually landed the part.
"Mighty Macs" tells the story of the tiny all-women Immaculata College in Philadelphia and how it's basketball team won three consecutive national championships in the early 1970s against all odds.
At about the same time she got the good news that she earned the role in the movie, Hayek got bad news, too: she was diagnosed with Hodgkin's lymphoma.
"I was wearing a wig throughout the movie because I was going through chemotherapy," Hayek said, noting that director Tim Chambers had faith that she could still play the part. "Even though you all have bumps in the road, you can all still do what you want," she told the students. "At the end of the day, I was living my dream of shooting a movie."
She also relayed a piece of advice she received from her high school coach: Whenever you get sick of practicing or working toward something, remember "there is always someone out there working harder than you."
After her speech, Hayek answered questions from the students. One asked what was her favorite scene in the movie, to which she replied the championship scene at the end.
"Even though I knew how it was going to end, I was still nervous," Hayek said.
She brought with her to Lourdes the wooden rosary that was given to her by Theresa Shank Grentz, the real-life player who was the inspiration for her character. Grentz received the rosary when her team won the first title.
Hayek has also appeared in several commercials and in an episode of "One Tree Hill." She joked that was her real reason for her visit to the school was "just so she can get more prayers" for her to get more acting work.
To the theater
The schools parent teacher organization recently paid for Lourdes students to travel to the Susquehanna Valley Mall in Selinsgrove to see "Mighty Macs." The excitement of the trip and the reaction by students to the movie prompted a parent to reach out to Hayek about possibly visiting the school.
Hayek was presented with several gifts from Our Lady of Lourdes, including a Red Raiders basketball jersey, a Lourdes basketball and flowers. Hayek also posed for pictures with students and signed autographs.
Her parents are Frackville natives William and Joann Hayek.
("Mighty Macs" also continues a short run at Schuylkill Mall Theaters at 11 a.m. today and Thursday.)