Finding joy through 8-year-old Elle

Griz fans watching Montana's exhibition volleyball match vs. Carroll College on Tuesday night may have noticed an unfamiliar face lined up with the team during starting lineups.

In addition to Montana's five incoming student-athletes, the Grizzlies also added a sixth newcomer during the offseason, suited up wearing No. 3, alongside No. 3 Jackie Howell.

She stands at just 3 feet, 10 inches and is just 8 years old, but Elle Farmer might be the most impactful member of Montana's roster.

"We feel so grateful to get to be around Elle," head coach Allison Lawrence said. "She brings so much energy to the room and when our girls get to be around her, I think it is humbling and shifts their perspectives in ways that allow life to feel a lot bigger than what you and your day-to-day-life is about."

Elle and Catie Semadeni

Through a donation from TrailWest Bank and a partnership with Team IMPACT, which connects children with serious illness and disability to local college athletic teams in order to form lifelong bonds and life-changing outcomes, Farmer was connected to the Griz program, and was officially welcomed in to the family during a hangout in early July.

The team showed Farmer the locker room and went down to the court where they played, talked and ate. They made her a sign and gave her a signed volleyball that she has in her room and looks at regularly as one of her favorite possessions.

"Going to the first meeting, Elle was very excited, but I don't think she fully grasped what she would be doing or what it would be like," said Danielle Farmer, Elle's mother. "When we got there, a bunch of the girls met us out in the parking lot and Elle was instantly giving hugs and super-excited."

The first thing Lawrence noticed about Elle was how magnetic she was from the start, instantly connecting with the team through her bubbly, outgoing personality.

"I remember being blow away by how easy it was to connect with her," Lawrence said. "She set the tone right away with her spirit."

Senior Catie Semadeni had a similar first impression.

"She's amazing and fits into our team so well," the right-side attacker said. "She's so sarcastic and hilarious. She has this humor and charisma that's magnetic, and everyone wants to be around her. She captivates everyone's attention and is so, so funny. She'll have us all dying laughing and will look at us like, 'Why are you laughing? This is just who I am.'"

Danielle's pregnancy with Elle (pronounced el-lee) was relatively normal, with little cause for concern. Closer to her due date, doctors called for an emergency C-section due to Elle's elevated heart rate, but things still seemed normal after delivery.

"When she was just a few hours old, though, she kind of took this crash and they didn't know why or what had happened," Danielle said.

About 6 months into Elle's life, she wasn't hitting traditional milestones for that age, so her parents took her in to get an MRI and EKG scan. The results showed that Elle had been having seizures and had a stroke, likely at birth, identified as a frontal hemorrhage.

Now entering third grade at Chief Charlo Elementary School, she's made great strides. But she still has developmental delays that hold her back from her peers.

"This has been her life as long as she can remember, and through it all, all she does is persevere with a smile on her face," Danielle said. "She's a trooper, she's a fighter."

The Griz coaching staff originally learned of Team IMPACT several years ago, and put it on their Dream List to be connected with a local child. At the time, however, there were no area matches, and then when the pandemic hit, the organization temporarily stopped placing children with teams.

Unbeknownst to Semadeni, she signed her team up after hearing about the program at a Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC) conference, which Semadeni serves as Montana's president for. She thought she was simply filling out a questionnaire to learn more about the program; in fact, she was submitting an application, now putting Montana in the system twice.

Around the same time, the Farmer family heard about the influence of Team IMPACT and applied, finally giving the Grizzlies a match.

"We were so excited and so grateful, but also nervous," Lawrence recalled. "You don't just want to do it, but you want to do it right. You want for it to be impactful for the child."

Danielle remembers her daughter's excitement after they returned home from the initial meet-up in July. It was all Elle could talk about.

"The rest of the night she was just beaming," Danielle said. "She couldn't stop telling anyone she saw about it."

Gallery: (8-25-2022) VB: Elle Farmer

Being local to Missoula and on summer break has provided Elle and the team many opportunities to spend time with each other over the past two months. She's a regular at practice and will be well visible at home matches, wearing her No. 3 Montana jersey on the sideline during starting lineups and sitting right behind the team bench during matches. She took part in Montana's photo day – Elle's favorite activity so far, according to her mom – and is always up for a game of 'catch', in which everyone sits or stands in a circle and tosses a volleyball to each other while answering the question of the round.

"Most of the questions are things like, 'What's your favorite movie? What's your favorite type of ice cream?'" Semadeni said. "But one question was, 'What did you want to be when you were younger?'

"When Elle got the ball, she said, 'I want to be doing this.' We tried to explain that the question was, 'What did you want to be when you were younger', but she kept saying 'This. Right here. This'.

"Everyone started crying and it was the coolest moment, just helping us realize that what we're doing is providing her so much joy."

The truth is, Elle doesn't need Montana to provide joy for her. Ask anyone associated with the team to describe Elle in a word and it's joyful or a similar adjective.

That, to so many, is the most inspiring part about her.

"She's such a kind-hearted and joyous girl that it's been contagious for us to just be around her," redshirt freshman middle blocker Sierra Dennison said. "We've felt that on our team, even when she's not here, because of her. We're so lucky to have her on this team.

"She's the embodiment of why we do what we do. Volleyball is more than a sport, and we're all doing it for more than to just get on the court and swing at some balls. Seeing the enthusiasm and excitement and joy in her life, while still battling trials, is so inspiring."

Each coach and student-athlete has a different favorite moment so far with Elle, but they all center around her joy.

Catie Semadeni, Elle, Jena Kelly at the park

Catie Semadeni, Elle, Jena Kelly at the park

For Semadeni, one of her favorite memories came at a picnic at Bonner Park.

"She was in a cute outfit and wanted to go run through the water at the park," Semadeni said. "We told her that we could go near the water, but not go in it. She kept begging and begging. Finally, we caved and said we could run through it once.

"We ended up doing it like 25 times because she loved it so much. We were in jean shorts and T-shirts, just soaking wet, but having so much fun doing it again and again and again."

For junior defensive specialist Sarah Ashley, the moment that stands out to her was when she got to present Elle her own Montana volleyball jersey. As she held out the jersey, Elle fell into Ashley's arms, embracing her with a big hug.

"To see her react like that, with so much excitement and joy, it's something I'm going to remember forever, and I hope she does too," Ashley said. "It was really special."

Elle, who is the second-oldest of four Farmer children, hasn't had the easiest life. With her slowed development, her responses are often delayed as she forms a way to verbalize what she wants to say. With help from her mom, though, she tried to convey the moment that she got her Griz jersey.

"I was shocked. I almost cried because I was so excited," Elle said, with help from Danielle. "I love playing with the girls."

The way that she exudes joy in all circumstances has helped Montana's student-athletes see volleyball and their lives as more than just a game.

"I think it makes us think broader than what's going on on the court," senior middle blocker Elise Jolly said. "Volleyball can be bigger than a game or ourselves, or even this program. We say that we play for other people – like our teammates and the fans – but now we have an even bigger person to play for."

Added Lawrence: "Our program talks a lot about Grit, Gratitude and Family, and with those values – at the center – you have to have joy at all times, especially in hard moments. Being around Elle, and seeing her joy in all circumstances, really helps put things in perspective and teaches our team about joy."

And as much as Montana hopes to be an inspiration for Elle and the Farmer family, it has been reciprocated tenfold.

"She provides a whole new perspective to the sport," Semadeni said. "Being a college athlete is super-difficult, but one of the things that brings back a love and a joy for the sport is someone like Elle and families like hers. To be able to connect on that kind of level, and see the sport through her eyes, it just helps us be more joyful and more grateful."

Elle and her family will be regulars at Griz volleyball matches this fall, including at this weekend's season-opening tournament, which has been renamed for Elle. The tournament is now called the Ellesyn Invitational, in honor of Elle's full name.

She and her family will be recognized on the court prior to Montana's match vs. UT Arlington on Friday night (6:30 p.m.).

"She's always asking if she can play sports like her big sister, and with her disability, she's really not able to," Danielle said of her daughter. "So to have this is really special for her. This is her thing. She just enjoys the girls so much, no matter what they're doing. When she seems their faces, it makes her entire day."

Thank you to TrailWest Bank for their generous sponsorship of Team IMPACT, which helped make this connection possible.

University of Montana Athletics

Players Mentioned

Sarah Ashley

Sierra Dennison

Jackie Howell

Elise Jolly

Catie Semadeni

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