Coach’s nephew’s fight with cancer inspires Iowa field hockey

IOWA CITY — Each time Iowa field hockey plays at Grant Field, an 8-year-old named Peter clenches a wooden rosary from the Holy Land almost 1,000 miles away.

“That’s the one he goes to bed with every night and uses as he watches Hawkeye games,” said his father, Dan Cellucci.

The Hawkeyes are more than just a Big Ten field hockey team to Peter Cellucci, and for the Hawkeyes, Peter is more than just an 8-year-old in a Philadelphia suburb.

He’s their inspiration.

“He’s very close to us,” Big Ten Player of the Year Anthe Nijziel said. Along with the usual motivation to win, Nijziel and her teammates also “want to do it for him.”

On an unseasonably-warm 57-degree day last December, Peter received the chilling news no kid wants to hear. He was diagnosed with medulloblastoma, a fast-growing form of brain cancer most commonly found in children.

Knowing how important Peter is to his aunt, Iowa head coach Lisa Cellucci, fifth-year senior Ellie Holley said the team wanted to help.

So they dedicated the 2021 season to Peter.

“Definitely it’s like that — ‘What am I fighting for?’” Holley said.

In the 11-plus months since the diagnosis, Iowa has been “frequently moving us to tears,” Dan said.

Peter is approaching the diagnosis like he’s "going for the championship, just like them,“ except his opponent is cancer instead of Michigan or Northwestern.

“The players have been encouraging him and really cheering him on like he’s competing as well,” Dan said. “Which makes it feel less like he’s an 8-year-old with cancer, but more like he’s on the team with them.”

Lisa Cellucci noticed the support “brings a smile to his face all the time.”

Peter can’t board a commercial flight to see Iowa at Grant Field because of his health, but the team has made Peter feel closer than 945 miles away.

Peter loves platypuses, so fifth-year senior Maddy Murphy, who is from the Australian state Tasmania, named a platypus that lives in her backyard “Peter.”

“They took these pictures of him and sent them to Peter,” Dan said. “He just thought that was like the coolest thing in the world — that there’s this platypus named Peter in Australia.”

When Murphy was growing up, her father often read the book “Peter Pan” to her.

“So she sent Peter the very-worn, very-special copy of ‘Peter Pan’ that her dad would read to her,” Dan said as he teared up. “Those are things you hold onto all your life, so for her to share that … that’s so special.”

Fifth-year senior Nikki Freeman and her family sent him “basically like a care kit,” Dan said, because Peter “has a lot of time unfortunately to spend there (at the hospital) with not a lot to do.”

Alumni have sent cards, Lego sets and other items “out of the blue.”

“Those types of things are just mind-blowing to get,” Dan said. “They always seem to come in the moments when we needed them.”

The team honored Peter ahead of its Sept. 26 game at Grant Field.

“I was, like, half-tempted to rent an RV and try to drive us out there,” Dan said. “But better minds prevailed. I would probably not survive 13 hours in a car with children for two days.”

With the family wisely watching on TV instead, the team wore “Peter Rocks!” warmup shirts and later held up signs that spelled out the phrase, too.

Iowa's field hockey team holds signs spelling, “Peter Rocks!” in support of Peter Cellucci, who is fighting cancer, on Sunday, September 26, 2021. (Photo courtesy of Stephen Mally/hawkeyesports.com)

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Sophomore M.J. McNary’s family painted a picture of the team holding up the signs and framed it for Peter.

“He has it hanging up in his room,” Dan said. “It’s something that he looks at and makes him smile a whole lot.”

Peter gives a lot back to his Aunt Lisa and her team, too, including “perspective.”

“I’m a die-hard competitor, and sometimes I can lose sight of what’s most important, so he helps put those things in perspective,” Lisa Cellucci said.

What Peter can do amid treatments is a “day-to-day kind of decision,” his father said.

He felt good on Oct. 1, though, so after a 90-minute car ride, Peter finally met his team ahead of the game at Rutgers.

“It was just so emotional to have heard so much about him and then to finally see him, and see him so excited to see us,” Iowa junior Esme Gibson said.

Peter “thought he was like the King of England” around the team, his aunt said with a smile. The reunion brought some players, including Nijziel, to tears.

Iowa’s season dedicated to Peter will enter another stage when the Hawkeyes host NCAA Tournament games for the first time since 1998. A win on Friday against American (noon, BTN+) and Sunday against Northwestern or North Carolina (1 p.m., BTN+) would send them to the Final Four.

Peter will be on their minds, and his father knows Peter will have his rosary ready.

“We want to make him proud,” Lisa Cellucci said.

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