COLLEGE PARK — The season opener for Maryland football is still more than three months away. But in the eyes of Ethan Gough, the 2025 campaign began with a victory.
That is how the Terps long snapper felt after he and about 45 of his teammates hosted a “Football Field of Dreams” on Wednesday afternoon for 100 individuals with disabilities inside the Jones-Hill House on campus.
“This is better than a win in my book,” the redshirt senior said. “I’m on top of the world right now.”
Tony Gionfriddo, executive director of the Beautiful Lives Project which partnered with Maryland to run the event, called it a success.
“For one day, the participants feel like they’re part of the team, and due to their limitations, they never really have that opportunity,” he said. “I always say that I put my right hand out and say here are the people with disabilities and on my left hand are the people who are fortunate enough not to have disabilities, and then we just try to bring them together for that day.”
The event was a result of a collaboration between Maryland and the Beautiful Lives Project, an organization that, according to its mission statement, “gives people with disabilities the opportunity to actively participate in activities and events that might not have been available to them previously due to physical or facility limitations.”
The organization has coordinated similar events in conjunction with the football teams at Boston College, Central Connecticut State, LIU and Michigan State and will work with Syracuse and Yale for the first time this offseason. Bryce Weiler, co-founder of the Beautiful Lives Project with Anthony Iacovone and the group’s advocacy officer, said he contacted former Terps associate head coach and special teams coordinator Ron Zook in 2022, and Zook said coach Michael Locksley would be interested in hosting a “Football Field of Dreams.”
Weiler, a play-by-play broadcaster and former Orioles disability consultant who is blind after being born four months premature and developing an eye condition called retinopathy, credited Maryland officials — especially Annie Peppard, director of football operations, and Alex Kramer, coordinator of football operations and player development — with investing in the event.
“They’ve been really caring and considerate, and they’ve asked a lot of good questions, which we don’t mind,” he said. “Normally, we don’t get asked multiple times, ‘Is this OK?’ Normally, we tell them, ‘This is what we do, and you can do what you want,’ and they say, ‘OK, we’ll set it up.’ But Maryland has been good with that.”
On Wednesday, 87 adults from ARCs throughout the state and 13 children from The Kennedy School of the Catholic Charities Education Center in Washington spent almost 90 minutes running through six stations inside Jones-Hill House, the team’s indoor facility on campus. The participants tried hitting targets with their passes, kicking balls off tees and taking part in relays.
Two of the more popular stations involved tackling a giant padded circle and returning an interception for a touchdown and spiking the ball in the end zone. Senior cornerback Jalen Huskey, sophomore linebacker Keyshawn Flowers (Spalding) and redshirt junior defensive lineman Samuel Adu celebrated every time a participant successfully tackled the pad.
On the opposite end of the field, redshirt freshman cornerback Braydon Lee, redshirt sophomore running back Nolan Ray and freshman safety Messiah Delhomme escorted each participant into the end zone and then danced, leaped or fell over when the football was spiked.
“We have kids and adults from different areas and different age groups,” said redshirt freshman defensive back Lloyd Irvin III, who volunteered at the interception exercise. “Over at my station, we were giving them simple agility drills, but we had an opportunity to do a unique touchdown celebration. They were out here expressing themselves, and kids were falling and having a great time.”
For Gough, the long snapper who headed the kicking station, the event was personally meaningful. He has an older cousin who has Down Syndrome but works full-time at The Choptank in Annapolis.
“Being able to grow up with him and just interact with him, this really reminds me of that experience and brings me back to that,” he said. “You can’t take the smiles off these faces. So being able to come out here and just have an amazing time with them, you can’t replace that.”
Maryland Sports Radio Network play-by-play announcer Johnny Holliday said he was impressed when one of the participants booted a ball 35 yards off a tee.
“I said, ‘We’ve got to get you on scholarship.’ He said, ‘Sign me up. I’m ready to play,’” Holliday said with a laugh. “My fist is sore from all of the fist bumps I’ve gotten from that kid.”
In the current era of the transfer portal and Name, Image and Likeness revenue, college athletes tend to get painted by a broad brush. That is why Locksley found it refreshing to see players like quarterbacks Malik Washington (Spalding) and Justyn Martin helping participants put spirals on their throws, wide receiver Jalil Farooq showing them how to run routes and other players encouraging them at other stations.
“I got choked up walking around here,” Locksley said. “To walk through the door of our indoor facility here and see our players working with the Beautiful Lives Project, it was almost like, ‘Wow, there is still some good in college sports.’ All the things you hear about entitlement and money, this is what I remember college football to be about. It’s going back into the community that serves you, and it’s been really heartwarming for me to see.”
The awe was mutual. Shedrick Young, a teacher at the Kennedy School, said his students were wowed when they saw the indoor field.
“We got college kids to get them to show their true personalities,” he said. “They’re doing what quote-unquote regular people do. They’re out here having a great time. This is something they’re going to remember for the rest of their lives.”
Gionfriddo has a standard line about how if he leaves an event without goosebumps on his arms, he did not do his job. He had a different reaction after watching the Terps players and coaches host the adults and children.
“It was a great event. The players were fantastic, the participants all left with smiles,” he said, pausing as his voice swelled with emotion. “It turned out great.”
Have a news tip? Contact Edward Lee at eklee@baltsun.com, 410-332-6200 and x.com/EdwardLeeSun.
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