Fighting with the Might of a Hurricane
By David Villavicencio
HurricaneSports.com
SHREVEPORT, La. – The Miami Hurricanes donned their usual practice uniforms on Sunday inside the Independence Bowl.
The offense was in orange, defense in white and quarterbacks in green, but there was a fourth color that stood out on the practice field: lime green.
Miami head coach Manny Diaz and the Hurricanes’ equipment staff donned lime green t-shirts and sweatshirts to honor and support Gemma Henderson, a senior student equipment manager who just began undergoing chemotherapy treatments.
“She is one of us, she is part of our family,” head coach Manny Diaz said. “Sometimes all of a sudden you get some news that kind of knocks you back. There are times in life when you go through something that you need a family, you need the support of loved ones around you and it’s important for her to know that she’s got a family of all the players here, the support staff, the coaches, everybody that that’s behind her and that she can win this battle. To have that support is how we all band together in times of adversity and when we’re tested in life.”
While Henderson is back home focused on her battle with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma, her spirit is with the Hurricanes football players, coaches and staff in Louisiana as they prepare for Thursday’s bowl game against Louisiana Tech.
“Once we found out exactly what it was, and diffuse large B-cell lymphoma is the actual official name — which is a type of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma – we started to think of what we could do,” associate director of equipment Sam Nichols said. “The color for that is lime green, which she’s not crazy about. It’s not one of her favorite colors, but we were just messing around on the internet and there’s a company called ‘Choose Hope’ that one of their wristbands says, ‘No One Fights Alone’ and we kind of fell in love with that saying, which really ties into the kind of team atmosphere that we have. She’s going through it. Certainly she’s the only one that’s actually going through chemo, but with us in the equipment room and with the football family, she’s not doing this alone.”
Henderson is a veteran on Miami’s football equipment staff, working her way up to being a senior member of the student equipment managers. She was frequently seen working the chains or firing footballs around at practice, always with a smile on her face.
But Henderson began to feel a little off as the season progressed and she went to get checked out by doctors to see what was wrong. The diagnosis was something she could never have expected, but she is attacking her non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma head on and has a huge support system behind her every step of the way.
Assistant director of equipment Arielle Scavo, who started out as a student equipment manager with Henderson, had the idea for creating shirts and hoodies for the equipment staff to wear during bowl season as a sign of solidarity and support for their friend and colleague.
“When she wasn’t going to the bowl, I felt like we needed to make her part of it,” Scavo said. “And I felt the shirts was a good idea since we wear the manager shirts at practice that stand out for everybody to see. We always laugh at the shirts because they’re always so bright and the color for her cancer happens to be lime green, so I just felt it was a good idea to do this and make her feel like she’s here with us.”
Henderson is expected to make a full recovery and the Miami equipment staff cannot wait to welcome their friend back. She has already told Nichols that she wants to rejoin the group when she is done with her treatment.
“Gemma is an absolute warrior,” Scavo said. “Honestly, I think she’s handling this very well. I think all of us coming together and showing her that we’re here for her is huge. Sometimes people can get lost because there’s just so much going on, but having coach Diaz and all the coaches wear the shirt and be part of this and text her and visit her in the hospital has been really, really good for her.”
In addition to the wristbands, t-shirts and hoodies, the Hurricanes will wear a helmet decal on Thursday and coaches will have a patch on their shirts showing support for Henderson.
“It’s a great gesture by our equipment staff and we want her to know that she is here with us and she is still a part of this team,” Diaz said. “We want her to feel that connection to us and that our guys know that they’re playing for her on Thursday as well.”
Miami head coach Manny Diaz, Gemma Henderson, Tammy Scavo and Arielle Scavo at Miami’s 2019 Senior Day game vs. Louisville.
