Top college recruit of 2008.
Selected by the University of Connecticut to be the star on a team of elite basketball players.
48 hours after she arrived on campus, Elena Delle Donne packed her bags and moved back to Delaware to attend the university 20 minutes away from her home.
Elena missed her sister.
Most siblings stay in touch with a sister or brother off at college via Skype or Facebook; by chatting on the phone or texting each other.
But when Elena arrived in Connecticut, she was no longer able to communicate with her older sister Lizzie.
Born with cerebral palsy, Lizzie is blind and deaf. Elena and Lizzie communicate with each other - sharing their love and their lives - through physical contact.
“She knows me by my smell and my feel, so, physically, physical contact is the only thing she knows,” Della Donne says. “So when I did leave, I lost Lizzie basically. Well, she lost me and I wasn’t OK with that when I left.”
Back in Delaware for her freshman year, Elena ditched basketball for volleyball. Sophomore year, she returned to the sport she adored.
“I love everything that is involved in this sport,” she said. “It’s just a lot of fun. And when I stopped enjoying it, I stepped away from the game because I wasn’t going to do something that wasn’t for me. Now I play it for the passion and love of the game.”
That passion and love has translated into a season where Elena, a junior, leads the nation in scoring. She’s averaged 27.5 points a game, and scored 39 points in a NCAA tournament game this past weekend - leading The University of Delaware women’s basketball team to victory for the first time in the school’s history.
The team’s record this year? 31-1.
Author Alexandra Ludka interviewed Della Donne, penning quote after quote that ought to be copied and tacked on bulletin boards in every home and locker room across this country.
On Lizzie’s constant inspiration on the basketball court:
“I have a tattoo right on my rib and it says ‘Lizzie’ and is inside angel wings,” Della Donne said. “And during the games, I even tap my side right before the game or when the game gets tough just to know Lizzie is out here with me to keep fighting.”
On life lessons learned from Lizzie:
“She teaches me that you just fight no matter what,” Della Donne said. “And on the court when things aren’t going our way, you just never give up and that’s something I’ll never do and you’ll never see me put my head down and give up.”
“I would watch her struggle and I would watch her persevere through her struggles and that was something that always helps me put my life in perspective,” she said. “She overcomes battles that I will never face and thank God I will never face those, because I’m nowhere near as strong as Lizzie. And only someone like Lizzie can get through those battles.”
On sacrificing opportunity for family:
“They’re definitely my rocks and when I went away from my rocks, I realized that it wasn’t the right thing,” she said. “I wasn’t going to be happy if I was separated from my family.”
On being famous for making an exceptional choice, rather than for being blessed with exceptional talent and skill:
“It’s the poem ‘The Road Not Taken.’ And that’s kind of my theme here,” Della Donne said. “And that poem really means a lot to me and my family. And this really has been the road not taken. And it’s been incredible.”
Team basketball with March, and you’re supposed to get madness.
Instead, basketball and March have given us the team of Elena and Lizzie; sisters who give their all each day, competing in the grueling, exhausting, and exhilarating game of life.
Heroes, who look to - and lean on - family as they work to rise above every challenge.
Their story feels like sunshine and 80 degrees trading places with cold, raw, and blustery on a mid-March day.
Spectacular.
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