Hayden Valentine is a little baller. Roll one onto the floor of her daddy’s office, and she’ll clamber after it with instant delight. Before long, an impish grin on her adorable mug, she’ll send it scooting across a large coffee table toward him while he’s in the middle of an interview with a reporter. A bit later, out in the cool grass, her mama will kneel behind her, supporting her at the hips, while she alternates between catching gentle underhand passes and gleefully redirecting the basketball with volleyball spikes.
After all, Taylor Valentine was a standout volleyball player at Michigan State. Husband Drew is the men’s basketball coach at Loyola. Their daughter — who turns 3½ on Oct. 15 — is already putting in work.
“It feels like this is kind of what we lived our lives doing, going to practice,” Taylor says. “For Hayden, it’s going to therapy and medical appointments, stretching in the mornings. But it’s really taking care of your body and taking pride in taking care of your body. That’s all we’ve ever known.
“[Her disability] was unexpected, but in a way we were already kind of prepared for it. Maybe not fully, but I think we were prepared to raise her for sure.”
Hayden has spastic triplegic cerebral palsy, a neurodisability affecting both her legs and her left arm. There’s more to it than the high muscle tone (hypertonia) that make her legs and arm tight and stiff, affecting her movements and posture, but that’s the gist. In efforts to loosen her muscles while building strength and endurance, she attends a motor-intensive preschool in addition to physical therapy, occupational therapy, aquatic therapy, massage, chiropractic appointments and regular check-ins with her neurologist, her eye doctor and her mobility-equipment team.
She wears ankle-and-foot orthotics and little straps around her legs to help keep them moving as she uses her purple walker, which she has named — wait for it — “Purple.” Drew, an incurable sneakerhead, is famously hooked on Nikes, but Hayden’s own, growing collection is New Balance — “the coolest version of extra-wide shoes,” says her dad, who is quick to add that she also has a pair of Air Jordans “for special occasions.”
Hayden lights up when asked about all the fun she has.
“I love the swings!” she says. “A big push! I want to go higher!”
With friends at school, she makes castles out of building blocks. With her parents, she makes sand castles at the beach. At home, she swings rackets at tennis balls and pickleballs. She can’t wait to see her “volleyball girls” at St. Andrew School in Lakeview, where Taylor helps coach seventh and eighth graders. And as for Drew’s Ramblers?
“They’re big and tall!” she says.
This busy bee will squeeze in some Ramblers basketball games, too, although, truth be told, she’s a tiny bit afraid of the Wolf mascot right now. That will have to be worked through, because Hayden’s presence will be required on Feb. 26 when the Ramblers host George Washington on Cerebral Palsy Awareness Night at Gentile Arena. It will be a happy, special Valentines day, one might say.
“All I want to do is raise awareness and make people feel welcomed, supported and loved,” Drew says. “To use the platform that we have to let people know that, one, this is a possibility of what could happen, and that if it happens to you, you can find a way to make it work and give your child the best support you can. And it’s not a negative. It’s still a blessing, even if your child has any sort of disability, that your child is with you.”
Ten days after Drew became a first-time head coach, he became a father. Hayden arrived on April 15, 2021, at Evanston Hospital, about 12 weeks premature and weighing only 2 pounds. She stayed in the neonatal intensive care unit until, on May 2, she was transferred to Advocate Lutheran in Park Ridge after a Grade 4 brain bleed that would lead to multiple surgeries. She finally went home on July 18, a 6-pound girl who — along with her parents — had already been through so much.
“But when we first brought her home, we had no idea what was going on,” Drew says. “She showed all the normal signs.”
Eventually, Hayden’s gross motor skills made them wonder. Her left hand remained tight and closed. She didn’t want to stand up. She was diagnosed with cerebral palsy in May of 2022.
And then this team of three got right down to work. It happens to be what they’re made of. Hayden approaches every step of her life knowing she is loved to the moon and back by a mom and dad who are always ready to give her a big push, sending her higher and higher.
Cognitively, she is well on track for her age, her parents say.
“We are lucky,” Drew says. “She’s a smart kid, too.”
There aren’t many greater gifts than that.