The William Smith College soccer team will host Clarkson on Saturday, Oct. 24 for a Liberty League game on Cozzens Field at 3 p.m. The Heron soccer team encourages fans to wear purple to support their Team IMPACT teammate Courtney Wagner as she battles brain cancer.
 
Wagner, a native of Farmington, N.Y., whose favorite color is purple, became Heron soccer's teammate in the spring of 2012. She has been a driving force for the Heron soccer team and even traveled with William Smith to the NCAA Championship Round in 2013 in San Antonio, watching the Herons capture the national title.
 
In September 2011, on the second day of her first year of high school, Wagner was diagnosed with a stage 4 glioblastoma, an aggressive malignant brain tumor. Since then she has continued her battle with cancer.
 
While in high school, Wagner was not able to play sports frequently and she had not appeared in a basketball game in her senior season, until Senior Night, when she scored the first points of the game at Canandaigua Academy. Her story inspired many. Afterwards, family and friends started a push across social media to get Wagner to meet her favorite talk show host, Ellen DeGeneres. Through the help of the community and through extra efforts of her William Smith soccer teammates, the hashtag #GetCourtneytoEllen spread across social media outlets and got the attention of The Ellen Show. Wagner graduated from Canandaigua Academy in the spring of 2015 and enrolled at William Smith College as a member of the Class of 2019 at the start of this semester, until her cancer forced her to move back home.
 
Team IMPACT not only allowed Wagner to realize a dream of being on a college soccer team, it also deeply impacted her Heron teammates. While she isn't on the field scoring goals for William Smith, her contributions account for so much more.
 
Courtney's mom recently posted on her Facebook page entitled Courtney Kicking Cancer, "We are surrounded by love and we thank all of you.  Please extend the kindness you have shown to us to someone with a quieter, less public story.  We all have a story, we all struggle, and we can all use a kind word or deed.  I bet you know someone who needs a hand.  Please offer it.  Courtney would be happy if others felt the love we feel." 
 
Use the hashtag #Support4Court to share words of encouragement for Courtney, to share her message and get everyone coming out to Cozzens Field on Saturday to wear purple.