Black History Month: Jazzy Richards

Resilience is defined as the capacity to recover quickly from difficulties. It's the measure of how much you want something and how much you are willing to overcome obstacles to get it.

For sophomore Jazzy Richards, that meant finding the strength to overcome a life-altering diagnosis, while also dealing with the normal pressures that a Division I athlete faces.

Quitting wasn't an option and Richards proved that no matter what stood in her way, she'd be resilient enough to come back better than ever.

Richards began playing soccer as a toddler. Her mom needed something to tire her out so Richards would actually go to bed at night. She grew to love the sport and the relationships made through her many years of playing.

When the recruiting process began, it was stressful for 15-year-old Richards. Not knowing where she would want to be three years later, she left fate in the hands of a coin.

"I didn't know exactly where I wanted to be," Richards said. "If I'm being completely honest, I kind of flipped a coin and decided where I was going to go to school. I've been told that when you flip a coin, once it's in the air, you know where you want it to go, and I knew which one I wanted it to land on."

That school was Oklahoma.

"If I'm being completely honest, I kind of flipped a coin and decided where I was going to go to school. I've been told that when you flip a coin, once it's in the air, you know where you want it to go."
- Jazzy Richards

"When I came on my visit initially, it just felt like such a good environment," Richards said. "I felt like the people I would be around would make the experience worthwhile, as well as the direction the program was going in at the time. I really felt like it would be a good fit for me."

Richards' freshman season wouldn't get underway immediately like she hoped. As preseason turned into preparing for the first game, she began having symptoms that were believed to have stemmed from either dehydration or a bruised kidney.

She appeared in four games between the end of September and beginning of October, but the symptoms persisted, and Richards underwent a cystoscopy. The scope revealed a tumor in her bladder, but doctors were hopeful that it was benign and could be removed surgically.

"The doctor said basically it's a tumor, but we'll go in and we'll take it out," Richards said. (He said) the odds are its benign and you'll be fine after we take it out. After like three weeks or so the doctor called me back in and said they had to send (the results) to a center in Virginia. They didn't really know exactly what was going on, but from what they thought they saw it was very rare."

Jazzy Richards was diagnosed with an ependymoma, a rare form of cancer, in September of 2018.

Richards returned to her hometown of Houston to undergo another procedure at MD Anderson. More of the tumor was resected and the pathologists came back with a diagnosis: cancer. The tumor was a type usually found in the brain; however, Richards' was located in her bladder.

"The tumor that they found was a brain tumor called an ependymoma," Richards said. "It was ectopic which means they didn't find it in my brain, they found it somewhere else. It's a tumor usually found in the central nervous system."

Armed with this new information, Richards took the diagnosis in stride, adopting a "whatever happens, happens" mentality.

"It wasn't necessarily as hard of a day as most people probably think it was," she said. "For my parents, they probably have a very different answer, and my friends and stuff. I kind of just took it as a piece of information and kept on stepping. If anything does happen, it's supposed to. I know that whatever comes my way, I'm going to handle it."

"I was shocked," assistant athletic trainer Christina West said. "I didn't expect to hear that she had cancer. It's something I never want to hear that someone has, especially with her being so young. She never batted an eye even in the doctor's office when she was told she had cancer. I know I would have broken down but Jazzy took it in stride. She is a very strong young woman."

While dealing with the next steps, Richards shared the news with a select group of teammates as she didn't see the point of bringing up something that wasn't naturally coming up in conversations.

"She just came to me and told me straight up," junior Emma Ledbetter said. "It was kind of hard to hear and we both didn't know what to do, but we just said we would get through whatever's next and I would be there with her through it all. She had a great attitude and tried to be really strong, but at times you could tell it was very tough on her. Anyone being diagnosed is very hard to hear but one of your best friends was so devastating. Her strength and resilience through it all are something I really admire about her and I know that we all do."

After two cystoscopies, Richards final surgery was scheduled. This time, she would be having a cystectomy with the potential of having her bladder removed entirely.

"I had no idea what that was," Richards said. "Marissa (McMahand) and I looked it up on the internet. It basically gives you two definitions on the internet, removal of the bladder and the second one is removal of a cyst in the bladder. So, we were like, 'oh it's probably the second one they're just going to remove it again.' I was wrong again."

In January 2019, Richards underwent her final surgery to have her bladder removed.

"Once they removed my bladder and reconstructed this diversion, this urinary diversion, after that it was kind of just learning to adjust that and learning how to deal with that," Richards said. "They have classes and stuff you take to go through that. After the surgery it was just learning and adapting to the new things, and every three or so months going back and doing more scans."

Richards wouldn't let her new normal affect her daily life or her ability to play soccer. Though doctors told her to take at least six weeks off before returning to classes, Richards waited just three.

By May, she was about 70 percent healed and getting back in to shape for her sophomore season.

Jazzy Richards

Jazzy Richards only played in four games as a freshman but appeared in every game for the Sooners in 2019.

"Like any surgery we followed what the doctors recommended," West said. "You have to go to those that know more than you and ask the experts in that area. The hard thing with this is it was new territory so knowing timelines ahead of time was hard. A lot of the "rehab" was allowing her body to heal and making sure her core is strong."

After appearing in just four games a freshman with no starts, Richards found herself in the starting lineup for OU's home opener against Albany on Aug. 22. Just a little over eight months after her final surgery, the sophomore played 59 minutes of the Sooners' 1-0 victory.

"Going through something like that when nobody under the age of 80 should have to go through has made her grow as a person. She is just amazing."
- Emma Ledbetter

"(That moment) was top three in my entire life," Richards said. "I was so excited last year, before all of this, for a chance to maybe start one game. This year, I was just as excited but even maybe a little more so because going through something like that, you never know if you'll ever get that chance. Getting a chance to play, let alone start, is immeasurable."

"I was so excited for her, almost to tears," Ledbetter said. "It is hard for anyone going through something like that and to come back and beat it and play like she did, the opportunities are endless for her. She is so mature. Going through something like that when nobody under the age of 80 should have to go through has made her grow as a person. She is just amazing."

Richards appeared in all 19 games for the Sooners in 2019 with 10 starts. She tallied her first career goal on Oct. 31 against Texas and earned an assist on the game-winning goal against Tulsa on Sept. 1.

"There's a lot of places that wouldn't have your back like this place does," Richards said. "It's evident how much the people here, the staff and players, care about everyone in the program. Even the people who do the fields and stuff. Anywhere else, I don't know if I would be exactly where I am right now."

Players Mentioned

Emma Ledbetter

Jazzy Richards

Sponsors

University of Oklahoma Athletics