The junior high team’s inspirational award will now be called “The Cole Fitzgerald Inspirational Player Award.”
The accolades continue to pour in for Bunker Hill Middle School eighth-grade student Cole Fitzgerald, who recently learned that an anonymous donor from Minnesota gifted him tickets to Super Bowl LII after being inspired by Fitzgerald’s health setbacks and his love of the Philadelphia Eagles. Knowing he would not be at the Washington Township Youth Football banquet this weekend because of this trip of a lifetime, representatives of the organization decided to surprise Fitzgerald on Jan. 31, at Bunker Hill Middle School, with news that the junior high team’s inspirational award would now be called “The Cole Fitzgerald Inspirational Player Award.”
“At the end of every season, we give out our team awards — most valuable player, most improved player, best academic player,” said head coach of the junior high Minutemen Bob Schleicher. “One of the awards we give out every year is the most inspirational player award. This goes to the guy who does the most for the team, on and off the field, who sacrifices his individuality for the team. This award is going to be known as the Cole Fitzgerald Inspirational Award from here on out. We want you to come back every year and present it to the honoree.”
“You did a lot for this program,” commissioner of Washington Township youth football Mark Colligan said in addressing Fitzgerald, who jokingly likened his newest honor to one shared by the Heisman trophy namesake. “Everyone knew who you were and when you were on the field, and everyone enjoyed watching you grow throughout the season.”
While all of the media attention that Cole’s story has garnered in the last several days is memorable, it is this gesture from his community that has really touched Fitzgerald and his parents, Bill and Keren Fitzgerald.
“To have an award named after you is really something special,” Bill said. “To see my son flourish working with the Minutemen this year is a parent’s dream. He learned play-calling and strategy and a lot of terminology and even some questionable ‘vocabulary’.”
“Coach Bob and the whole team just embraced Cole,” Keren said. “He’s grown up a lot in the last year, and I really attribute that to his time with the coaches and the boys. It’s been a blessing.”
And, in Fitzerald’s case, an inspiration.
