Blue Devils Making a Difference Through Team Impact

By Riley Hicks, Duke Athletic Communications Student Assistant

DURHAM -- Team IMPACT is a non-profit organization that matches children diagnosed with serious chronic or terminal illnesses and disabilities with college varsity sports teams across the country. Since 2011, the organization has been implemented on 726 campuses and has matched 2,588 children with 64,700 student-athletes. Once the children are matched with a team, they remain in the program for two years. Team IMPACT serves as an opportunity for student-athletes to inspire growth and independence among the children facing serious illnesses. Simultaneously, the program instills a sense of purpose and self-awareness within student-athlete participants beyond their sport.

Three years ago, Duke student-athletes saw an opportunity to bring Team IMPACT to campus and, since then, have successfully matched children with seven varsity teams: football, women's soccer, men's soccer, softball, men's tennis, men's golf, and track & field/cross-country. The partnership has grown with the help of Duke women's soccer captain, Emmy Duerr. Duerr is one of the four student-athlete Team IMPACT fellows alongside Lara Kohlenbach of track & field, Anthony Hinton of football, and Josie Varney of field hockey. The group of students work year-round with Team IMPACT to match kids to teams and spread awareness about the organization with the goal of having every team matched with a Team IMPACT kid. The Team IMPACT fellows, Varney, Duerr, and Hinton commented on the power of the organization to open their eyes to life beyond Duke and beyond their own.

"It's incredible how resilient they are," said Varney. "You can learn so much from them."

Varney, along with the other fellows, have been helping out behind the scenes since the organization came to Duke's campus. She helped lay the groundwork for the matching, meeting the children at the hospital and dropping off Duke sports gear at their houses. Currently, Duke field hockey doesn't have a match, but are hoping to get matched in the near future and continue to support the other teams involved.

Last fall, the Duke women's soccer team signed their first Team IMPACT child: Perry Coxe. To honor the newest addition to the Blue Devil family, the team put together a mock signing day for Perry. Duerr and her teammates hosted a ceremony for Perry, printed out a "letter of intent" for her to sign, and gathered around in celebration. It just so happened that the signing day was just a week after she simultaneously finished chemotherapy and started kindergarten. It was especially meaningful for the team to see the joy that it brought Perry's parents.

"It has been very genuine," said Griffin Coxe, the father of Perry. "It has never felt like a formality. It has been a really great eye opener to see how open everyone has been. What better team to be tied to than Duke women's soccer?"

The Duke track and field and the cross-country teams were matched with Charlie Galutten, an energetic seven-year-old from Raleigh diagnosed with Leukemia. In addition to his signing day in November of 2021, the teams hosted a celebration for his last day of chemotherapy treatment in February. The teams paid a visit to Duke Hospital to cheer and clap for Charlie in congratulations. Throughout Charlie's journey, Duke cross country has been by his side and supporting his family through the hard times.

"I can't stress enough how much it means to have a team support Charlie and Charlie support the team," said Kohlenbach, medically retired track and field runner and current student coach. "We connect on such a different level when he is there."

She described how having Charlie on the team gives her and her teammates new perspectives on friendships, leadership, community, and life in general. And for the rest of the year, the track and field team and the cross-country team planned to have Charlie attend home meets, team dinners, and other activities each month.

Another team involved with Team IMPACT is the Duke football program. The football team was matched with Creed, an 11-year-old boy who was diagnosed with duchenne muscular dystrophy. Although Creed has limited mobility, Duke football has welcomed him with open arms. Creed has gotten the chance to come to scrimmages and games to get to know the team in addition to taking him to a Durham Bulls game in the spring.
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"From football, everyone comes from different backgrounds, but we can all buy-in and rally behind Creed," said Team IMPACT fellow and Duke football player, Anthony Hinton.

"It reminds me of that excitement of being a kid and it's easy to forget it sometimes," said Hinton. "College athletes were my heroes and it means the world to be able to give back."

To strengthen the relationship with Creed and the team, Duke football is planning on having more structured events with Creed and the other Duke Team IMPACT kids such as movie nights, home games, and Creed's own signing day.

The most recent addition to the Duke Team IMPACT community is on the softball team. Duke women's softball welcomed Harper, a nine-year-old girl from Durham, N.C., who has been going through 10 months of treatment for leukemia.

"Harper has benefited so much from Team Impact since her diagnosis. We're really grateful that she's going to be accepted as a part of the Blue Devils softball team and she hopes that she can give back to them what they've given to her. We're really excited for this partnership" said Harper's mom, Heather.

"In the short amount of time that we've known Harper, she has shown us a different perspective about life," said Duke softball assistant coach Olivia Watkins. "She is going through so much at such a young age and is still so bright and bubbly with this no-shame, spunky attitude. That's something we are definitely going to feel the impact of this season and we're so excited to work with her.

Team IMPACT has given Duke student-athletes more than they could've imagined with the opportunity of supporting and welcoming a new teammate. The Duke fellows, along with their peer student-athletes are looking forward to strengthening the bonds with their matches over the course of the year.

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