Catholic teen overcomes obstacles to win Utah pageant

Courtesy photo/ Tiffany Knight

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Miss Utah Teen USA Maqael Knight will represent Utah in the Miss Teen USA Pageant in the Bahamas in July.

SALT LAKE CITY — Maqael Knight was chosen as Miss Utah Teen USA at the Egyptian Theater in Ogden Oct. 16. Seventy-one girls competed in the pageant, some of whom had returned from the year before to try again for the title.

Knight, a Judge Memorial Catholic High School senior and member of St. Ambrose Parish, won a $60,000 scholarship to Linwood University in Missouri. She will represent Utah in the Miss Teen USA pageant.

Two weeks before the pageant, Knight was playing in the Judge Memorial homecoming soccer game against Highland, and collided with a Highland player. Knight’s head hit her opponent’s cheekbone and broke it in two places. Both girls were knocked unconscious and taken by ambulance to Primary Children’s Hospital.

The Highland player underwent reconstructive surgery, while Knight has a brain injury that has caused her some short-term memory loss and vertigo. She missed three weeks of school.

"I spent homecoming night in the hospital," said Knight. "I felt like everything I had worked so hard for stopped at that moment."

Prior to the accident, Knight’s mother Tiffany Knight had hired a pageant coach, who flew to Utah the morning following the accident to begin training. With nausea, a four-inch lump on her forehead, bruised eyes and a neck brace, Knight began trying on dresses and learning to walk with poise and grace. Some practices lasted only 20 minutes before she had to rest and ice her injuries. Although the doctor said she should skip the pageant, Knight took it one hour at a time, with her mother’s support.

The idea of the pageant began when a friend suggested it to Tiffany Knight, a single mother, because they offer college scholarships.

"It was amazing because Maqael also runs track, high jumps, plays volleyball, and I didn’t think she could walk in anything but cleats," said Tiffany Knight. "The cut-off date for the pageant was the next day. We got her application ready in a whirlwind."

During the Utah pageant Knight was asked what the biggest obstacle facing teens is.

"As sad as it is, teenage bullying takes place everywhere at all schools to all types of people," said Knight, who has been bullied. "You’d think being pretty would help, but it’s actually worse. From a teenage standpoint we all need to stand together and not stand by and watch it happen because it’s not just kids; it includes teachers, parents and principals."

Knight has made bullying her platform on which she hopes to be a voice for the voiceless. "I feel like bullying in schools goes unnoticed," she said. "I have researched this topic and found that 56 percent of students have personally witnessed school bullying and 160,000 children miss school every year because they fear being attacked or intimidated. I want to be able to speak in schools so children won’t feel the fear I have felt."

The national pageant will be held in the Bahamas in July, and Knight will have to perfect her walk and her ability to be interviewed, design an evening gown and have it custom-made and raise sponsorship donations. She also was assigned to speak on the platform of Best Buddies for mentally challenged individuals.

"I think Best Buddies is really important because a lot of the kids are isolated and have a hard time making friends," Knight said.