During halftime of the Feb. 15 UCCS vs. Colorado Christian University men’s basketball game, UCCS dance team senior member Maddi Lee received a proposal from her longtime boyfriend David Van Dyke. Lee was surprised to hear her name over the speaker as Van Dyke came out onto the court with a ring box in hand and an important question in mind.
Lee was completely surprised. Though she saw many of her friends at the game, she didn’t think a proposal was in store. She thought it was a senior recognition until Van Dyke started walking towards her. When she saw him, it immediately clicked for her.
“Saying yes was the easiest part for me. I was in shock but so touched at the same time,” Lee said.
The support for the couple was evident as friends filled the stands. Lee’s friends on the dance team, Phi Sigma Sigma, Phi Beta Phi, coworkers and Lee’s mother helped coordinate everything. Van Dyke’s friends also drove up from Texas for extra support and celebration. Friends in the crowd held up pink paper hearts while Van Dyke got on one knee.
After the proposal, Van Dyke had preplanned for engagement photos at Garden of the Gods, where Lee was able to show off her diamond ring.
Lee said marriage was something they had often talked about. The couple had gone ring shopping on their past anniversary and toured a few wedding venues. Van Dyke had flown up to Colorado for Valentine’s Day, and Lee admitted she thought he might propose then. After the holiday passed, she assumed he was going to wait a bit longer.
Lee and Van Dyke met in middle school where they grew up in Orange County, California, and had been close friends since then. Lee recalls they started dating in their sophomore year of high school when “he called me on Thanksgiving of 2019 and told me he liked me.”
That Thanksgiving, she wasn’t sure how to respond, until Dec. 29 when the pair took a trip to California’s Knots Berry Farm and the couple began dating.
Since high school graduation, Lee and Van Dyke’s relationship has been long distance. Lee is attending UCCS for biology to eventually become a physician’s assistant, and Van Dyke is attending Baylor University for accounting in Waco, Texas. Both students are graduating early this semester, and plan to get married in Colorado after. Following the wedding, Lee will move to Dallas to be with Van Dyke and attend PA school.
“Our lives are coming together as we’re getting older,” Lee said, reflecting on the anticipation of waiting to be together, and college nearing its end for her. “A chapter of my life is closing and it’s crazy for me. I’ve done so much here, and college flew by. It’s happy, though.”
Editor’s Note: Kaylie Foster is the Features Editor at the Scribe and is also on the UCCS Dance Team.
David Van Dyke proposes to Maddie Lee. Photo by Rebecca Wong.