HOUSTON – Rylan Ellingwood has been part of the UConn men’s basketball team for 3 1/2 years, and like most Huskies, he has grown physically, mentally, emotionally.
That’s a lot of growth for an 11-year old from Ellington, who helped snip down the net in Las Vegas.
“And now I’m in Houston,” he said, after landing on Friday with his mother, Tanya.
Ellingwood joined the Huskies as part of Team Impact, a non-profit organization in Boston that matches children facing serious illness and disability with college sports teams. Rylan was diagnosed with a chronic immune condition, which has required exhausting treatments and often left him feeling angry and depressed. He would kick and scream on the way to his infusions, once trying to climb out of the car, his mother remembered.
“If you knew him five years ago, he was a kid who wasn’t even able to talk about what was wrong with him,” Tanya Ellingwood said. “He was a child who was anxiety-ridden, angry, and he went from ‘Why me?’ to ‘I feel special,’ and ‘if I didn’t have my illness, then I wouldn’t be able to do these things and meet these amazing people.'”
Rylan has grown up along with the UConn program, which began its rebirth when Dan Hurley became the coach in 2018. In October of 2019, he was matched up with the Huskies, and immediately became friends with Alterique Gilbert and Mamadou Diarra, players who were dealing with their own hardships, Gilbert with a long series of injuries and mental health issues, and Diarra with a knee injury that ended his college career.
“When they were injured, they always wanted to relate to me,” Rylan said. “I wasn’t injured, but I was hurting inside. I didn’t want to do it. They made me feel like I wanted to do it, how they were overcoming things along with me. … It’s a pleasure to grow up with young men like them.”
The UConn players who have come and gone and are with the current team have embraced Rylan as one of their own, going to watch his baseball game one memorable night. “That was top tier,” he said.
Rylan, who has been to most of the Huskies games this season with his father, Dave, thought his ride was over with the first- and second-round NCAA Tournament games in Albany. Las Vegas was a little too far for his family to travel, and he might miss too much time at Center School in Ellington, where he is in the fifth grade.
But on his 11th birthday, there was a surprise package from his teammates, Diarra, now UConn’s director of player development, and some of the players.
“I was opening my presents and they got me on a ZOOM call,” Rylan said. “I thought they were just going to sing happy birthday and congratulate me on being 11. Then they’re like, ‘You’re going to Las Vegas,’ and I was like, ‘What?’
When the Huskies beat Gonzaga to clinch the berth in the Final Four, Rylan took his turn climbing the ladder and helping cut down the net. He struck up a new friendship with Dan Hurley’s nephew, Dave.
“Just being there was the most fun part,” he said. “… I like to say, like me, I’m very proud of myself by growing with the team, and how they came from the foundation to greatness and the Final Four. I feel like I came from a foundation like them, and I progressed as I went.”
After a long day of travel, with a long layover and delay, the Ellingwoods got to town late Friday, after the practices. But they were to be in place to watch UConn play Miami in the national semifinal game on Saturday night, and Rylan is as happy and excited as an 11-year old should be at the Final Four.
“He’s just a totally different child now,” Tanya said. “He’s confident, he’s strong. I don’t worry about him any more. I used to worry about him every moment of every day, and I don’t anymore. I think he realizes he can help people now and that has given him a lot of strength, where before he felt like he felt the world was against him.”