Washington Teams with Children’s Hospital Patients to Design Cleats

Sami Reynolds could sense the emotion in the room once she walked through the door. The University of Washington team was visiting Seattle Children’s Hospital for a trip the Huskies had wanted to make for years before the pandemic delayed their plans.

Reynolds saw an 8-year-old boy lying in the hospital bed surrounded by machines. He seemed shy at first, but Reynolds did her best to break the ice.

Mason Schirato had just been diagnosed with leukemia, a medical ordeal that quickly escalated from routine blood work to being rushed to the emergency room to an 11-day stay in the hospital.

He couldn’t see his friends. He couldn’t go back to school. He couldn’t attend Boy Scout meetings or play his violin.

“He was kind of feeling a little overwhelmed with everything, and Sami sat there and was talking to him to get him to open up and connect with her,” Mason’s mother, LeeAnne Schirato, said. “She asked him if he wanted to decorate some cleats and he was super excited about that.”

The cleats will make their debut on the field on Saturday for the final game of Washington’s home series against Cal. Every player on the UW roster was paired with a patient at Children’s Hospital to design cleats in their honor. The Huskies will wear the cleats a few other times throughout the remainder of the season.

“It was a once-in-a-lifetime experience. It’s really something you can’t replicate,” said Reynolds, a fifth-year senior. “Getting to be with someone who is going through such intense treatment and going through such a hard time is really meaningful. It gives them a little glimmer of love, excitement and hope throughout their day.”

The Washington players spread out to different units at the hospital to visit as many children as possible. They exchanged stories and laughs while decorating cleats together.

Megan Vandegrift and SilentRain Espinoza visited with an 11-year-old named Olivia, who drew cupcakes, butterflies, hearts and books on their cleats.

“She has this motto, ‘I can. I will.’ I decided to draw that on one of the cleats,” Vandegrift said. “It will remind me that softball is a sport and we just play it for fun, but our platform is able to help us branch out and do these things for kids going through something unimaginable and be able to support them and show all the strength they had going through what they have gone through.”

Mason Schirato was born with one kidney, and his parents have always been extra cautious whenever he feels sick. But they never expected a cancer diagnosis when they took him to the doctor on March 17. His father works in Utah Monday-Friday each week and had just arrived back home in Burien, Wash., that morning.

“It’s been a whirlwind,” LeeAnne Schirato said. “It was just figuring out ‘what the heck is happening? How did this happen?’”

During UW’s visit, Mason told Reynolds and pitcher Lindsay Lopez about the project he did on pink dolphins for his school’s science fair, and they showed him how to make the UW sign with his hands. 

Mason wanted to honor his school when he decorated their cleats, so he wrote “STFOA” for St. Francis of Assisi and put “3B” for his third-grade classroom number. He coordinated a Zoom call with his classmates to tell them to watch Saturday’s game for the “shoutout” they will get on the feet of the players.

“You could tell he has a very big heart for everyone around him and obviously his class meant so much to him because he was showing us the balloons they got him,” Reynolds said. “He could not stop talking about his classmates. Whatever they are doing at the school, they are doing a great job.”

Olivia told Vandegrift and Espinoza that she was going to start playing softball this spring and wanted to attend a UW game. Olivia made good on her promise by watching the Huskies play Arizona. She approached Vandegrift and Espinoza to say hello once the game ended and they all promised to stay in touch.

“Honestly, what they did for us when we visited made our day. It’s probably way better than we could ever hope to do for them,” Vandegrift said. “I am super grateful and thankful I could be there with the kids and have that experience. It is something I will take with me forever.”

The doctors have told Mason’s family that his leukemia treatment will be a “three-year journey.” He just finished phase one and is preparing for phase two. 

“There are a lot of new things to adapt to and try to understand, but he has never had a moment where he has cried or been scared or anything like that,” his mother said. “He has been a little ray of sunshine. It’s just been, ‘OK. Let’s figure this out.’ And he told us after three years, he wants to go to Tokyo.”

Reynolds and Lopez gave Mason two UW softball posters, two visors, a purple T-shirt and a playing card of Reynolds. He gave one of the posters to his class and kept the other for his room at home. His stuffed animals are now wearing the visors and the Reynolds’ card was placed alongside his other special photos.

Mason can’t attend Saturday’s game because he is restricted from going out in public, but he will be watching on television.

Before she left the hospital, Reynolds made sure Mason added one important detail to her cleats.

“He wrote his name really big on both of them. I am proud of that,” Reynolds said. “I want everyone to see that Mason designed them.”