In 2017, one-year-old Lainey was diagnosed with cerebral palsy and has lived with an undiagnosed progressive muscle disease ever since.
Six years later, Lainey’s mom, Katy, was introduced to the organization Team IMPACT and thought it could be something her daughter would benefit from. Lainey was paired with Temple Volleyball and has been “on the roster” ever since, officially “signing” with the squad on March 25, 2024.
Team IMPACT is a non-profit organization that matches children with severe illnesses or disabilities with college athletic teams across the country to provide them with an extra support system outside of a hospital. Children are officially paired for two years but many teams maintain the relationship they built long afterwards.
Children with illnesses like Lainey’s live a very different life than their peers and are often stuck on the sidelines when others are playing sports or participating in activities. However, Lainey has felt like she is part of something bigger with Team IMPACT. When Lainey first met Temple’s volleyball players, she instantly felt like she was part of the team.
“They really treated her like a queen,” said Lainey’s mom, Katy, about her daughter’s official “signing day.” “It was all about her and she felt that. She was beaming from ear to ear. We have pictures in her room and she’s constantly showing anybody new who comes over those pictures of that time when she was the center of attention and she sat in front of everybody and everybody cheered for her. It was very meaningful. It definitely made a lasting impression on her.”
Temple has matched 17 Team IMPACT children to 10 different teams, starting in 2015 when Marcus was signed to Temple Men’s Basketball. Currently, there are five children on rosters including Lainey, Makai with Temple Men’s Soccer, Cairo with Temple Men’s Basketball, Jade’la with Temple Gymnastics and most recently, Caiden with Temple Men’s Tennis.
Vanhsy, Makai’s mom, learned about Team IMPACT around two years ago but it can take a long time to get paired with a team because the organization is built on a clinical basis and is very intentional with its matching process. Makai lives with sickle cell disease and has a social worker assigned to him, per hospital rules. His social worker informed Vanhsy about the program and submitted his application.
Makai has been around Temple’s soccer team since the beginning of the 2024 season and was officially “signed” to the roster on Jan. 14. Head coach Bryan Green wanted to ensure Makai felt like he belonged, so he planned his signing day in the same way a high school athlete would sign their Letter of Intent.
“It’s our student-athletes, it’s not coaches,” Green said. “Coaches kind of organize the first bit, but then it’s really connecting Makai with the players on the team and having them have an experience in college athletics that is maybe something that wouldn’t necessarily be in his world without Team IMPACT.”
When a child is matched with a team, there is a core leadership group consisting of three to five student-athletes who work to integrate them into the team. They go through some training, reach out to the child before they meet the entire team and then pull the rest of the team in to start providing that support, said Josh Walker, Team IMPACT’s Mid-Atlantic executive director.
When Makai and Lainey were first introduced to their leadership groups, both teams took them to the Howard Gittis Student Center to hang out and get to know each other better. Makai went to the game room where the team taught him how to play table tennis and in return, Makai beat them in air hockey. Lainey was welcomed with an ice cream sundae station.
Team IMPACT children attend practices and local games but the teams also organize activities outside of the sport. Makai has been taken around campus by the soccer team, played video games and gets frequent calls from members of the team. The volleyball team has made friendship bracelets, had ice cream and dance parties and even gone to Lainey’s house a few times.
“Seeing her go through her day-to-day challenges, it’s so inspiring,” said volleyball outside hitter Taylor Davenport. “Just getting to know her and getting to love her has been amazing. She has so much personality and being able to learn how to read her and know what she likes, know her favorite songs and she’s super positive, always smiling and that always makes us happy and enjoy being around her.”
It’s harder for the soccer team to meet with Makai during its season due to the team’s busy schedule. But the players don’t let that stop them from maintaining a strong relationship. Men’s soccer goalkeeper Flannan Riley calls Makai whenever he can to play Call of Duty with him so the two can still bond.
The entire team acts as role models and even big brothers for Makai, and he’s always looking forward to the next time he gets to see them, his mother Vanhsy said. Makai has always felt like part of the team, but he was ecstatic when he was officially “signed” and he keeps the certificate framed in his room along with pictures of him with the team.
“Having older guys around and just being a part of the team, that feeling of being a part of something is a good opportunity for him to see, ‘Hey, just because I’m sick, doesn’t limit me to not being able to do things,” Vanhsy said. “Just being around the guys and hanging out with them, it makes him feel good. He has these people to hang out with that want to hang out with him.”
It took Lainey some time to get comfortable with the volleyball team because she is typically shy around new people. She has trouble with articulation so she often gets frustrated in public due to being constantly misunderstood. A goal that she and her mother Katy made before being matched with the team was to start using her communication device more because of her usual hesitancy to use it.
After getting to know the team better, Lainey accomplished her goal. Her confidence grew immensely and she began using her communication device and eventually even started speaking in front of the team.
When players on the volleyball team found out Lainey broke her femur last April, they FaceTimed her and brought her ice cream to lift her spirits. Lainey also had hip surgery two years ago that impeded her ability to walk, but she’s been getting stronger and has started walking again with the help of a walker. As soon as the team found out, they drove to see her walk and played hide and seek to encourage her.
Lainey’s ninth birthday was this past summer, and the team was there to enjoy the day with her. They all celebrated with a birthday party and a barbeque in Lainey’s backyard.
“She was so excited,” Katy said. “The girls are all wonderful. It’s like having a bunch of sisters come over and hang out with you. It meant everything to her to just feel included. To have a day where all these people were celebrating her was really impactful for her.”
While being involved with Team IMPACT is beneficial to the children, the athletes learn life lessons from it. Walker explained that the organization has found that the student-athletes who are involved demonstrate higher rates of empathy, are more civic-minded, want to give back to their communities and are becoming leaders with a greater perspective on life.
“It puts things in perspective,” Davenport said. “We’re complaining about a bad game or a bad practice and there’s so much more to be grateful for. There’s always a reason to be positive and we are so blessed and fortunate to be in the position that we’re in and being able to give back. The whole premise of being on a team and having people you can constantly lean on and rely on, being able to share that experience with her has been great.”