Sept. 12, 2013

The Navy football team has adopted 12-year old-Mathias Giordano from Leesburg, Va. into the Navy Football Brotherhood.

Giordano, who is battling Sarcoma cancer, is a huge Navy football fan and was introduced to the team by Lt. Jordan Fogler, who is a family friend of the Giordano's and an admissions counselor at the Naval Academy.

Fogler reached out to the Navy football staff to see if Giordano could get a tour, but instead he got much more than that.

Navy head coach Ken Niumatalolo welcomed Giordano with open arms by personally taking he and his family on a tour of Ricketts Hall and introducing him to all of the coaches.

Giordano then got a chance to meet some of the players on the team including sophomore fullback Chris Swain, senior wide receiver and co-captain Matt Aiken, junior defensive end Aaron Davis, junior fullback Quinton Singleton, junior quarterback John Hendrick, junior safety George Jamison and sophomore quarterback Keenan Reynolds. The players autographed a scheduled poster for Giordano and took photos with him.

Before Giordano left for the day, Coach Niumatalolo presented him with an autographed helmet and words of encouragement letting him know that he and his family are in their prayers. In addition, Niumatalolo adopted Giordano into the Navy Football Brotherhood and offered him tickets to every home football game.