Photo by Sam Thiel Seven-year-old Riley Einck poses for a photo with his family and his future teammates after signing with the Southwest Minnesota State University football team on Wednesday. Einck, who is from Slayton, is one of 30,000 patients in the U.S. living courageously with cystic fibrosis.

MARSHALL — As Southwest Minnesota State University football coach Cory Sauter was getting to wrap up their presentation at Brau Brothers of their newest class of signings, he said there was one more name he had to announce.

Up on the screen flashed the name and a picture of 7-year-old Riley Einck from Slayton. In a partnership with Team IMPACT and Vertex Pharmaceuticals, Riley officially became the newest member of the Mustangs program with a special Draft Day celebration.

Afterwards, Riley kept his press conference pretty quick. When asked what’s the most exciting part about becoming a Mustang, he smiled and said, “Being on their team.”

Sauter said they are ecstatic to have Riley join their program and knew he had all of the characteristics of becoming a Mustang.

“We are thrilled to death to get Riley in our program. We reached out and asked Riley if he would be interested in joining the Mustangs. Without hesitation, he said, ‘Absolutely,'” Sauter said. “We met up in the stadium and during that time we said we’re not just going to give you a roster spot, you’re going to have to earn it. We told him he had to try out for the Mustangs. Our players took him through a testing protocol; obviously we’ve got height, weight, speed and vertical, you name it, he went through the whole deal. Obviously he did extremely well with that. We offered him a roster spot and ultimately led to here. Riley’s going to be with us for the next several years and once you’re a Mustang, you’re always a Mustang so he’s always going to be a part of our program.”

“He is our fighter”

Just like many children, Riley has grown up loving any sport, but football is the one that he has gravitated toward the most. Riley enjoys playing with his 10-year-old sister Natalie and is a big fan of the Minnesota Vikings and Gophers. Naturally, his favorite colors are purple and yellow and his favorite Viking is Adam Thielen.

Days after Riley was born in November of 2012, he received a diagnosis of cystic fibrosis, a progressive life-threatening disorder predominantly diagnosed in children by the age of 2 that damages the lungs and digestive system and doesn’t have a cure. He is one of 30,000 patients in the U.S. living courageously with CF.

Without ever hearing about the disease, Riley’s parents Joey and Tara Einck had to start learning about what it was as well as getting involved with their local Cystic Fibrosis Foundation chapter and connecting with other families living with CF.

Riley has two copies of the most common CF mutation, but is continuing to do well with treatments and his medications.

“We are hopeful that by staying on top of his treatments and with the help of this drug [Kalydeco], Riley will be able to maintain his health and have a long, productive life, even though this therapy drug does not represent a cure,” Tara said. “He is our champion. He is our fighter. Every. Single. Day.”

Each year, the Einck’s family and friends join in an Annual Great Strides walk through the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation and their team designs T-shirts. Joey said the support from their community has been amazing and they’re extremely grateful.

“The community’s awesome. Anytime we do a fundraiser for the foundation, everybody surrounds it and embraces it.”

Making the team

Already a big fan of the Mustangs, Riley had the opportunity to attend some games last season. Sauter said after they were approached by Team IMPACT, they reached out to the family to see if Riley would want to be a part of the program.

“Back in the summer, we were approached by Team IMPACT, Allison Monson and the family and we talked about incorporating Riley with our program. Once the season concluded, we definitely approached the family to see if they would be on board with potentially adding Riley to our program and as I mentioned, he was totally jacked about doing that,” Sauter said. “We put him through a tryout just to see how he would perform and let him earn it; just like in life, you’ve got to earn things and we wanted to not just give him a roster spot but see him prepare for it. We gave him about a month to prepare and train for that and he did extremely well with our players and interacted and performed at a high level.”

Tara said it’s been great getting to work with Sauter and was impressed with his plan for Riley’s journey.

“When we first chatted, he came out with a plan and we knew that [Wednesday] was going to be the day going forth. He’s been great to work with; he was asking questions like, ‘Would Riley like doing this?’ or Would Riley like doing that?’ and he gave us a tour of the stadium and day for Riley to try out and we’re here.”

“It’s actually unbelievable that the organization allowed us to be a part of it,” Joey added. “It’s pretty unreal.”

Riley’s workout consisted of everything that an everyday player has to experience, from testing their speed to working on the fundamentals.

“He was so excited for that and then to see the other players there cheering him on, it was pretty cool,” Tara said.

“That’s all he could talk about the whole next week,” Joey added. “It was him saying things like, ‘I hope I did good’ and ‘I hope I make the team’.”

Flash forward to this past Christmas. Riley receives a letter from coach Sauter and the program. A few minutes later, he was overjoyed.

“I made him read it,” Tara said. “His eyes got super big as he’s reading it and he was like, ‘I made the team!’ It was kind of cool to a seven-year-old.”

As an official member of the team, Riley will attend SMSU practices, games, team dinners, meetings and more. Sauter said it’s going to be a lot of fun to have him around the campus and watching him grow and develop alongside his new teammates.

“Our kids are really going to enjoy having him around practices, games, lifting sessions, going and visiting him at his school, it’ll be fun just that journey together and watching him grow and develop at the same time our kids grow and develop,” Sauter said. “It’s just an awesome deal and I’m happy for everybody.”

About Vertex

The Team IMPACT Draft Day is sponsored by Vertex. A global biotechnology company, Vertex invests its money in scientific research to help create transformative medicines for people with serious diseases such as CF. Currently, they have three approved medicines to help treat the causes of CF and have multiple clinical and research programs dedicated to CF. They also have insight into causal human biology and other serious diseases, including sickle cell disease, beta thalassemia, pain, alpha- 1 antitrypsin deficiency, Duchenne muscular dystrophy and APOL1-mediated kidney diseases.

Making an IMPACT

When they were first approached by Team IMPACT, Tara said they didn’t know much about them or the program, but is glad they came across it when they did.

“Team IMPACT, I’m so glad we stumbled across that program,” Tara said. “Riley’s pretty shy at first but I think once he gets to be a part of the team, it’ll be something truly big for him.”

Team IMPACT is a national non-profit that brings together children who are battling serious and chronic illnesses and local collegiate athletic teams, creating a lifelong bond and life-changing experiences and outcomes. Thanks to the support of companies such as Vertex Pharmaceuticals, children with CF such as Riley can be officially drafted to local college teams and be a member of the team that will help support the child’s physical, social and emotional needs.

Team IMPACT currently has more than 1,200 teams across the country waiting to be matched with children ranging from ages 5-16 who have been diagnosed with a life-threatening or chronic illness, and can benefit from joining as a member of their team. Since 2011, Team IMPACT has matched more than 2,000 children with over 700 colleges and universities across 48 states for a total of more than 55,000 student-athletes that are participating.

There are several benefits during the journey. The child will join the athletic team and in turn, the current student-athletes join the child’s support team, all the way from Draft Day to Graduation. During this process, both sides are taught invaluable lessons of strength, courage, resiliency, camaraderie and support.

Joey said he hopes the student-athletes will benefit from this experience that isn’t taught in the classroom.

“A lot of times they’re big athletes and that’s what they’re focused on and sometimes when you bring in a real-life situation, it brings everybody to realization of what’s going on,” Joey said. “My hope is it’s a benefit for both.”

This is the first time Sauter and the program have been involved with Team IMPACT, but he knows they are more than willing to continue working with them and other kids in the future.

“Absolutely. I think anytime you can be connected with a kid in your community in any shape or form, it’s a positive. I’m hoping that this is a partnership that we can grow and develop moving forward and we’re just ecstatic to have Riley and we want that to be an amazing experience, that’s what we’re focused on and if we get any other opportunities we want to see that grow and develop moving forward,” Sauter said. “It’s really cool to see the smile on his face and see him have a day where we can celebrate him because I’m sure throughout the first seven years of his life, there’s been some rough days and some days that are very stressful for him and his family. Anytime you can provide a very positive experience, it’s all worth it. I’m just looking forward to all of the fun times we’re going to have together, getting him involved at our games. We might even have him call some plays, you never know.”

As for whether Riley will be more of an offensive player or out with the defense as a member of the Brown and Gold, Sauter said it will be up to him.

“I think he likes offense more but that could change. He might be a two-way type of player but it sounds like he definitely likes the skills,” Sauter said. “He loves touchdowns and those things, we’ll definitely work on his touchdown celebrations and get those up to par and make sure he understands what he’s going to do when he does score.”

Joey added he’s looking forward to watching his son enjoy the sport he loves, with the team he admires.

“I think he’s really going to enjoy it,” he said. “It kind of makes him forget about the cystic fibrosis part of it; he’s going to love it.”