Squad goals

It’s game time at Crisler Arena — lights up, music loud, fans roaring — and Sunny Shemet is ready for action. As soon as the ball is tipped, she is cheering from the bench, infusing the women’s basketball team with infectious enthusiasm. And though she’s not a U-M student-athlete, not even a U-M student, Sunny clearly enjoys her essential role as a team player

In November 2023, the teenager was paired with the women’s basketball team, thanks to the nonprofit Team IMPACT. The Massachusetts-based organization matches children facing serious illness and disability with college sports teams across the nation. Sunny was diagnosed with Down syndrome at birth; as a child she developed leukemia and required daily medications and countless doctor’s visits. Now 15, she can happily boast about her two seasons with the Michigan Wolverines.

On the day we meet over Zoom, Sunny is unexpectedly calm and quiet. Head bent and brows furrowed, she is busy coloring with a marker, the subject of her work concealed.

But as soon as I ask if she enjoys drawing, the bubbly and excited Sunny I’ve heard about emerges. She loves coloring “anything,” she says, as well as watching movies, playing with dolls, spending time outside, and performing in musicals like “101 Dalmatians.” She hopes to play on a basketball team one day; till then, she enjoys participating in her school’s Special Olympics and Spirit Squad.

“My favorite sports are basketball and cheerleading,” she says. “I help cheer on my teammates and hope they win. I’m very smart, funny, and a great friend.”

I’ll come running

When Sunny’s mom, Tonya Melton, heard about Team IMPACT, she immediately realized it was a perfect opportunity for her daughter. Two of Sunny’s friends had been working with the Detroit Mercy lacrosse and basketball teams; they both gave the program high marks.

Melton, a family nurse practitioner, could not have been happier when she learned the organization’s strategic clinical model had matched Sunny with Michigan. As a two-time U-M graduate, she loved the idea of her daughter engaging with her alma mater.

“Sunny has been lucky to be included in the team,” she says.

But she’s not the only one who benefitted from the mutual bonds that were created on the court.

“It was so great to have Sunny with us as part of our program,” says Head Coach Kim Barnes Arico. “Our players and staff loved connecting with her in so many different ways. From singing ‘The Victors’ with us after big wins at home to joining us for Selection Sunday and everything in between, Sunny truly was a Michigan Wolverine. Her impact on our program was amazing, and we are so fortunate to have been paired with her.”

Sunny says she “really loved” the program and had a great time. She even had her own locker and was able to exercise with the players during practice.

Girl power

As the Wolverines’ secret weapon, Sunny helped motivate the team to a spot in the 2025 NCAA Division I women’s basketball tournament. Even though they were eliminated early in March Madness, Sunny never failed to act as — literally — a sunny presence for the program.

She supported the players off the court as well, making a special Valentine’s Day box, filming good luck videos for away games, and creating personalized posters for some of her favorite seniors, Jordan Hobbs and Greta Kampschroeder: “Jordan, make it rain!” “Greta is great!”

“Working with Team IMPACT was one of the best decisions our program made two seasons ago,” says Kampschroeder. “I’m even more glad it brought me and our team to Sunny. Her name is exactly who she is, a bright light in everyone’s life.”

To Sunny, the players became less like a group of teammates, and more like a bunch of big sisters. (She is close with her own sister, Zoe, a ballet dancer currently performing in Cincinnati.)
When Kampschroeder was invited to Sunny’s birthday party, she enjoyed making pizza and decorating a cake along with the other guests.

“They told me how much they loved having her as a friend,” she says.

And in a sweet role reversal, teammates Macy Brown and Alyssa Crockett even went to one of Sunny’s soccer games to cheer her on.

You’ve got a friend in me

In competitive college sports, particularly Division I basketball, trophies are intensely coveted prizes, and winning is seen as the primary goal. But Sunny taught the Wolverines that teams can be flush with victory in other ways, too, says Kampschroeder.

With her ever-positive attitude, Sunny showed the team that loving basketball goes beyond playing the game. Never failing to give hugs when the team was down and offering high fives after exhilarating wins, Sunny stayed by the team through thick and thin. She became a role model of sorts, delivering lessons on perseverance, diligence, teamwork, and companionship, something she mirrors in her everyday actions.

“Sunny is simply a great reminder that there is so much to be appreciative of beyond our sport, and the connections we make are what will stick with us when the ball stops bouncing,” Kampschroeder says. “I’m thankful to call Sunny a lifelong friend.”

Sunny graduated from the Team IMPACT program in May but her contributions to the Michigan players will resonate for years to come.

As her mother prepares to end our Zoom conversation, Sunny finally holds up the artwork she had been so diligently working on. Two outlined figures from a coloring book appear, looking an awful lot like the teammates she has come to love.

“It’s you and me!” she exclaims with a beaming smile.