Baseball team mourns loss of honorary captain
“Words can’t describe how much of an impact this little guy has had on not only myself, but the rest of the USF Baseball team and USF family,” wrote senior Kyle Teaf, who has known Nick Wolf since the USF baseball team adopted him as honorary team captain, in a caption for a picture posted on Instagram this week.
The picture is of Teaf and teammates, Nik Alfonso and Andres Leal, with Nick and his 9-year-old brother, Scotty. Nick lost his battle with brain cancer on Mother’s Day. He was 11 years old.
“He was our friend, our teammate, and our brother,” read Teaf’s post on Instagram. “He did so much more for us than we could have ever hoped to do for him. Rest easy buddy. #TeamNick”
Nick’s mother, Christina Wolf, said he passed away at 7:48 p.m. quietly and peacefully.
“There are no words to describe our relief that he is not suffering or of our loss,” she posted on Twitter.
In August 2013, the team adopted Nick through the Friends of Jaclyn Foundation, a program that pairs children battling pediatric cancer with local high school and college sports teams.
Nick was diagnosed with brain cancer on Memorial Day 2011. He beat the disease for a second time in November 2014, but his cancer returned in many parts of his brain about a week before Christmas.
According to his mother’s Twitter, Nick lost consciousness April 12, just seven days after his 11th birthday on Easter Sunday.
Usually, Nick and his family could be found cheering in the stands at many of the games.
Perhaps one of the happiest days the team shared with Nick was when USF hosted Pirate Day in February 2014.
Nick and Scotty became known as the Wolf Pirates. With swords at their sides, they wore white blouses and green and gold beads.
Throughout the game against Penn State, the brothers partook in adventures, including saving a damsel in distress, taking over the press box and singing “A Pirate’s Life for Me” during the seventh inning stretch.
This season, the players wrote Nick’s initials in black sharpie above the lid and to the left of the Bulls emblem of their white baseball caps.
The coaches and players shaved their heads for cancer awareness following the game against Houston on April 26. The team has also raised $16,745 for the Vs. Cancer Foundation.
In honor of Nick, there will be a moment of silence before the National Anthem on Thursday, when USF hosts UCF for the final series of the regular season, with the first pitch scheduled for
6:30 p.m.
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