Thankful people: 14-year-old Ellie McCadams forms bond with women's Redhawks basketball team

Ellie McCadams recently gained a new friend. And on top of that, an entire team of friends and teammates now has her back.

Just having turned 14 in September, Ellie is the newest and youngest honorary member of the Southeast Missouri State University women's Redhawks basketball team.

And it all started with senior guard Olivia Hackmann.

Near the end of August or early September, Hackmann began to swim weekly with Ellie during her physical-therapy sessions for cerebral palsy. A connection quickly formed between the girls.

Shortly after meeting her, Hackmann decided to take her involvement with Ellie one step further.

Olivia Hackmann, right, hugs Ellie McCadams, 14, left, before a game Nov. 11 at the Show Me Center in Cape Girardeau. The Southeast Missouri State women's basketball team invites Ellie out onto the court before every game.ANDREW J. WHITAKER

"This is all Olivia," Southeast women's basketball coach Rekha Patterson said. "Olivia came to me and said, 'Hey, coach, I met a young girl while she was doing some rehab swimming,' and she said, 'Is it OK if we maybe invite her to a practice or to a game?'"

Patterson decided her team could use another member.

"I said, 'Absolutely, how about we make her a part of the team?' All of us at some point, we want to be accepted, we want to be liked by someone other than our family who has to like us," she said with a laugh. "We want to have someone call us a friend."

So Ellie went to a practice to meet all the women on the team and become acquainted with her new teammates.

"I wanted everybody to meet her," Rekha said, "and I wanted her to get comfortable around the girls, because these girls can be a little bit ..."

Ellie McCadams, 14, places her right hand over her heart before a game Nov. 11 at the Show Me Center in Cape Girardeau.ANDREW J. WHITAKER

"Weird," Hackmann interjected with a laugh, "and intimidating, I feel like, so you kind of have to warm up to especially this group because we're very outgoing-ish."

After visiting with the team during a practice, Ellie was ready to take the court.

But first, she had to have the uniform to match the rest of her teammates.

On Nov. 14, Ellie was given her own jersey with the number zero emblazoned on it.

"I wish I had a camera to capture the moment when she saw her jersey, because it's just like, I'm sure Olivia might remember her freshman year when she put that jersey on for the first time, and you felt something just different," Patterson said.

Ellie McCadams, 14, high-fives the Southeast Missouri State basketball team before a game Nov. 11 at the Show Me Center in Cape Girardeau.ANDREW J. WHITAKER

"Like, this is real," Hackmann added. "This is it. It's the moment you kind of wait for."

As an official Redhawk, Ellie high-fives the team before the game begins, stands with them during the national anthem and has her own seat in the locker room.

"They've really made her feel like part of the team, and for Ellie to have a disability ... it's difficult for Ellie to be on any kind of team, and they have created a team environment for us to be on, and it's pretty special," said Ellie's mother, Nickie McCadams.

More than anything, Patterson said team members are grateful for the time they have been able to spend with Ellie and are looking forward to what the rest of the season holds.

"She is probably going to give more to us than we give to her, and I'm grateful that her family has allowed for her to be a part of our program," she said.

Ellie McCadams, 14, places her right hand over her heart before a game Nov. 11 at the Show Me Center in Cape Girardeau.ANDREW J. WHITAKER

In their short time as friends, McCadams said Hackmann has been a good match for Ellie and has brightened her spirits considerably.

"She's just a remarkable young woman with a lot of the qualities that I was wanting in a person for Ellie to be around," McCadams said. "She was a gift from God, for sure, and has been."

Beyond Olivia, McCadams said everyone involved with the basketball team and especially Patterson have helped raise the morale in the McCadams household.

"Not only is she a wonderful coach, but she is a wonderful person," McCadams said. "Everything that she does ..."

"She finds the positive in everything," Ellie added.

Elle McCadams, 14, left, sits next to her sister Sophia, right, before a game Nov. 11 at the Show Me Center in Cape Girardeau.ANDREW J. WHITAKER

"She's just very positive, and we need positivity in a world of negativity; we need more people like that," McCadams said.

In many ways, Patterson said the team's diversity and uniqueness are what draw the players closer together, and now Ellie is just one more piece in that puzzle.

"She makes us happy, she makes us smile. ... Now with Ellie, I've got 16 young ladies, and I have an extremely diverse group of women, from where they're from to what they believe, but the thing that is our commonality is our love for basketball, and then once you put on that Redhawk uniform, the fact that you're a Redhawk," Patterson said. "And Ellie just brings someone else who is diverse to our group that we all can learn from and grow from and become family with."

Ultimately for McCadams and her family, the small gestures of kindness are often what have the greatest impact.

"We could just go on and on and on about telling them thank you. I'm just so grateful for [the team]," she said. "I don't think they'll ever know just how much of a difference they make in these young kids' lives just doing the small stuff. The small things just make such a huge difference."

And when asked about the best part of being a member of the team, Ellie is candid.

"I don't know ... everything?"

lyoung@semissourian.com

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