James Fisher arrived for a recent meeting inside the Rutgers University women's soccer office, greeted Scarlet Knights coach Mike O'Neill with a hug, and pulled out a pamphlet with his son's picture on it.
"This,'' he said, "is therapy for me.''
Fisher recalled dropping off his son, Sean, for a recreational-league football practice on Aug. 25, 2013. It was Sean's 13th birthday. Fifteen minutes into warmups, Sean collapsed on the field. He was a victim of an undetected heart condition known as hypertrophic cardiomyopathy.
In the 9 1/2 years since the death of his only child, James Fisher has devoted his life to providing free screenings to rising high school freshmen in Bergen County through the Sean Fisher Memorial Foundation.