Cole's Special Day at Practice

For Maryland players, today’s practice served as another chance to sharpen their focus for Saturday’s game against Eastern Michigan. For one boy, today’s practice was an event he will savor for quite some time.

Cole Sterry, a 7-year-old who was named after Cole Field House, attended practice today with his family as special guests of Gloria Friedgen. Wearing a Terrapins jersey, Cole led the team’s huddle break after warm-ups. Many players also came over to greet Cole personally before practice.

I watched from a distance, but Cole seemed overjoyed. From the look on his face, it was impossible to know that he has endured weeks of chemotherapy, radiation and transfusions. Cole is a cancer patient at Johns Hopkins who suffers from Wilms’ tumor. A cancer that typically occurs in children, rarely in adults, Wilms’ tumor afflicts the kidneys. Approximately 500 cases are diagnosed in the county annually.

Cole has been through quite an ordeal in only seven years of life. His family reported that watching practice was a “beautiful way to keep his spirits up!” He was a Terp for a day, on a day he won’t soon forget.