Off The Ice

The University of Cincinnati hockey team recently battled it out on the ice to help out two families with children who battled cancer. The team participated in the University of South Florida Madison Goss and Friends Pediatric Cancer Awareness Tournament on Jan. 17 to raise money for the families' medical trust funds.

Madison Goss, known as Maddi, is a 3-year-old living in Atlanta who, at the time, was battling cancer when her uncle posted a Facebook message asking people to pray for his niece. General manager of the University of South Florida Ice Bulls, Colleen Hennessy spotted the message and wondered if there was more that could be done. She contacted Madison's father, Glenn, and asked if they could organize a hockey tournament for his daughter.

"She called us out of the blue," Glenn said. "[She told us,] 'we've helped out some other kids in the past, wondering if we could help Maddi out with medical costs."

Glenn assumed they were just going to be guests at the tournament, until he realized it was actually going to be named after her. "A tournament about Maddi?" Glenn said, remembering the surprise. "That was amazing for us."

Hennessy then convinced the UC team to take part in the tournament because she wanted a Big East school to compete. According to Ted Riolo, team goalie and club sports president, the team was worried they wouldn't be able to fit a trip to Florida in their budget.

Over the course of the fall, the team learned more about the tournament and realized it was for a good cause. "We need[ed] to go," Riolo said. "There [was] no doubt about it."

Maddi was only three years old when she was diagnosed with Stage IV Hepatoblastoma, the last stage of a rare form of cancer. She had a primary tumor on her liver and a secondary tumor that had spread to her lungs. There was only a one in a million chance of getting that type of cancer, according to Glenn, and Maddi was given a 25 percent chance of survival.

"We weren't given good odds," he said. "We kept praying. We're Christians and have strong faith."

They started chemotherapy the day after Christmas in 2006, and Maddi endured four rounds of chemo before the tumor on her lung "melted away," Glenn said.

Then Maddi was given a new liver from a deceased donor on in May 2007. After two more rounds of chemo, the cancer was gone. "They basically said there's no evidence of disease," Glenn said.

Back in Cincinnati, the UC team was already involved with a teddy bear toss for Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center. "We sell teddy bears at the game that people throw on the ice after goals," Riolo said. "Then we go and present them [at the hospital] later."

Keeping with the teddy bear theme, Riolo asked his sister, who worked at a Build-A-Bear Workshop, to make two bears to give to the kids - a figure skating bear for Madison and a hockey bear for Drew Kruszynski, a young boy battling Stage IV Neuroblastoma.

The team flew to Florida for five days - three days of hockey and two days of bonding with the team. They competed against Florida Atlantic and University of California Davis, losing to both teams. "To say we weren't successful is kind of a misrepresentation," Riolo said. "It was by no means a blowout. Just bad breaks. The teams we played were good teams."

Before their final game against USF, the team got to bond with Madison and her two brothers when they arrived at the ice rink. Drew had to miss the action because he had to receive treatment in New York City at the last minute, according to Riolo.

Maddi, however, was able to soak in all the attention. "She looked timid," Riolo said. "But she was having fun." Maddi even came into the team's locker room to meet the guys.

After the game, Maddi gave the guys high-fives. "That made it all worthwhile," Riolo said. "After losing three games, you'd think we'd be kind of down. I think a lot of guys felt the heartstrings being pulled. You could see the impact was really there."

She especially loved the teddy bear the team gave her. "Maddi snuggled with it all the way home," Glenn said. At the end of the weekend, she was calling all the teams and players, "my players, my teams," Glenn said. "[She and her brothers] just loved the attention the players gave. They soaked it up, as kids do. Makes them feel special."

According to Hennessy, the tournament has raised $7,300 to date from entry fees, tournament T-shirts and donations. This helps cover such costs as medical bills and co-pays, Glenn said.

Ted said they hope to return to the tournament next year if they are invited and plans to do more fundraising for the cause as well. "I think we will do more before to hype it up and fundraise," Riolo said. "This was really a good thing. We need to do more for this. We kind of underestimated how big the tournament was. It was fun, playing three good games of hockey for a good cause. The guys really responded to this a lot."

As for Maddi, the chances of the cancer reoccurring go down once she hits the one-year mark. "That's what we're hoping and praying for," Glenn said.

Maddi is still dealing with some side effects of the treatment. She lost hairs in her inner ear due to the radiation, making high-frequency sounds, like whistling, impossible to hear. She now wears a hearing aid and must take anti-rejection medicine the rest of her life because of her new liver.

"Those things said, we still have her," Glenn said. "That's just a huge thing for us. She's very special. She was one in a million just to get the disease. And she's conquered the disease really well."