Part of the team
His cancer in remission, 7-year-old Ziggy Stoval-Redd a fixture with Owls
This Rice football player’s career started with a signing.
Then he got his own Adidas gear. His own hat. His own jersey. His own locker. His own numbers.
Ziggy Stoval-Redd became No. 7 on the front, No. 8 on the back, and No. 1 in the hearts of his teammates.
Ziggy, a 7-year-old in remission from cancer, was signed as an honorary Owl in April. Before him, the football team adopted several honorary Owls. But none had been given “official” status. And most honorary players don’t spend their weekends in the locker room or position meetings.
“We were watching film,” Nick Elder said of a linebackers meeting. “Someone missed a tackle, and he was like, ‘Who was that?’ ”
It was Alex Lyons, one of the unit’s veterans.
“Ziggy was like, ‘I could have easily made that tackle,’ ” Elder said.
The seniors around the table laughed. All of them shared similar moments with Ziggy. Icing on the cake
For guard Andrew Reue, it was on signing day last year. Given a cake, Ziggy asked if it was all for him.
“It sure is,” Reue told him. “Maybe you’ll even share some with us.”
To Rice, Ziggy is family. To Ziggy, Rice is the same. He even has a bio page on the Owls’ football website. (Height: 4-3. Weight: 57.)
Team members said they are amazed by his ability to walk up to a player, learn his name, walk away and then, a couple minutes later, come back, ask that player to do something with him and repeat the player’s name — and then never forget it.
At the start of August, Ziggy attended photo day. He tucked a football under his arm and smiled for the photographer while wearing a jersey with No. 7 on the front and No. 8 on the back. His favorite numbers are 7 and 8, and he couldn’t choose just one. Instead of being No. 78 or No. 87, he asked for both. Hi, hi, hi
Any time he saw coach David Bailiff, he would said, “Hi, coach.” A couple minutes later, with a new player next to him, he saw Bailiff again. “Hi, coach!” he said. “Hi, Zig,” Bailiff responded with a smile before turning to Ziggy’s mother, laughing and saying, “I think that’s the 22nd time he’s said hi to me.”
The Owls have been with Ziggy through his acute lymphoblastic leukemia and the bad days. They cheered him up in the hospital by bringing him a football and laughed while the nurses chased after him with his machines while he ran with the ball. They celebrated his remission, too.
Some days, he has to take eight pills of just one medication.
“It’s taught us a lot,” quarterback Driphus Jackson said. “It’s taught us not to take what little issues we do have for granted. In order to keep his spirits up, our spirits have to be up as well. I think it’s as good for us as it is for him.”