Phil Martelli, head coach of the men’s basketball team at St. Joseph’s University, has been on the news across the country this week. It hasn’t been so much for the team’s Atlantic 10 championship run and bid to the NCAA tournament, where they’ll play UConn later today, though. Rather, it’s his grandson, Philip Stephen, who is making national headlines.

4-year-old Philip is a die-hard St. Joe’s fan and in the team’s big win earlier this week, he took some coaching matters into his own hands. Throughout the game, he paced the stands behind his grandfather and mimicked all of Martelli’s mannerisms, from crossing his arms to rubbing his chin, even drawing up plays from time to time.

Audiences fell in love with Philip as newscasts picked up his antics, but left out of the picture was a much deeper story of the healing power of sports. Last year saw a disappointing season for St. Joe’s and, at the end of the college basketball season, Phil Martelli lost both his sister and sister-in-law.

But things have turned around this year. Phil Martelli Jr., father of 4-year-old Phillip Stephen, is an assistant coach of the men’s basketball team at the University of Delaware, also due in the NCAA tournament later today. With two family members coaching in the tournament, and the youngest Phillip expected to be coaching from the stands as usual, a new excitement and unity has swept over the Martellis thanks in large part to their extended athletic families.

Neumann is no stranger to difficult times. In January, the Neumann Athletics community lost Dante DeSimone, a freshman at the University and a member of the men’s lacrosse team. A sudden loss, the athletic community came together in support for both the team and Dante’s family. Importantly, it also was a cause for deep reflection and unity as teammates and as a community.

“It did not matter how tired he was or how much bigger, stronger and faster the opponent was,” writes Neumann senior Kevin Fonio, Dante’s teammate and cousin. “Dante always had the mindset that ‘I don’t know how, but I will beat you.'”

As painful as Dante’s sudden loss was, Kevin asks us to keep in mind the lessons he and his teammates have learned. “YOU have a future in front of you, you have the sky and beyond to conquer your dreams and surpass all of your fears,” Kevin says. “YOU have that opportunity.”

Carrying Dante with them in spirit, this is a rallying cry not just for the Neumann lacrosse team but for a spirit of unity and healing through sports. Families – both our natural families as well as those we inherit through teams – are strengthened by the common purpose we share in athletics. For Phil Martelli and his family, their common basketball goals provide a sense of comfort and pride. “We’re proud of each other and really happy to see what each other is doing” said Martelli.

For Neumann lacrosse, carrying Dante in spirit and in purpose is a unifying force.

“Having heart in sports today is such a misused phrase because when you say to someone, ‘You have heart,’ most of the time it just means you have no other redeeming qualities…But Dante embodied that phrase,” writes Kevin Fonio of his cousin. It is now up to the team to carry Dante’s attitude and spirit forward, in this season and throughout their lives.