Tahj Staveskie healthy, ready for D-I hoops at Canisius

SANDUSKY — Tahj Staveskie thought it was a sprained ankle. In June 2021, he landed on someone's foot during summer workouts at Canisius College. His ankle swelled up a bit. Eventually, he underwent all sorts of tests, but only on his ankle. "I've got a high pain tolerance, very high pain tolerance," Staveskie said. "Sprained ankles and stuff like that, it don't feel like a sprained ankle… I kind of grew numb to the pain in a sense." He had actually broken the navicular bone in the middle of his left foot. "Our mind and body can play tricks on each other," Staveskie said. "I'm thinking it's my ankle, so that's where the pain was, but really it was down at my foot." After surgery in late September, nearly a year ago, Staveskie is now fully healed. The Sandusky High School graduate begins his second year of classes at Canisius in Buffalo, N.Y., next week. And with the basketball season just a few months away, Staveskie is primed to finally make it on to a Division I court. "It was a goal of mine ever since I was little," Staveskie said. "I thought about it a lot. I go to sleep thinking about basketball. Literally, I dreamed about it. For it to be able to come true is a blessing." In some ways, the injury's timing was ideal. Staveskie had been recruited to Canisius by assistant coach Calvin Cage, who has family from the Sandusky area. Cage first watched Staveskie play in the Blue Streaks' home win over state-ranked Toledo Rogers in February 2020. "He came to that game, saw me play, really liked how I played," Staveskie said. "I talked to him after the game, and he just kept in contact ever since." Cage stuck with the recruitment as Staveskie spent a post-graduate year at Spire Institute in northeast Ohio. The consistency in that relationship, along with the other positives Canisius presented under head coach Reggie Witherspoon, helped make Staveskie's choice. "The style of play, you've gotta be able to shoot in this offense, gotta be able to read... and the conference is good, it's a good guard conference," Staveskie said of the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference. "I'm trying to make it to the NBA. That's my goal. So I chose it because of that, too." So instead of sustaining a problematic foot fracture somewhere else, Staveskie did it under the watch of a Division I program with D-I doctors and resources. "I feel like it was perfect timing, for real," he said. By the time the diagnosis was made on Staveskie's foot, he had two options: wait for six weeks and hope for natural healing, or undergo surgery right away. Staveskie opted for the surgery, starting the six-month recovery timeline as soon as possible. For someone who's used to being consistently active, the early stages of recovery were difficult. "I just had a lot of days I was just laying there," Staveskie said. "I couldn't sleep just thinking about all the work I had put in, and feeling like I had wasted it. All that work was for nothing." Staveskie picked up his PS4 controller, despite not being a huge gamer. And more frequently, he used the sedentary time to watch basketball highlights. The 6-foot guard watched players similar in stature to himself: Stephen Curry, Damian Lillard and his favorite player ever, Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf. "I just like (Abdul-Rauf's) game," Staveskie said. "I feel like we have similarities. He's a scoring guard, and I feel like I'm a good scoring guard and playmaker. He's a playmaker. Similar build, similar height. He's been through a lot of ups and downs and challenges in his life, and he overcame them. I like him a lot." The recovery process actually helped improve Staveskie's game on the court, too. He couldn't run or jump right away, so he spent time shooting and dribbling while sitting in a chair. Then he could walk and take set shots, focusing more on form in all his movements than explosiveness. "I felt like I could come back even better, and I feel like I have," he said. Staveskie also spent time in the weight room, where he bulked up to handle the physicality of being a Division I guard. By April, he was full-go. That allowed him to get a fully healthy summer's worth of work in at Canisius. The Griffins replaced more than half their roster via the transfer portal, and Witherspoon kept his squad on campus for eight weeks to build chemistry. Staveskie realized just how much he had learned spending the previous season watching an 11-21 Canisius team from the bench. "You're just sitting there," he said. "I learned the little things, body language, encouragement, boxing out, sprinting the floor, just being a good teammate. I learned a lot just about the little things." Most of the work over the summer was basketball related, although Staveskie did take a class on the history of American music that included units on jazz and rock and roll. "I like to learn new things," he said, "especially things that aren't related to basketball because I spend so much time with basketball." On the court, Staveskie proved to himself that he's ready to take on a big load for the Griffins, who open the season at home Nov. 7 against Youngstown State and play at Toledo on Dec. 10. "I think I will be a main part of the team," Staveskie said. "I think I'll be the head of the snake, man, just be the lead guard that we need. Just a true teammate and I'll definitely help with the scoring load, just being a playmaker and a scorer and just a great point guard." Staveskie came back home in early August and spent much of the month in the gym at Sandusky High School, getting up shots with fellow alum Ta'Sharra Jeffries along with current Blue Streaks DeMar Moore Jr. and Daylen Green, among others. "It means a lot to me, just to be from Sandusky and be able to come back to the gym," Staveskie said. Classes start Aug. 29 at Canisius, which is also Staveskie's 21st birthday. He's a sport management major. One day, Staveskie hopes to use those studies to give back to his hometown. "One of my goals is to open up a rec center in Sandusky," Staveskie said. "... For kids that are less fortunate and regular kids around the city that want to have a place to go when they're out of school. I want to open a therapy place for people to take care of their body where they can eat a nice nutritious meal. I want all that to be built in one big rec center." First, there's basketball to be played. Staveskie has wanted to be a Division I player since he was a youngster, and he only sort of checked that box a season ago. This time around, he'll be on the floor, setting up his teammates and showing off his range. Those who watched Staveskie play at Sandusky know all about that range, and while his whole game has improved since then, he also says that his range, too, has leveled up. "I moved it back a little more, of course," Staveskie said. "I think I got more consistent with it. Spent a lot of time when I was hurt working on that, too. I've gotten stronger over the last year and when I was at Spire. The range is out there, man."