League Renames Award in Memory of Mandi Schwartz
ALBANY, N.Y. -- The league office announced today it is
re-naming its annual women’s Student-Athlete of the Year
Award, the Mandi Schwartz Student-Athlete of the Year Award
honoring the former Yale women’s ice hockey player who
inspired so many in her bout with leukemia.
Each year the league presents one of the major postseason awards
to a student-athlete, which excels in the classroom, participates
in fifty percent of the team’s games, and demonstrates
leadership on and off the ice. Each head coach nominates a
student-athlete and a committee made up of school administrators
has the task of selecting the recipient.
Mandi Schwartz (1988-2011) was a forward on Yale's women's hockey
team and had a string of 73 consecutive games played. She was known
as a player with tenacity and spirit, as well as a caring friend.
But in the fall of 2008, during her junior year, her teammates
noticed that the usually hard-working Schwartz seemed to be
chronically tired and struggling to keep pace on the ice.
On Dec. 8, 2008, Mandi was diagnosed with of form of cancer (acute
myeloid leukemia). She returned home to Saskatchewan for treatment.
On Jan. 8, 2010, after five rounds of strong chemotherapy treatment
and 130 days in the hospital put her in remission allowing her to
return to Yale for the spring semester. She was planning to return
to playing hockey in the 2010-11 season, but in April of 2010 she
learned that the cancer had returned.
In an effort to save her life, Mandi received a stem cell
transplant in September 2010 at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research
Center in Seattle. But a biopsy in December 2010 revealed that the
cancer had returned. She passed away on Apr. 3, 2011 at the age of
23.
On the last home weekend of women’s play at each ECAC Hockey
school, the Mandi Schwartz Student-Athlete of the Year Finalists
will be recognized pre-game on the ice as part of each
program’s senior weekend. This will begin this weekend as
Clarkson and St. Lawrence cap off their regular-season home
schedules.
Mandi’s struggle with leukemia energized thousands of people
to volunteer to be bone marrow donors. Yale Athletics remains
active in helping to fight the battle against cancer by hosting its
annual Mandi Schwartz Marrow Donor Registry Drive along with its
annual "White Out for Mandi" in Mandi's memory.
The Mandi Schwartz Foundation (www.mandi17.org) has been created
with a mission to provide immediate and ongoing support to youth
hockey players with cancer. Its goals are to embody Mandi’s
courage and spirit, to raise awareness and create catalytic and
self-sustaining support systems within the communities of the
athletes they sponsor. This will include guidance for post
treatment care and attention, while also raising awareness for cord
blood donation within their state or province.
(click here to view complete release)
