DALEVILLE, Va. – Every team has that one fan who knows every player’s name, their stats and never misses a game.
For Lord Botetourt High School, that’s Perry Fisher.
“It’s not only basketball, it’s volleyball, it’s football, I come to all of them,” he said.
But the girls basketball team might be his favorite, “I started 16 years ago. They had this girl named Nicci Moats playing here, I heard a lot about her and wanted to come see her and I got hooked.”
And that was around the time now head coach Renee Favaro was on the team.
“I met Mr. Fisher probably when I was a senior in high school,” she said. “That’s when he started coming to the girls basketball games.”
“We know no matter how far we go, he’s going to be in the stands. He’s going to be cheering because he invests in us as a team and invests in the girls as individuals. I know that means a lot to them,” Favaro added.
He invests so much, that when the seniors heard Fisher was undergoing chemo for his second fight against cancer, they decided to do something special.
“Kenleigh said, ‘Hey I would like to talk to you about something.’ So I said, 'Sure, come down to my room.’ She said, ‘Would you be okay if we went to one of Perry’s chemo treatments?’ I said, ‘I think that’s a wonderful idea.’ It really touched my heart. I thought, ‘Wow, what good girls,’" said Favaro.
“It really shocked me but it lifted me up big time,” Fisher said. “They’re just an amazing bunch.”
“He was really surprised. He said we were the last people he would have thought would show up,” senior Miette Veldman said. “He was really appreciative and I think he was really happy to see us.”
And Fisher, who calls his trips to follow the Cavaliers therapeutic, made one thing clear, “I enjoy coming down here and I plan on doing it as long as I can.”