Why Does Florida Softball Wear Sunflowers? The Sweet Reason

"She would just be ecstatic. She would be thrilled with what theyre doing. Its making people ask questions, which will hopefully in turn bring awareness." May 31 2024, Published 11:57 a.m. ET The official state flower of Florida is the orange blossom.

Why Does Florida Softball Wear Sunflowers? The Gators Are Honoring Someone Special

"She would just be ecstatic. She would be thrilled with what they’re doing. It’s making people ask questions, which will hopefully in turn bring awareness."

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May 31 2024, Published 11:fifty seven a.m. ET

Source: Getty Images

The legitimate state flower of Florida is the orange blossom.

So why does the Florida Gators women's softball team wear sunflowers of their hair? Well, the reason is if truth be told very sweet and might deliver a tear to your eye.

Read on to learn the complete tale of the significance of sunflowers for the Florida softball staff, which enthusiasts will understand they wear affixed to the backs of their heads.

Source: Getty Images

So, why do Florida softball avid gamers wear sunflowers? It's a long-standing custom.

Gators softball players at the University of Florida dressed in sunflowers in their hair is not anything new, with the custom first taking root back in 2009, consistent with homeland paper, The Gainesville Sun.

That's when 11-year-old Heather Braswell, who was combating childhood most cancers, was matched with the women's Gators group by means of the Friends of Jaclyn Foundation. According to the outlet, Heather came to each game to make stronger her favourite staff, even sitting in the dugout, while the avid gamers have been by means of her side for cancer remedies.

“She used to be principally a shy particular person, however we’d get to the box, and she or he’d run down the steps, hop the fence and cross into the dugout with them straight away,” her mother Terri instructed People in 2014.

Tragically, Heather gave up the ghost in 2013 after her most cancers went into remission but returned. However, the crew nonetheless wears sunflowers, her favorite bloom, in her honor, greater than ten years after she died.

Y = Yellow | There's a reason why we wear 🌻🌻 in our hair on Saturdays and why every year we wear Yellow.

Pediatric most cancers is a horrible disease, however the💛&💪shown by means of the ones affected is helping remind us that there are things in this🌎larger than🥎 #GatorsABCs pic.twitter.com/OJpTR3cLgC

— Gators Softball (@GatorsSB) August 29, 2019

Heather's mom stated in 2015, "Sometimes, it (the sunflowers) makes me cry."

"But it warms my heart that she touched so many," Terri additionally said. "She would just be ecstatic. She would be thrilled with what they’re doing. It’s making people ask questions, which will hopefully in turn bring awareness."

This is not the simplest sweet method that the group pays homage to their number one fan. Adorably, Heather still additionally has a locker at the stadium, in conjunction with a "Team Heather" jersey, and the Gators host "Sunflower Saturdays," in addition to an annual "Yellow Game" to profit early life most cancers analysis.

Terri additionally threw out the first pitch at a sport following her daughter's very unhappy passing, an honor Heather additionally had all over her final weeks.

About the jersey in the locker room, 2015 sophomore pitcher Delanie Gourley said, “And we're by no means taking it down. She's always going to be part of our team."

And, former participant Bailey Castro mentioned in 2014 about the younger girl who impressed the sunflower custom, “When Heather first got here here, it was definitely so she may just glance up to us. But in the previous 12 months and a part, she was our role fashion. She changed our lives.”

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