'Tis the season of giving!
On Friday, Oklahoma Sooners center Raegan Beers gifted her entire team with handmade blankets, which she began making during the summer.
'Tis the season to give 🎁@RaeganBeers surprised her teammates with blankets that she has been making by hand since the summer 🥹 pic.twitter.com/Gc45c8MiSH
— Oklahoma Basketball (@OU_WBBall) December 21, 2024
The kind gesture from Beers came before the Sooners doused the Omaha Mavericks 111-65, where Beers tied her career high with 28 points and nine rebounds -- just one shy of a double-double.
Beers, a transfer from Oregon State, came to Oklahoma with a passion for arts and crafts, specifically pottery. But when she arrived in Norman for summer workouts, she had more than enough free time to exercise her off-court hobby. The only problem was that she couldn't access a pottery wheel and needed to find a way to keep her crafty gears moving.
"I was like, 'I guess I'll find something else that's like crafty,' and so I saw a video about the blanket. I'm like, 'Oh, I'll try that,' and so I tried it, and it was really bad at first, but you know the first one is always just the warmup," Beers told ESPN.
When Beers united with her team over the summer, she appreciated how her Oklahoma teammates welcomed her with open arms. During times when the team would go through tough workouts, Beers and her teammates would push each other to the end.
Beers said the blankets were a gift from her heart and a way of giving back to her team.
"Adjusting to a new system, a new different kind of culture is just different, and so they knew it was hard. It was kind of a way for me to give them a Christmas gift, but also give them something back because I loved being around them and loved that they welcomed me with open arms," Beers said.
Making 13 blankets in total, the first two took Beers up to four hours each to allow her to establish a groove. But as she got used to the workflow, Beers says she cut the time shorter for each blanket, eventually finishing a blanket in less than two hours.
She personalized them by making each teammate's blanket their favorite color.
Beers' roommates, Skylar Vann and Payton Verhulst, helped her compile their teammates' favorite colors after finding a stack of the handmade blankets and questioning her about them. Beers let the duo in on the surprise gifts, which led to her recruiting the two in helping her figure out her other teammates' favorite colors.
When she gave the gifts to her teammates, joy filled the Sooners' meeting room. After seeing reactions, Beers says she plans to continue to create gifts for her teammates and exercise her love for crafting, as it supplies her with a safe space.
"I hope to continue that, and will continue that, because in basketball, you have to have an outlet. I preach about that and in your sport it's really important to have something you love outside of basketball," Beers told ESPN.
"Crafting, blanket-making, pottery is my second love right next to basketball."