Syracuse Football: Two new walk-ons join Orange, one with amazing story

During the 10-minute open portion of practice this morning, Stephen Bailey of syracuse.com reported among other things that two new walk-ons have joined the team for the 2016 season.

The first walk-on is RB Winston Lee (#32), a senior who finished fifth in the 60 meter sprint at the ACC Indoor Track and Field Championship this past winter with a time of 6.77 seconds. He also finished third in that event at the Marc Deneault Invitational and sixth at the Armory Track Invitational. In the spring, he placed seventh in the 100 meter sprint at the ACC Outdoor Track and Field Championship with a time of 10.47 seconds.

The second walk-on is P/K Nolan Cooney (#92), a freshman who comes off of a post-graduate year at Bridgton Academy (Maine). Other than having the privilege of donning the number of former Heisman candidate and current Denver Broncos punter Riley Dixon, he brings with him an amazing backstory. A three-sport athlete in high school, Cooney received an unfortunate diagnosis of testicular cancer during the winter of his junior year. After surgery to remove cancerous tissue and nine weeks of chemotherapy to attack tumors that had developed in his lungs, he was cleared to return to sports. Not too long after, his cancer went into remission.

Before his senior year, he was named the top overall regional prospect at a Ray Guy Prokicker.com camp, despite the fact he never even suited up to play football at East Greenwich (RI) High School. This lead him to take a post-grad year at Bridgton, which eventually led him to Syracuse.