AINSWORTH - Jenna Waters is used to having hospital procedures. That's because the young girl from Ainsworth is battling cancer. Hawkeye quarterback Ricky Stanzi has been a good friend to Jenna during her fight. But Stanzi has received just as much inspiration from Jenna and a little pink power.

Jenna Waters is a four-year-old you can't forget. She knows more than she should about Hawkeye football. She makes you laugh because she says exactly what she's thinking. But what's most memorable is how someone this small finds the strength to fight a serious illness.

“She is very feisty. She has a lot of attitude,” says Jenna’s mother Christina Waters. Even cancer can't keep Jenna from having fun with her older brother Bryce and twin sister Katelyn.

"If she had hair, you wouldn't know she was sick,” says Jared Waters, Jenna’s father.

Eleven months ago, Jenna was diagnosed with a rare form of liver cancer called Embraynol Hepatoblastoma. "When they drew a picture and said this is what her liver looks like, it was quite shocking,” says Jared.

"We know what Stage IV cancer means. I didn't ask for a prognosis,” says Christina.

Christina and Jared knew their daughter would have to fight for her life. "She was weighing 16 pounds at just four years old. She was just skin and bones. There was nothing to her,” says Christina.

Family and friends are always in and out of Jenna's hospital rooms, but none of her visitors compare to a few strangers she met last spring at University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics. "That was the first time she smiled all day, when those five walked into the room,” says Christina. The Iowa football players, Ricky Stanzi, A.J. Edds, Tony Moeaki, Jeff Tarpinian, and Brett Morse, instantly won over Jenna's heart. That's when Hawkeye football became just as important as princesses and the color pink to Jenna. "Ever since then, had a love for them,” says Christina.

Many hospital visits later, Jenna still has her favorite football team close by her side. She's never without her Hawkeye pillowcase or autographed Iowa football. Jenna's hospital visits are full of Hawkeye spirit, especially since UIHC is literally right across the street from Kinnick Stadium, where Jenna's beloved Hawkeyes play their home games. "She's probably our favorite fan. We love the support she has for us, and how much she looks up to the team,” says Iowa Quarterback Ricky Stanzi.

Jenna keeps in touch with her football players, but she has a particular fondness for Iowa's starting quarterback. "She likes her Ricky, that's for sure,” says Christina. The feeling is mutual. Ricky talks with Jenna and her family almost daily, and he gets a text picture of Jenna in her Hawkeye gear before every game.

"He is more than a football player, and we are more than fans. He's been kind of part of our family,” says Christina.

Ricky is the reason Jenna often wears a Batman shirt. She says he likes Batman. Ricky always wears something that reminds him of Jenna, even on the football field. "Jenna's mom made them, and they say “Pray for Princess Jenna,” says Ricky.

Ricky sports three of Jenna's pink bracelets and never takes them off. "He likes to wear his pink bracelets. It brings him pink power,” says Christina.

To a player so devoted to black and gold, Ricky gets inspiration from the color pink. "We can learn from a girl who is only four years old because of the things she does in her own life, the way she puts up a fight,” says Ricky.

Jenna has fought through 13 rounds of chemotherapy, a few surgeries, and a liver transplant. She's gone from Stage IV cancer to taking baby steps back to her normal routine. "That is how she has fought and won. She has this feisty attitude that she is never going to give up,” says Christina. Jenna's feisty attitude is something her Hawkeye football players don't forget.

Jenna has to have a few more tests and a CT scan before doctors can officially say she is in remission. The Waters family hopes that happens by January 16, the one year anniversary of when Jenna was diagnosed with cancer. Hawkeye hype rules the Waters’ household, even though Jenna's father Jared is an Iowa State alum.