It’s well known that Mizzou’s mascot is the fierce tiger, personified by the beloved Truman. However, it was a person, not a mascot that motivated the Mizzou women’s golf team at their home tournament Oct. 3-4 — a special six year-old named Rhyan Loos.
As big as an impact that collegiate athletics have on the community, there sometimes is an expectation that comes with their position to serve the community. For Mizzou women’s golf, a unique opportunity arose to serve the community through Rally for Rhyan, a campaign organized by assistant men’s basketball coach Brad Loos and his family to raise funds for pediatric cancer treatment, inspired by his daughter Rhyan’s fight with pediatric cancer.
The Tigers hosted their lone home tournament of the season, the Johnie Imes Invitational, at the Club at Old Hawthorne in Columbia. They dedicated the tournament to raising funds for Rally for Rhyan. Coach Stephanie Priesmeyer, in an interview with ABC 17, discussed what went into the decision to partner with Rally for Rhyan.
“I was on Facebook about a month and a half ago,” Priesmeyer said. “I read a blog post from a mom who lost her 3-year-old daughter to cancer. Her main message was that we have enough awareness of pediatric cancer, but now it’s time to take action.”
For Coach Priesmeyer, it was easy to find where she could have an impact.
“Immediately I called Brad and Jen [Loos], and told them we can take action with the Johnie Imes Invitational,” Priesmeyer said. “I made it clear that we can incorporate it with our tournament and emphasized that this is something we wanted to do and be a part of as a team and as a program.”
She said this was an opportunity to take action rather than just spread awareness.
“We just thought, it’s really important that we go beyond just thinking and praying for people,” Priesmeyer said. “Everybody needs thoughts, everybody needs prayers, but we do need action.”
Coach Loos expressed his thanks and provided an update on Rhyan’s condition.
“Rhyan is doing great, we’re very fortunate,” Loos said. “Two months ago we couldn’t have said that, and she’s received effective treatment. Right now, she’s just a regular little kid going to school, which is really great to see.”
The Rally for Rhyan campaign has raised over $300,000 in over a year. About $200,000 has already been donated to research initiatives, according to Loos.
“We really started making a push to raise money last January,” Loos said. “I wish I could say it was me or my wife or Rhyan, who does have a big part of it, who got it going, but it’s really about people like [Coach Priesmeyer] and the rest of the team who take an interest in our cause and really make it great.”
Loos said there is gap between research of pediatric cancer and adult cancers.
“Pediatric cancer research really is ridiculously underfunded,” Loos said. “There’s a $5,000,000 budget for cancer research in the United States, but only 4 percent of that goes to pediatric cancer research in particular.”
The tournament was a success financially and athletically. The Tigers went on to win for the first time in the 2016 season, and all 16 participating schools contributed monetarily by sponsoring pediatric cancer patients from different areas across the country.
“It means the world to me to win this one,” senior Jess Meek said. “I think it’s something that’s great to fight for not just for Rhyan, but for every kid battling cancer. It’s something that we can be really proud to be associated with.”
_Edited by Theo DeRosa | tderosa@themaneater.com_