The Sellars siblings’ season of strength

By Emily Tuttle

A young Ethan and Ella Sellars rush to the driveway after school, grabbing a basketball on the way and pushing to be the first one to the hoop. Running shooting drills and training together while arguing over foul calls was a snapshot of the friendly rivalry that lived in their household.

“Everything we did was kind of competitive,” Ethan said. “It kind of started with basketball, but then it kind of fell into other things.”

Ethan and Ella shared a love of competition that began with their parents, and a love of basketball, not knowing that one day, they would wear the same Cedarville University uniforms. Their competition turned into a partnership forged through hardship. 

Ethan first fell in love with the game during recess with his friends. Soon, the family got a hoop at home, and Ethan played with his grandfather. Ella, on the other hand, started with tumbling, but enjoyed going to Ethan’s travel tournaments, and watching him play made her want to play too. 

“[My love for basketball] definitely came from watching Ethan,” Ella said. 

When it came time to make a college decision, Ethan knew he wanted to attend a Christian school and directed his recruitment accordingly. He was blessed with an offer to play for Cedarville, under coach Pat Estepp at the time, and accepted.

“I knew at that first chapel that this is the place I want to be, regardless of basketball,” Ethan said. “Just because I knew where my values and where my identity were.”

That decision proved monumental for the Sellars family.

A couple of years later, Ella also wanted to come to Cedarville. She cherished the Christ-centered environment, the coaches and the faculty in the education department, and when head coach Addy Miller was hired in March of 2023, Ella was recruited.

While Ethan being at Cedarville was a plus, it wasn’t the sole reason Ella committed.

“There’s just such a sense of trust in the whole [basketball] program, community as a whole,” Ella said. “It helps me build my confidence to know that no matter what, they have my back.”

The encouragement of the Cedarville community became real for the siblings when their mom, Heather, was diagnosed with Myelodysplastic Syndrome (MDS), a form of blood cancer, in April of 2024. 

The family grew up in Ashland, Kentucky, but Heather was treated at The James Cancer Hospital in Columbus. She was given a 60-mile radius where she was allowed to travel, and Cedarville was about 56 miles away. 

This allowed Heather to sit courtside for most of Ella and Ethan’s games, her support unwavering through her own sickness.

The basketball programs as a whole also rallied behind the Sellars, teammates specifically praying for
them or coaches allowing time off from the sport. 

“Coach Jones was great about, ‘We’re all human, and so if there’s a day where you just need to go see your mom in Columbus, then you can,’” Ethan said. “I can imagine things being much worse if I didn’t have such good leaders and teammates in my life.”

Ella would keep some of her teammates updated with good news or bad, knowing they would pray with her or just sit by her side.

Ethan and Ella were able to empathize with each other, sharing the same burdens, all while keeping up with the demands of being a student-athlete. Their relationship matured through this trial as they talked about the good and the bad.

“With the diagnosis, being here and being together was definitely what we needed at the time,” Ella said. 

On January 9, 2025, the Cedarville basketball programs created a fundraiser for Heather and the family, making T-shirts and dedicating the night to the Sellars family. It was hard on the family being away from their home in Kentucky, but Cedarville’s commitment to them was a constant comfort.

Ethan said finding out about the fundraiser was both shocking and surreal — basketball had brought joy
to their entire family over their lives, and now it helped to provide financial support.

The money from the fundraiser helped the family’s medical bills, but the lasting effect on the family was invaluable. 

“Cedarville is more than just a basketball scholarship for our family,” Ethan said. “It is a community that gives me an education and a degree, but it is people who actually believe what they say and act it out.”

Ella’s teammates all bought shirts and rallied around her, specifically that evening, and she loved seeing the support from the programs. 

The siblings learned from their mom’s battle about what true strength looks like.

“Seeing how she battled and fought through that, it’s like ‘If she can do that, I can do anything,’” Ella said.

Ella perseveres no matter what happens because of the determination she has seen from her mom, both growing up and through her cancer journey. Now, Heather is in remission and working back home in Ashland. She continues to go back to The James routinely for testing, but stays in the swing of life back in Kentucky.

“Over my whole life, I’ve always looked up to [my mom],” Ella said. “She has always been strong-willed, an independent woman – and that’s something that I definitely have tried to achieve.”

Now, though both Ethan and Ella have experienced success on the Jackets’ court, their partnership and resilience propel them forward. 

The overarching refrain of this season is sung by the sovereign Lord’s provision, growing the family’s confidence in his faithfulness. 

“Seeing how God has provided for our family gave us a lot of strength,” Ethan said. “Knowing that we’ve spent so much time worrying about what life might look like if stuff goes wrong, but the whole time, God just gave us this peace and this strength that everything was going to be OK.”

Emily Tuttle is a junior Journalism major and the sports editor of Cedars. She is passionate about Philly sports, exercise, and all things silly.