Inspiration for a team can manifest itself in various forms.
Some have demanding coaches, respected veterans or a raucous fanbase. But for the North Carolina wrestling team, their inspiration comes from Mason Fannin, an 8-year-old boy from Clayton, North Carolina.
Fannin has been undergoing treatment for Leukemia since February 2019. Shortly after his diagnosis, the Fannin family applied and was accepted to Team IMPACT, an organization that facilitates relationships between college teams and children with chronic illnesses, where they were matched up with the UNC wrestling team.
UNC wrestling has a history of working with pediatric patients, having raised over $5,000 for UNC Children’s Hospital in 2018, and wanted to further their involvement by developing personal relationships. The team was eventually matched with Fannin, and he signed a National Letter of Intent to become an official member of the UNC wrestling team last November. He has been an inspiration to the team ever since.
Redshirt junior Gino Esposito is the community service outreach leader on the wrestling team and one of the Tar Heels who has worked most closely with Fannin. He described the nature of the team’s relationship with their youngest teammate.
“My vision, and the team’s vision, was that he’d be a part of our team, a part of our family,” Esposito said. “He comes to our events, our practices, I FaceTime him three or four times a week and he even plays Xbox with the guys.”
Fannin has since returned home, but during his stay in the hospital last year, his teammates would visit him regularly. Two wrestlers, as well as members of the coaching staff, shaved their heads to coalesce around their new team member. Most importantly for Fannin, the team gifted him some Nerf guns this past Christmas.
