Cortland Sports Information Department

Nick Marola, the starting shortstop for the Cortland baseball team, has been honored as a recipient of the 2024 SUNYAC Award of Valor. The award, which originated in 2003, is presented to those who have used perseverance, dedication and determination to overcome a life-altering event, and whose ability to overcome obstacles has served as an inspiration to others.
 
Marola was recognized by the conference and the SUNYAC Governing Body, along with the other 2024 award recipients, at the SUNYAC Awards Banquet in Syracuse on June 3.
 
A fitness development major, Marola is from Saratoga, N.Y., and is a 2019 graduate of Scotia-Glenville High School. He joined the Cortland program last fall after playing at UMass Lowell in 2020 and 2021 and at Coker University in 2023.
 
Marola chose to have his cheek swabbed at a NMDP (formerly the National Marrow Donor Program) event while a student at Coker. He later was identified as a match for a 45-year-old leukemia patient and father, and during the early portion of the 2024 baseball season at Cortland he had to go through a lengthy process to make a bone marrow blood donation.
 
The procedure included injections, necessary to boost his stem cell count, that had to be administered an hour and a half drive away from the team's hotel during the Red Dragons' spring break trip to California in March, limiting his playing time during the week. The process continued with blood draws when he returned to New York.
 
Marola was able to play the remainder of the season for the Red Dragons. He especially shined during the SUNYAC tournament in early May, batting .571 (8-for-14) with three homers, two doubles, three walks, eight RBI and eight runs scored and earning a spot on the conference all-tournament team.
 
"I'm hoping what I went through allows me to spread more awareness about the NMDP," Marola said. "With the help of SUNYAC Commissioner Tom DiCamillo, I'd like to see more testing done on other SUNY campuses."
 
The Cortland football team has run bone marrow drives since 2009 through the Andy Talley Bone Marrow Foundation and their "Get in the Game" initiative, which is spearheaded by college football programs across the country. Since 2021, Cortland's program has added more than 1,200 people to the registry and has resulted in nine donors, including most recently Red Dragon offensive lineman Jon Kabes from Honeoye Falls, N.Y., a senior on Cortland's 2023 national championship team. Kabes was a donor this past March.