MARQUETTE, Mich. – The Northern Michigan University athletic department is excited to announce they will be inducting five individual athletes into the NMU Sports Hall of Fame.
Playing from 2011-15, DeCicco is the fourth all-time leading scorer in basketball program history with 1,567 points. Notorious for her leadership on and off the court, she was a team captain as a sophomore, junior and senior while also leading the team in scoring each of those seasons.
DeCicco earned GLIAC Second Team and Academic Excellence honors as a sophomore in 2013. The following year, she earned Daktronics All-Midwest Region Second Team, GLIAC All-Defensive Team, and First Team All-GLIAC honors. She was named NMU’s Female Athlete of the Year with 492 points and a 16.4 points/game average. Additionally, she helped lead the Wildcats to win a GLIAC Tournament title, ending a 14-year hiatus. She scored 11 points in the 53-49 championship game victory over Malone.
In her final season, DeCicco averaged 18.2 points/game, the second-best average in the GLIAC and the 12th highest single-season mark in NMU history. She would also collect several more accolades for the trophy case, including GLIAC Commissioner’s Award, Second Team Academic All-American, Daktronics All-Midwest Region First Team, All-GLIAC First Team, and GLIAC All-Defensive Team. DeCicco is the 11th women’s basketball player to be inducted into the Northern Michigan Sports Hall of Fame.
Following college graduation, she headed to Australia with NMU teammate Lauren Gruber and played professionally for the Cairns Dolphins. She then flipped roles and got a taste of the other side of the basketball world as the graduate assistant women’s basketball coach at the University of Dubuque for two years while earning her master’s degree in arts and communications.
Following Dubuque, she was the assistant coach at Carroll University. In 2018, she moved to Chicago and met her future husband Patrick. In 2021, they were married in their all-time favorite spot: Marquette, Mich. They now live in North Prairie, Wis., with their two young sons: Liam, 18 months, and Lucas, 3 months.
In 2022, Alyssa founded Rise Up Basketball Academy with the vision to give back to young student-athletes. Rise Up focuses on player development in small group and team settings. In overseeing the program, she says, “While I love improving skills on the court, the most rewarding feeling in the world is to improve young athletes’ confidence, develop their faith and prepare them to be game changers in this world.”
DeCicco says the lessons she learned in her time at NMU were invaluable in shaping her into the person she is today. “It truly is so much bigger than basketball, and I thank God every day for directing me toward my calling and allowing me to impact the next generation.”
