‘Zaching,’ ESPN and Fame for Ellicott City Teen Fighting Cancer

The College GameDay video that recently aired on ESPN tells the story of a hometown hero whose brave fight against cancer has gone national: Zach Lederer.

After conquering childhood cancer, Lederer, 18, from Ellicott City, recently learned he had a fight ahead of him again. On Jan. 25, surgeons at Johns Hopkins had removed a cancerous tumor from his brain, but some of it remained.

Lederer’s story, first , has sparked attention of local and national news outlets across the country.

The inspiration behind all this press? The now famous "Zaching" pose, a muscleman gesture first made by Maryland freshman Lederer as he recuperated from brain cancer surgery in late January.

He that he thought at the time, “If I make these muscles and show everyone how strong I am right now, they’ll stop worrying about me and think, ‘Oh he’ll be great.’”

Hundreds, if not thousands, have made this same pose and have posted pictures of it on social media outlets in support of Lederer and others battling cancer.

The Centennial High School graduate is one of the University of Maryland basketball team's student managers.

“Zach is tough,” said Maryland Head Coach Mark Turgeon to ESPN. “If my team was as tough as Zach, we’d be a lot better.”

A T-shirt giveway at a recent Maryland game in honor of Lederer garnered headlines in the Washington Post, NBC Washington and , to name a few.

He was also recently asked to speak at his alma mater, Centennial High School, about the positive power of social media, according to Explore Howard.

Want to learn more about Zach Lederer, Zaching and how to participate and raise money for cancer research?

- Follow Lederer on Twitter: @Zleds (these are his own tweets)

- Find him on Wikipedia

- To purchase ‘Zaching’ T-shirts, with proceeds going towards the Zaching Against Cancer Fund, which offers support to cancer patients and funding for cancer research, contact Carleigh at Cbenton1@umd.edu

- Follow Zaching Against Cancer on Facebook.

- Submit your Zaching photo to zaching27@gmail.com

- Follow the Tumblr page to see Howard County residents and people around the world Zaching.