Meet Daniela, the 12-year-old girl battling a rare disease who’s become the UConn women’s secret weapon

When the UConn women’s basketball team takes the court, they know that no matter what happens, they’ve got the support of one special Husky, 12-year-old Daniela Ciriello of Plainville.

Daniela is a member of Team IMPACT, a non-profit organization that matches children facing serious illness and disability with college sports teams. She lives with a rare life-threatening blood disorder known as thalassemia, which requires transfusions every three weeks.

Daniela was matched with the UConn women’s basketball team in 2018, when she was just six years old, and she’s become a staple in the program ever since. She’s traveled to plenty of games and two Final Fours with the Huskies, and has become friends with the players, getting to know them well.

When the team made the Final Four in 2022, they set up a Zoom call with Daniela and her mother Nicole, and invited them to Minneapolis to watch the games.

“I was really shocked when I found out, and very excited to go,” Daniela said. “I was like screaming in my house. I loved going because it was so much fun to see them play in a different atmosphere. And I got to spend time with my mom when we went.”

The family was at UConn’s Big East Tournament games earlier this month, and has spent quality time with the Huskies outside of the arena. Daniela said her favorite moment with the team was going pumpkin picking, and then heading back to some of their dorms, where they made chicken nuggets for her and did Tik Tok dances together.

“It was really fun because I got to teach them the type of dances I do, and they were all so funny. They understood it, but they were having trouble keeping up with me,” Daniela said.

She said she loves all the Huskies, but Paige Bueckers and Katie Lou Samuelson are a couple of her favorites. She likes Paige because of her competitiveness, and says it’s similar to her own.

“I feel like she’s the most competitive out of all of them like I am. Her spark is just so amazing. And whenever we hang out, she’s always so nice and sweet and funny,” Daniela said. “I love hanging out with her, she’s such a great person.”

Her mother Nicole said the time Daniela spends with the Huskies helps get her through tough weeks.

“We’re really proud of her. She goes through a lot. And what people don’t know is, looking at her you don’t know that there’s anything wrong, but we see the struggle.”

Daniela goes to Connecticut Children’s for blood transfusions every third Wednesday. Nicole said that by the end of the second week in between transfusions, it becomes harder for her to do a lot of things.

“She’s tired, she’s cranky, she’s moody, she’s pale, until she can get some blood.”

“When we’re with the team, no matter what time it is for her during those three weeks where we’re waiting for the next transfusion, it’s like being taken out of our reality for a minute,” Nicole said. “We don’t think about it, we’re just living in that moment with them, and it’s like everything is okay, almost like there’s nothing wrong.

“Seeing her with them, I’m not going to lie, I cry a lot. I cry when she’s out on the court with them, and she deserves it and the smile on her face is worth it all. It really does make her happy, and anything we can do to escape what reality is for us is always the best thing.”

Daniela’s disease makes playing contact sports like basketball too risky, so she’s thrown herself into competitive dancing. Nicole said she dances just about every night of the week, and she travels all over the state for competitions. She can relate to the Huskies’ relentlessness and will to win.

“It feels great to be on the team and I was so excited when I joined,” Daniela said. ‘Because I felt like a deep connection with them, and I felt that they understood me and I understood them. And they made me so happy when I was around them.”

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