Heather's Sunflowers

“Will they still take me if I like FSU?”

That was the question Heather Braswell asked while undergoing treatment for a brain tumor in 2009. The preteen joined her mother, Terri, on the third floor of a hotel in Panama City — where the family was vacationing from their home in Orlando — to fill out an application in hopes of being “adopted” by a collegiate team.

Heather jotted down her interests — soccer and, ironically, the Seminoles — for the Friends of Jaclyn Foundation. About 250 miles east in Gainesville, Francesca Enea — then a Gators softball star and now a UF assistant coach — was doing the same, preparing her own paperwork in hopes of welcoming a child to the Gators. 

“The next day, I got a phone call from an unidentified number,” Enea said. “It was Friends of Jaclyn telling me they had a girl in Orlando that they were ready to place with us.” 

Heather was diagnosed with brain cancer in 2008. She continued living her life as a typical 11-year-old girl – playing youth soccer and cheering on her favorite collegiate teams – despite her diagnosis. And in 2009, on a whim, she was named Florida softball’s honorary team member. She watched as the Gators made four Women’s College World Series’ trips in her time with the team. But as Florida was on the cusp of its fifth, Heather died in March 2014 after her cancer made a resurgence.

The Gators felt Heather’s presence as they hoisted the 2014 NCAA national championship trophy, sunflowers in their hair and players holding up No. 1. The same flowers positioned on the Gators’ ponytails mirror those of today. Florida coined the phrase “Sunflower Saturday” as a symbol of support for Heather, when the players sport the bright petals every week.

The yellow of the sunflowers represents childhood cancer awareness, symbolizing hope, courage and perseverance. Florida softball hosts an annual “Yellow Game” to honor Heather and her fight against brain cancer. This season’s game is Saturday against No. 1 Tennessee. Terri and current Gators honorary team member, Hartley Georges, throw out the first pitch at Katie Seashole Pressly Stadium each year.

So even 12 years after Heather’s passing, her presence is still felt amongst the Gators: a graphic on a T-shirt, ceramic pieces adorning the stadium gates and a cornerstone of the Gators’ weekend slate.

Yet none of that would have been born if tragedy hadn’t struck. In January 2014, doctors told Heather her cancer was terminal. She threw her last first pitch in February, when Florida softball players wore yellow ribbons in their hair in a show of support.

Heather died two months later.

The Gators lost the next handful of games immediately after her passing. Around then, the team began wearing sunflowers in its hair throughout the year before sporting them every Saturday during the succeeding season.

The Braswell family was far from UF fans before Heather’s “adoption” into the program. She loved soccer and Florida State — not exactly the typical Gators softball supporter. But when Heather was connected to the team through the Friends of Jaclyn Foundation, she and her family traded in the garnet and gold for the orange and blue. 

The Friends of Jaclyn Foundation was established after 9-year-old Jaclyn Murphy was diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor in 2004. The Northwestern lacrosse team adopted her as an honorary team member. The Wildcats then won their first national championship in 64 years after an undefeated season. Since then, the foundation has served as an avenue that matches children battling pediatric brain tumors with various collegiate teams across multiple sports.

To this day, the foundation has worked with nearly 1,000 families.

“Friends of Jaclyn does a great job helping the children that don’t want to be in these situations find joy, and Gators softball did a fabulous job,” said Michelle Georges, the mom of the current honorary member of Gators softball, Hartley. 

In 2009, the Braswells were vacationing in Panama City when they saw a television interview that highlighted the foundation. It immediately caught Heather’s attention, and she filled out an application at 11 p.m. with anticipation. 

“Maybe a week later, we got a call and the Gators softball team was looking for a patient, which is very funny, because we’re not Gators,” Terri said. “St. Jude has their rooms decorated really bright, and we were in the orange-and-blue room, and that was a whole big thing. We were taking pictures like, ‘Are you kidding me?’”

Around the same time, Enea had been involved in various events in support of pediatric cancer awareness. She hosted the Swing for Cancer event, where Stacey Nelson, one of the most decorated Florida players to ever take the field, pitched to Gators legends to raise money for cancer research at Shands Hospital.

Enea said her now-husband had watched an ESPN 30 for 30 episode on Murphy’s journey with Northwestern. At the same time, Enea had formed a relationship with pediatric cancer patient Ian Lockwood. He served in a role similar to Heather’s with the team when he was 16 years old. So, wanting to make a difference in the community, and having had spent time with Lockwood, Enea filled out the request form from Friends of Jaclyn.

Then came a surprise.

“It gave me an automated response of ‘We’ll be in touch with you in two to three years,’” Enea said with a slight laugh. “I was like, ‘Oh, OK. I guess this isn’t happening.”

Since Florida head coach Tim Walton’s first season in 2006, the club has advanced to the Women’s College World Series 13 times. 

But for the Gators, success means more than the product on the field.

While Heather was with the team, she helped instill the idea that what they’re playing for is larger than softball. Whether she was sitting with the players in the dugout during games or throwing out the ceremonial pitch to ring in the 2014 season, Heather ignited a spark into Florida’s clubhouse.

Florida gave Heather various team responsibilities. She distributed “lucky Twizzlers” to the players, but Terri said everything else remained pretty confidential.

“Whatever happened in the dugout, stayed in the dugout,” she said. “It was like the Holy Grail. I would try to ask her, and she would be like, ‘Mom…’” 

While it wasn’t always easy for Heather, just starting her teenage years, she was able to find joy and form relationships with everyone involved in Florida’s program.

“Kids can just be mean, especially girls,” Terri said. “The Gators filled something … there was no way we could have filled that for Heather.”

While Walton and the Gators played an integral part in Heather’s life, Enea formed a special bond with Heather. Enea and the rest of the team welcomed Heather to the crew without any idea of how monumental their actions would become.The team engaged in a fun, impromptu “backyard softball” game when meeting her for the first time. The Gators officially adopted her into the program the next day, ahead of its first game of fall ball.

Enea, who was entering her senior season in 2010, said being around Heather handed her a new goal, even if things were going wrong at the plate.

“In the moment, it seems like such a big deal, like you got out,” Enea said. “But the bigger picture is there’s a little girl who’s fighting for her life, and she would just love the opportunity, probably to just put the uniform on. So in those little moments, it helped me.”

The former outfielder already had cemented her name in the Florida record books during her sophomore campaign. Enea set the single-season record for RBIs (64) and total bases (137), while also matching what was then the single-season record for home runs (17). By the end of Enea’s final season, when she hit a career-high 20 homers, USA Softball named her as one of the Collegiate Player of the Year Top 10 finalists. 

However, the pair continued to thrive even after Enea saw her final at-bat.

Enea moved to Orlando following graduation, which added extra one-on-one time for the two, and gave Heather hitting lessons, even if the latter wasn’t trying. Enea said Heather just wanted to be around her.

“I feel like she saw me more as an older adult sister,” said Enea, who remains third on UF's all-time home run list with 61. “She wasn’t going to tell me all the secrets, but she definitely looked up to me, and I always protected her.”

When Heather died, the team began wearing sunflowers in its hair every Saturday. But it wasn’t until four years later that “Sunflower Saturday” was officially born.

“My sister and my brother designed a T-shirt for me and it said ‘Sunflower Saturday,’ and it had Heather’s initials on it,” Terri said. “People saw them and were like, ‘Where did you get that?’ And then the team started calling Saturdays ‘Sunflower Saturday,’ and the shirts just took off.” 

The Braswells began selling shirts with the phrase and sent all of the proceeds to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, where Heather had been treated.

While Heather’s story has been told across the University of Florida, her legacy extends far past Gainesville.

Terri now works for St. Jude’s bereaved parent council, and when speaking with the panel at the hospital, she shows pictures of Heather on the screen above her. Terri said when people ask to see photos of her daughter, she’s narrowed it down to “eight or 10” to send. 

“Somebody said, ‘She did the Twizzlers with the Gators!’ And it was Heather’s last first pitch, the picture that they had up,” Terri said. “And this die-hard Auburn fan remembered the Twizzlers. She didn’t remember ever seeing Heather, but she learned through watching softball in 2014 that it was a St. Jude patient, and she’s followed the Gators ever since.”

In Gainesville, Heather’s legacy touches the younger generation of Florida players. The Gators have maintained an individual locker in the team’s dressing room at Katie Seashole Pressly Stadium designated to Heather. A sign also hangs with the flower’s backstory, still standing seven years after KSP underwent renovations.

“When they rebuilt the stadium, there’s a sunflower mural that talks about Heather and why we have this here and why we do ‘Sunflower Saturday,’” Enea said, choking up. “When [Walton] rebuilt the stadium, there’s still always going to be Heather’s legacy there.”

Also, outside the Gators’ bullpen just beyond the left-center field wall stands Heather’s Sunflower Garden.

“It is a lot bigger than just softball,” Walton said. “At the end of the day, getting to play softball is what you get to do. And that’s the legacy that Heather’s left behind, is that we get to play softball and we get to remember her and we get to honor her, and I don’t think that gets lost.”

It certainly doesn’t with Florida’s current group. 

Senior Jocelyn Erickson has spent time volunteering at UF Health Shands Hospital, earning individual time with children battling cancer.

“I’ve learned a lot throughout my time here, so it’s been super special to me,” Erickson said on Florida honoring Heather through “Sunflower Saturday.”

Erickson spent her first collegiate season with Oklahoma, but has since earned back-to-back Rawlings Gold Glove Awards at UF.

“It means you’re playing for something more than yourself,” Erickson said. “You’re not just playing to win a ballgame, you’re playing for the kids who don’t get to do what they want to do.”

Sophomore Taylor Shumaker worked primarily with Enea last year when she won NFCA Freshman of the Year while topping Enea’s record-breaking single-season RBI mark by 22. The right fielder also took on the responsibility of handmaking the sunflowers for this year’s team. She said she began sorting the materials — fake flowers, felt, clips, hair ties and large rhinestones about four weeks prior to the regular season.

They will be on full display for everyone in attendance against No. 1 Tennessee this weekend.

“I think the meaning behind the tradition reigns strong, no matter making the sunflowers or not,” Shumaker said. “But I was super honored to be the one that got to help carry on the tradition.”

“It wasn’t until Heather died that I found out how much she did for the Gators players, and just seeing it kind of continue through each team,” Terri said. “I couldn’t be more proud to say that we’re a part of the Gators softball team.”

Shumaker also makes a sunflower for the current honorary team member, Hartley, who’s been with the team since 2018 and won her battle with cancer.

Like Heather and her family, 16-year-old Hartley hadn’t crossed her fingers to be placed with the Florida softball team. She had her sights set on gymnastics, but her mother, Michelle, said it was “a perfect fit.”

Hartley underwent three transplants to fight against medulloblastoma, the same malignant brain tumor Jaclyn was diagnosed with. Hartley’s last transplant was in 2019.

In the meantime, Hartley formed bonds with other players in her first couple of years with the team — including Amanda Lorenz. 

Lorenz broke a handful of UF records during the 2018 season and was a three-time NFCA First-Team All-American. 

Lorenz and the other players of the 2018-20 teams visited Hartley in the hospital while in treatment and made sure to cheer her on during her fight against cancer. While Lorenz has since graduated, she has remained close with the Georges family, who even watched her dog while she traveled to Gainesville.

While Hartley doesn’t hand out Twizzlers to the players, she warms up with them and hangs out in the dugout during home games. In the offseason, current pitcher and infielder Ava Brown and the rest of the team give Hartley and her brother, Carter, Christmas presents every year. Brown said having the opportunity to be around the Georges’ and Braswell’s fills her with gratitude.

“I feel like it’s something that’s forever going to have an impact on my life.”

At first apprehensive about the idea of taking in Heather nearly two decades ago – solely for the unfortunate thought of “what if something bad happens” – Walton calls the decision one of the best he’s ever made. High praise from a coach who’s collected too many accolades to fit into his trophy case. 

“The embrace is real, and it motivates you and inspires you,” Walton said. “You try to teach your kids important values, and that’s an important one, that’s the most important one – it’s never take anything for granted.”