Jim Harbaugh extended a scholarship offer to a 2nd grader who is recovering from leukemia
Jim Harbaugh may have just extended the most important scholarship offer of his coaching career at Michigan, and it wasn’t to any five-star prospects in the 2021 class. The Wolverines head coach has his sights set on something much bigger.
This week, Harbaugh made a call to second-grade student Sebastiano (Yanno) Fidone in Council Bluffs, Iowa. The youngster is recovering from leukemia and received the special call on Tuesday.
Sebastiano is cousins with four-star tight end Thomas Fidone, who has been heavily recruited by Michigan and is one of the top 100 prospects in the 2021 recruiting class, per 247Sports. In a Facebook post on Tuesday night, Sebastiano’s mother Melissa talked about the conversation.
“During the video chat, they asked Yanno to flex,” she wrote. “He did and Coach Harbaugh immediately offered him a scholarship. Now that he offered, he can’t send him a Michigan football T-shirt because of NCAA gifting rules.
“He told Yanno a scholarship is better than a t-shirt in the long run anyway.”
According to MLive.com, Sebastiano was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia in December 2015, when he was just four years old. He had been receiving daily chemotherapy treatments until February 2019. Sebastiano’s mother also says that her son has been off treatment for a little over a year and is scheduled to have an appointment later this month to check on his remission.
We can’t wait to see Sebastiano wearing the maize and blue in a few years.