UNews - prostate cancer

Courtney, Steacy earn top honours

trevor.kenney — Tue, 31 May 2011 16:40:54 +0000

Pronghorns Athletics celebrated with its annual Blue and Gold Awards Banquet recently, announcing its Male and Female Athletes of the Year, President's Award winner, Team Academic Award, as well as the respective most valuable players for each program.

Male Athlete of the Year
Andrew Courtney (men's hockey)

Over his five seasons with the Pronghorns, Andrew Courtney not only excelled on the ice, but he was active in the community, embracing the true spirit of what it means to be a Pronghorns athlete.

He was known throughout the program as the first to support other Horns teams and is actively involved in the local community with the Boys and Girls Club. Courtney also planned and executed the highly successful Movember campaign that raised over $10,000 for prostate cancer research.

On the ice, Courtney returned from a serious knee injury to finish fourth in the conference in goal scoring, leading the Horns with 14 goals. He was also 13th in the Canada West in total scoring with 23 points, despite missing all of the pre-season and the first two weeks of conference action.

Courtney finished his Pronghorn career with 43 goals and 26 assists in 97 conference games.

Female Athlete of the Year
Heather Steacy (women's track)

Throughout her Pronghorns career, Heather Steacy has become synonymous with outstanding performances. This past season she raised her performance to an unprecedented level.

Steacy opened the season by reaching a monumental mark, becoming the first woman in Canadian Interuniversity Sport history to eclipse the 20-metre mark in the weight throw with a toss of 20.28 metres at the Bison Open in Winnipeg. She followed that performance with her fourth Canada West gold medal victory, setting a new conference record of 19.82 metres in the process. Steacy was also recognized with the Outstanding Female Performance of the Meet.

Steacy completed her season by then winning silver at the CIS Championship meet in Sherbrooke, Que., her fourth medal in as many trips to the national meet.

President's Award

Emily Brown of the women's track & field team earned the President's Award, which rewards the student athlete with the highest academic standing at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge. Brown achieved a GPA of 3.92, while balancing her academic and athletic commitments.

Team Academic Award

The Horns women's basketball team received the Team Academic Award for accumulating a combined GPA of 3.32.

Following are team most valuable players, as voted by their fellow team members.

Men's Soccer – Steve Brown
Women's Soccer – Kathy Curtis
Men's Hockey – Winston Day Chief and Andrew Courtney
Women's Hockey – Shelby Ballendine
Men's Basketball – Randy Davis
Women's Basketball – Becky Heninger
Men's Track – Kyle Murray
Women's Track – Heather Steacy
Women's Rugby – Kelsey Willoughby
Men's Swimming – Jeff Nicol
Women's Swimming – Jessica Kelly

This story first appeared in the Legend. For a look at the Legend in a flipbook format, follow this link.

Horns hand out year-end hardware

trevor.kenney — Mon, 16 May 2011 20:55:51 +0000

Male Athlete of the Year
Andrew Courtney (men's hockey)

Over his five seasons with the Pronghorns, Andrew Courtney not only excelled on the ice, but he was active in the community, embracing the true spirit of what it means to be a Pronghorns athlete.

Courtney finished his Pronghorn career with 43 goals and 26 assists in 97 conference games.

Female Athlete of the Year
Heather Steacy (women's track)

Throughout her Pronghorns career, Heather Steacy has become synonymous with outstanding performances. This past season she raised her performance to an unprecedented level.

Steacy completed her season by then winning silver at the CIS Championship meet in Sherbrooke, Que., her fourth medal in as many trips to the national meet.

President's Award

The Horns women's basketball team received the Team Academic Award for accumulating a combined GPA of 3.32.

Following are team most valuable players, as voted by their fellow team members.

For a look at the Legend in a flipbook format, follow this link.

Courtney and Horns celebrate Movember

trevor.kenney — Fri, 19 Nov 2010 17:09:52 +0000

It would be easy for Andrew Courtney to feel disillusioned about his five years with the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge Pronghorns men's hockey team. A laundry list of injuries has left Courtney in the trainer's room or on the operating table as much as he's been on the ice.

Yet, despite leaving his family, moving across the country and having only played 20 games over the last two seasons, Courtney is not only at peace with his circumstance, he's thankful. Now, the Belleville, Ont. native says he wants to give something back – and he'll do so by growing a moustache.

"I decided to come out here to continue playing hockey and to further my education, which was the dream growing up," says Courtney, the impetus behind the Horns' Movember initiative (donate by following this link). "My mom's a high school teacher, and she always preached to me how important it was to get an education. This was an opportunity to do that, and it's been the best move of my life."

Moustache members of the Horns men's hockey team (front row from left); Andrew Gilbert, Lucio Pucci-Daniele, Ryan Letts and Dan Iwanski; (Back row from left) Dustin Moore, Andrew Courtney and Reese St. Goddard.

Movember, a campaign that originated in Australia in 2003, draws attention to and raises funds for the fight against prostate cancer. Last year, 35,156 people in Canada took up the cause and raised $7.8 million for Prostate Cancer Canada.

The program itself is simple, grow a moustache, collect pledges and the fund grows. For Courtney, the cause is personal, on a number of levels.

"Both my uncle and my grandfather have had to face prostate cancer in recent years and luckily for them, they caught it early and everything is well," says Courtney.

"In my five years, we really haven't done anything like this as a team. This is a way for me to say thank you to Lethbridge and the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge for welcoming me into the community. I just wanted to give something back and try and get the community a little more involved with Pronghorns Athletics."

The Horns have been growing their mustaches since returning from a pre-season trip to Colorado, and are now selling tickets for a raffle that features a Los Angeles Kings jersey signed by the entire Kings team, as well as a Molson prize pack. The raffle will be drawn Nov. 20 at the Horns' home game against ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Regina Cougars. That night, all proceeds from the 50-50 draw will go to Prostate Cancer Canada, along with the raffle proceeds and money raised from a special promotion that sees U of L President Dr. Mike Mahon shooting pucks into the net between periods. As well, the team will be wearing special Pronghorns jerseys that will be available through silent auction, again with the proceeds to be donated.

"I didn't know how the team would react to this, but they've been great," says Courtney, a kinesiology major. "All the guys are growing their mustaches – some better than others – and now it's just a matter of selling tickets and getting as many people to the game as we can."

Pronghorns forward Andrew Courtney displays the special edition jerseys that will be part of a silent auction at Saturday's Movember night at Nicholas Sheran Arena.

Courtney played 37 games his first season at the U of L, before being limited to just 26 games the next because of an ankle injury. In his third year, shoulder and knee problems would limit his participation to just five games. Last season, Courtney was off to a blazing start, scoring 13 goals in the team's first 15 games to lead the conference. Unfortunately, he blew out his knee just prior to the Christmas break and was lost for the rest of the year.

"At the beginning it was really stressful and depressing," he says of the eight-month rehabilitation process following the anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction surgery. "Having the support of the guys, my family and friends, was huge. They helped me get through this process, this long road, and without them I couldn't have done it."

It's why he wants to say thanks to southern Alberta. That it might lead to helping any number of men in the long run is an added bonus.

"Coming here, I didn't know anyone other than Steve (Zmudczynski) and we were the only guys from Ontario on the team," says Courtney. "As the years have gone on and I've met more people, I've really been accepted as just another member of the community. It's been overwhelming to experience that."

GET THE FACTS

· Courtney played Junior A Tier II hockey in Trenton, Ont. before his final season of eligibility, when he played for the Ontario Hockey League's Niagara Falls Thunder.

· He has had three knee surgeries on the same knee in the last 18 months, two arthroscopic procedures and a total ACL reconstruction.

· Movember raffle tickets are available from Horns hockey players or in the Horns Athletics office (PE210).

· Courtney scored a power play goal against ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Manitoba, Oct. 29. It was his first game in 11 months following knee surgery.

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