Olympic, Rutgers and high school softball players rally around Leah Hansen

There’s chanting. Eye black. Superstitious team traditions. Softball players on all levels have a connection. A kinship. And when one player is in need, the rallying cry gets answered, whether you’re an Olympian or youth league player.

The proof?

When 9-year-old Leah Hansen recently suffered what is believed to be a rare spinal cord stroke, practically unheard of in a child, the softball community quickly accelerated into hyperspeed to help raise money for her medical care and to spread cheer.

Famed Olympian Jennie Finch autographed a jersey for Leah and inscribed an inspirational message for her on a pink softball. The Rutgers University softball team sent Leah a care package loaded with gifts. And on March 28, Summit and Watchung Hills high schools played a benefit exhibition game at Diamond Nation in Flemington that drew a large crowd.

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Watchung Hills recently joined softball teams from the 26-school Union County Conference in wearing helmet decals in a show of solidarity and support for Leah. The yellow softball-shaped stickers, which Riddell donated, bear the name “Hansen” and her number “1” in black letters.

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The Hansen family – Leah’s parents, Abby and Peter, have three other children – are residents of Long Hill in southern Morris County, which borders both Union and Somerset counties. Students from Long Hill attend Watchung Hills High School.

“It kind of seems like sometimes, just because you play the same sport, people kind of consider you family almost, do you know what I mean?” said Summit softball coach Tim Simo, a 1999 graduate of New Providence High School. “Like they kind of take care of their own and it’s been cool to see. Something that we thought would be this tiny little fundraiser against Watchung Hills has become even bigger.”

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The family’s GoFundMe page has already raised more than $27,600 to help defray Leah’s medical expenses and other costs associated with her care.

A resident of Long Hill and a recreation softball coach in the township, Simo has a personal connection to the Hansens – his daughter, Sienna, is Leah’s classmate and friend.

“She’s just a great kid,” Simo said of Leah. “Always did everything with a smile, whether you saw her in the morning, in the afternoon or night. You noticed her because she was always smiling and hustling and leading the chants in the dugout.”

On March 5, Leah inexplicably fell silent after experiencing neck pain and numbness in her limbs. Her mother, Abby Hansen, took Leah to Morristown Medical Center, where a ventilator saved Leah’s life after she stopped breathing.

"Three weeks after the worst day, she (was) breathing with a small breathing mask, and able to take breaks from the breathing mask to talk with us and eat,” Abby previously told MyCentralJersey.com. “We feel like the luckiest parents in the world.”

Over the last few weeks, Leah, who was transferred earlier this month to PSE&G Children’s Specialized Hospital in New Brunswick, has continued to improve. She’s working hard with physical and occupational therapists, but still has a lengthy road to recovery. Abby recently posted a short video on her public Facebook page of Leah standing, flashing that sustained smile, and “dancing” to a Disney Chanel video. Abby wrote, “Pray for her arms (left is still paralyzed and right has little strength and range of motion).”

Simo said Leah’s parents are religious and “the faith and the strength that they’ve showed is pretty resounding. I think people have fed off the fact that they’ve been so positive and that they’ve been so upbeat. You see videos of Leah just kind of fighting through this thing.

“She definitely kind of has this resilience that I admire in such a young child,” Simo said. “To see just a grit and determination that she has to get better.”

With many in the softball community across the state wanting to help and inspire Leah, the sport served as a natural conduit.

Simo and Jaime Falvey, a former Watchung Hills softball player and Leah’s coach for the Long Hill Twisters, organized the benefit softball game for Leah at Diamond Nation. Supporters filled the stands, wearing red shirts with the words “Strong Like A Girl” – one of Leah’s favorite sayings – emblazoned on the front. The backs of the shirts were adorned with Leah’s last name and jersey number. Several spectators held signs wising Leah well.

Since it was a scrimmage, both Summit and Watchung Hills were allowed to wear shirts in their school colors with Hansen’s name and number on the back. Peter, a volunteer youth softball coach in Long Hill, brought his three younger children to the game. Leah’s brother Timmy, a first-grader, threw out the first pitch to Summit senior Taylor Thompson.

Thompson later approached Simo and, according to the coach, said, “That was one of the most nerve-racking, yet most rewarding experiences I ever had – catching the first pitch from a family going through what they’re going through.”

Afterward, Peter addressed both teams. Leah and her mom were able to witness some of the day’s events unfold through FaceTime including those in attendance chanting, “We love Leah.”

“It was pretty cool,” Simo said.

Leah’s story has touched many outside her hometown. When the Rutgers softball team learned of Leah’s condition, the Scarlet Knights sent her a softball and poster, each of which the entire team autographed, a Rutgers shirt, a Rutgers cap and several other items in a gift bag bearing the state university’s trademark block “R”.

"The Rutgers softball family is pulling for Leah during her brave battle," said Jay Nelson, the Scarlet Knights' 12th-year head coach.

"Softball has been such an important part of all of our lives, so it was wonderful to brighten up one softball player's day during a tough time. It puts everything in perspective. We are fortunate to suit up and play a game we love each day, and we're rooting for Leah to suit up and get back to bat very soon."

Representatives from Diamond Nation, a state-of-the-art 65-acre softball and baseball complex, which features the Jennie Finch Softball Academy and Finches’ Aces, travel teams named after the two-time U.S. Olympian, arranged for the 2004 gold- and 2008 silver-medalist to autograph a pink softball and USA jersey for Leah.

"Leah Hansen is part of the softball community and that makes her a teammate of all of us who love the sport," Diamond Nation general manager Nick Massari said.

"More importantly, her courageous efforts in battling this illness makes Leah an example, a role model, for all of our Finch's Aces players to emulate. We are happy to hear Jennie's signed ball and jersey gave Leah a thrill."

Varsity softball players across the Union County Conference are expected to continue to extend the display of support, wearing the helmet decals. Mike Frauenheim, a sales representative from Riddell, who services high schools throughout the state, arranged for his sports equipment company to donate the decals in Leah’s honor. Frauenheim and Riddell have a long history of donating for a cause, including providing helmet decals for high school football players to wear statewide following former Rutgers and Colonia football star Eric LeGrand’s catastrophic injury and following Warren Hills quarterback Evan Murray’s tragic death.

Gus Kalikas, the conference’s president and athletics director at Arthur L. Johnson High School in Clark, contacted the league’s member schools, who were quickly on board. He called the show of solidarity for Leah “a no-brainer,” adding the response conference-wide has been positive.

“The coaching fraternity realizes things like this kind of transcend the sport, and are always willing to do whatever it is – a sort of a show of solidarity when a family is hurting like this or when there’s opportunity to help somebody,” Kalikas said. “When you think about it, it’s really what athletics is supposed to be. It’s a tool to teach empathy and to teach life lessons to these kids that they won’t get in a classroom setting. I know our coaches really believe that. Now, don’t get me wrong, we’re competitors and want to win, but as a father and as a parent you hear about stuff like this and it really has a way of putting everything in perspective.”

That’s what Simo has discovered in his Summit players. They made and signed a poster that joins the other memorabilia from the Rutgers softball team and Jennie Finch that are all displayed in Leah’s hospital room. Simo’s players wear bracelets bearing Leah’s name and her “Strong Like A Girl” mantra.

“They rallied around it,” Simo said. “They’ve asked how they could help in other ways. They ask about her at practice. They’ve stayed aware of what’s going on. I share with them some things. It kind of gives us something a little extra to play for and my girls have been great. They were like ‘Coach, anything we can do for her or for her family, we’ll do it.’”

After all, Leah is one of them.

Staff Writer Andy Mendlowitz: amendlowitz@gannettnj.com; on Twitter: @andy_mendlowitz