FOJ Union Fosters WLAX Bond, Offers Perspective
Apr 07 | Women's Lacrosse
By Tom Luicci
ScarletKnights.com
PISCATAWAY, N.J. -- During her first four years in the Rutgers women's lacrosse program, Erin Turkot had already embraced the ideal that there are bigger things in life than winning and losing a game.
That feeling hasn't changed for the fifth-year senior defender during the debut season in the highly competitive Big Ten for the Scarlet Knights this year.
And Friday, Rutgers' final home game of the season (7 p.m. vs. Northwestern), offers another reminder of why. That game has been designated as this year's "Friends of Jaclyn" fundraiser, and Genna Camiolo will be on hand, rooting on the Scarlet Knights.
"It does help with perspective," said Turkot, a team captain. "It's easy to be down on yourself as a student-athlete when your season isn't going well, but when you think about what other people are dealing with -- when we see Genna and her struggles -- you appreciate things a lot more and you realize there are other important things in life, that the challenges are different. It would be a lot more difficult to be in her shoes."
Friends of Jaclyn is a foundation started in 2005 to improve the quality of life for children with pediatric brain tumors and their families by pairing them with college and high school athletic teams. It started with Jaclyn Murphy, a nine-year-old at the time who had been diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor, becoming the honorary captain for the Northwestern women's lacrosse team -- with the Wildcats going on to win the national championship during an unbeaten season that year.
Rutgers women's lacrosse got involved in 2008 by "adopting" Genna Camiolo, who was also diagnosed with a pediatric brain tumor. Camilo, now 16, has been part of the Scarlet Knights' program ever since.
"When I came in I had no idea what Friends of Jaclyn was about or who Genna was," said Lauren Sbrilli, a fifth-year senior midfielder. "The upperclassmen really drilled into us that this is something that's important to us. Everyone who comes through the program understands that now.
"It's a special feeling to have a young girl as our sister, supporting her and having her support us despite all of the struggles she goes through every day. It makes us appreciate all of the things we have. There are so many bigger things out there besides sports and that girl fights the fight every day. Just having her around is an inspiration on and off the field."
Genna Camiolo will help with the coin toss and will also serve as Rutgers' honorary captain for the game. Just having her around is often inspiration enough for most of the Scarlet Knights.
"She is always upbeat," said junior midfielder and captain Kristin Kocher, "and she knows every player on the team. She knows the roster and your number, so if you see her she'll come up to you and say hello and she will know your name, even the freshmen."
The players stay in weekly contact with Camiolo, either via texts or by sending her notes.
"She comes to most of the home games and then she comes to the tailgates afterward and she will socialize with us," said Kocher. "We constantly get reports from her family to see how she's doing."
Rutgers holds a Friends of Jaclyn game every year, encouraging fans to donate to improve quality of life for children with pediatric brain tumors as well as donating contributions to pediatric brain tumor research. Fans can do so by visiting the website at http://www.friendsofjaclyn.org/ or through the donation link at https://t.co/2uVVUYbtJo.
"We always talk about taking care of the little things and the results will take care of themselves and that applies to everything that they're doing, making sure they're walking away from every day knowing they did the best they possibly could do in terms of school, lacrosse, community," said head coach Laura Brand-Sias. "Certainly with our interaction with Genna and her family it's just the ability to see what a difference even a little interaction with her can make and that they can have an impact on a much bigger scale outside of wins and losses."
That perspective is especially helpful during a season when the results aren't what anyone hoped they would be.
"It's just nice to be involved with it and it's nice being involved with something much bigger than college sports," said Turkot.
