UNews - Mackenzie Rizos

Rizos' cancer ride a personal experience

trevor.kenney — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 16:44:02 +0000

Facing your own mortality at 13 years old can be a jarring experience. Mackenzie Rizos, goaltender for the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge Pronghorns women's hockey team, did just that – and then she turned into a positive.

Beset by an unexplained series of headaches that spawned two weeks of intensive testing at a Calgary hospital, Rizos feared she was facing a cancerous brain tumour. The tests would eventually prove to be negative and Rizos escaped unscathed, except for a lasting emotional scar.

"It was definitely one of the most trying emotional experiences of my life and in the end I was one of the lucky ones," she says, noting doctors told her that on average, the hospital saw three children per day diagnosed with cancer. "It gave me a lot of perspective and I knew one day I would try and find a way to give something to help fight the disease."

At the time, the thought was simply a broad idea but it came into focus last summer when Rizos created Mackenzie's Bike Across Canada for Cancer, a summer-long fundraising initiative that underscored her commitment to social responsibility.

"It seems to be a disease that no matter who you know, everyone has been touched in one way or another," she says. "It's all over the place and I wanted to do something to support all the people around me who have been fighting it and also try and give back in respects to my own experience and how lucky I was."

The Calgary native had just completed her first year at the U of L and taken a summer job with a Calgary sports store. She remembered her Central Memorial High School cross-country coach who had spent a summer biking across the country as well as the many Terry Fox runs for cancer she had participated in over the years. An idea was spawned to combine the two activities.

Rizos mapped out the distance from Victoria, B.C. to St. John's Newfoundland, some 7,400 kilometres, calculated how many days she'd have to ride over the summer and with a little arithmetic, determined a 70-kilometre-a-day ride, May 1 through Aug. 15, would hit her target.

She then told anybody and everybody she knew about her plan and implored them to make donations to the cancer foundation of their choice in support.

"I decided not to seek any sponsorship myself. People were asked to just directly donate and that way they could pick the organization they wanted to donate to. I basically told people what the cause was and left it up to them," says Rizos.

She has no idea how much money was actually raised but after starting a Facebook group to update people on her quest, more than 500 members tracked her progress.

"I'm sure in some ways if I had looked for more publicity, I could have raised more donations but it was more a private fight against cancer for me and my friends. Through Facebook it ended up being my friends and their friends," she says.
"The thing I found is that a lot of people want to help but don't really have an outlet to help and once you start creating these opportunities, you maybe inspire some people to help who normally would not have."

If you get the idea that Rizos gained perspective early in life, you'd be right. It's also one of the main reasons she chose to attend U of L, because she understood university was more than playing hockey and going to class.

"One of the really cool things that attracted me to the U of L was a sense of community. Everyone that I met when I came here was really supportive and went that extra mile to try and help me," says Rizos.
"One of the main things that come out of your university life is the connections and the friendships you make and when I looked at a place that would enable me to do that, Lethbridge was the top place, in my mind, that presented that positive atmosphere."

The U of L community, not to mention the Pronghorns, is that much stronger with Rizos in the fold.

GET THE FACTS

• Rizos is studying accounting in the Faculty of Management and was named an Academic All-Canadian in her first year

• Her initiative spawned other fundraising efforts from friends, including ride-along programs, donations per kilometre and one friend who elicited donations based on the amount of weights they lifted during workout sessions

• The ride was recognized with the Canada West Marion Hilliard student-athlete award

• Rizos reported back to the Pronghorns last fall in the best shape of her life, scoring her highest-ever grade on the VO2 max cardiovascular test and helping her gain a spot on the Canada West second all-star team this past season

• She is not reenacting her ride this summer but plans to find other ways to raise money to combat cancer in the future

Rizos recognized by Canada West

trevor.kenney — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 18:11:27 +0000

Mackenzie Rizos has become a well-known name around the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge campus by taking the term "student-athlete" to heart.

Rizos, the Pronghorns women's hockey team goaltender, earned a pair of honours this week and has been nominated for a national award thanks to her all-around ability. Named a second-team Canada West All-star for her on-ice performance this past season, the Calgary native is also the Canada West nominee for the Marion Hilliard student-athlete award.

"Mackenzie is a hard working student-athlete that strives to excel in her studies as well as in her sport," says Pronghorns head coach Chandy Kaip. "She is always asking questions and finding new ways to succeed on and off the ice. I look forward to her next three years, she will be a top contender each year for student-athlete as well as top goaltender in the Canada West."

Since her arrival at the U of L, Rizos, a second-year pre-management student, has been the consummate student-athlete. In three semesters she has a cumulative grade point average of 3.53 and was an Academic All-Canadian as a freshman. She was also the recipient of a Board of Governors Entrance Scholarship as well as a Jason Lang Scholarship Recipient, the post-secondary institute's nomination award for academic excellence.

She says her hard work in the classroom is matched by a willingness from ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ professors to be flexible with an athletes' unique needs.

"The profs here are really supportive. They find out you're a student-athlete and they try and make any accommodations for you that they can," she says. "Whether you are missing classes or tests, they've all been very helpful."

On the ice, Mackenzie has been a stalwart between the pipes and despite the Pronghorns missing the playoffs, earned Canada West Second Team All-Star status. She made 21 appearances for the Pronghorns this season and had a save percentage of .891.

Rizos also organized Mackenzie's Bike Across Canada for Cancer, in which she biked the equivalent distance from Victoria, B.C. to St. John's, Nfld., raising awareness and donations. Rizos helps out at numerous hockey camps and participates in the youth hockey day in Coaldale for youth recreational hockey.

Rizos is now a finalist for the national student-athlete award. Canadian Interuniversity Sport (CIS) will hand out the award at the 2009 national women's hockey championship, hosted by St. Francis Xavier ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ in Antigonish, N.S., Mar. 19-22.

Pronghorn pride shows in classroom

trevor.kenney — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 21:00:10 +0000

When members of the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge Pronghorns athletic program are referred to as student-athletes, the emphasis is almost always on the athlete. Each
academic year, however, a talented group of individuals is able to bring focus to the student part of the moniker and they are recognized as Canadian Interuniversity Sport Academic All-Canadians.
"We see this as a really special accomplishment," Sandy Slavin, Executive Director, Sport and Recreation Services, says. "We see how much time they put into their athletics, and I don't know if people appreciate that commitment. When you consider that and then factor in an 80 per cent average on their ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ, it really is a special achievement."
A total of 36 Pronghorn athletes made the grade for the 2007-08 academic year,
roughly 20 per cent of the entire athletic roster. For some it was a first appearance
on the list, while others, like swimmer Shannon Emerson, 2007-08 marked the culmination of five successive Academic All-Canadian seasons.
"I'm very proud to say that I was able to balance both, able to go to university, get great grades and still be successful in my swimming," Emerson (BFA/BEd), a
Lethbridge native who graduated in May, says.
"There is a lot to balance and it was hard to get used to at first. Looking back, I really think that being both an athlete and a student helped build great organizational and management skills, and that's something I carried on throughout my studies and now into my career."
Applying the discipline associated with being an athlete to studies is a consistent theme with many of the Pronghorns.
"Honestly, I find that when we're in our heavy season it's easier to find time to do all my studies because I have a structured framework for it," Pronghorns rugby player and management student Amanda Richardson says. "Now that the season is done I tend to procrastinate a little bit because I have that extra time, and in the end I'm more rushed."
Richardson, who hails from Olds, Alta., is proof that athletes can excel in both arenas. A member of the two-time CIS championship Pronghorns rugby squad, she has now earned her second Academic All-Canadian honour to go along with a Canada West all-star nod and CIS Tournament all-star recognition.
While the studentathletes do the heavy lifting to achieve their All-Canadian status, a framework of support that includes teammates, coaches and professors all helps the cause.
"The profs here at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge are really supportive," Pronghorns women's hockey goaltender and management student Mackenzie Rizos says. "They find out you're a student-athlete and they try and make any accommodations for you that they can. Whether you are missing classes or tests, they've all been very helpful."
It's also a pride thing amongst many of the teams. Rizos and her hockey teammates tied the women's soccer team for having the most All-Canadians on campus, with six apiece.
"Our team made it our goal to have a higher (combined) GPA this year," she says. "We have study hall and awards for people who do improve and I think it's great our team recognizes those who do accomplish that goal."
She's quick to put into perspective what being a student-athlete means.
"It's important to realize you are here to get a degree," Rizos, a Calgary native, says.
"The reality is that being a women's hockey player, you can't really make a career out of it, so it's nice to be able to play hockey and have it contribute to your academic experience and I'm lucky to be able to do that."

UNews - Mackenzie Rizos

Rizos' cancer ride a personal experience

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