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Jo-Ann Rizzo

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Jo-Ann Rizzo
Curler
Born
Jo-Ann Vaters[1][2]

(1963-06-01) June 1, 1963 (age 61)
Zweibrücken, West Germany
Team
Curling clubBrantford G&CC,
Brantford, ON
SkipJo-Ann Rizzo
ThirdJanet Murphy
SecondLori Eddy
LeadMary Chilvers
Curling career
Member Association Ontario (1988–present)
 Northwest Territories (2020–2024)
Hearts appearances5 (2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024)
World Senior Curling Championship
appearances		1 (2024)
Top CTRS ranking3rd (2011–12)
Grand Slam victories1 (2012 Autumn Gold)
Medal record
Women's Curling
Representing  Canada
World Senior Curling Championships
Gold medal – first place 2024 Östersund
Representing  Ontario
Canadian Olympic Curling Trials
Silver medal – second place 2013 Winnipeg

Jo-Ann Rizzo (born June 1, 1963 in Zweibrücken, West Germany)[3] is a Canadian curler from Brantford, Ontario.

Career

[edit]

Rizzo grew up in Germany, where her father was stationed in the military. She moved to Canada at age 16. She attended the University of Western Ontario where she won two Ontario University Athletics championships.[4]

As of 2013, Rizzo has played in 13 Ontario Scotties Tournament of Hearts. She is also a former provincial mixed champion. She played third for her husband Nick Rizzo at the 2003 Canadian Mixed Curling Championship, where they finished in 4th place.

Rizzo qualified for the 2005 Canadian Olympic Curling Trials, where she and her rink of Cheryl McPherson, Kimberly Tuck and Sara Gatchell finished in 9th with a 2-7 record.

Rizzo is a former skip, but she joined up with Middaugh in 2010. With Middaugh, the team won the 2012 Curlers Corner Autumn Gold Curling Classic and finished second at the 2013 Canadian Olympic Curling Trials. The Middaugh rink dissolved in 2018.

Rizzo won two provincial senior curling championships in 2016 and 2017, finishing fourth at the 2016 Canadian Senior Curling Championships and second at the 2017 Canadian Senior Curling Championships. Rizzo also coached the US team at the 2017 World Senior Curling Championships.

Rizzo joined the Yellowknife, Northwest Territories-based Kerry Galusha rink for the 2019–20 season, first at second, but later throwing fourth stones. They had some success on the tour, having a quarterfinal finish at the 2019 AMJ Campbell Shorty Jenkins Classic[5] and reaching the semifinals of the Stu Sells Toronto Tankard.[6] The team won the 2020 Northwest Territories Scotties Tournament of Hearts in January 2020, qualifying Rizzo for her first Canadian women's championship appearance. At the 2020 Scotties Tournament of Hearts, they finished 2–5, not enough to advance to the championship pool. The following season, Team Galusha again won the 2021 Northwest Territories Scotties Tournament of Hearts. At the 2021 Scotties Tournament of Hearts, the team finished the round robin with a 4–4 record, just missing the championship pool.[7]

Team Galusha had a great start to the 2021–22 season, beginning with the Stu Sells Oakville Tankard where they lost in the final to Team Hollie Duncan.[8] The following week, they won the KW Fall Classic after defeating the Duncan rink in the championship game.[9] Due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Canada, the qualification process for the 2021 Canadian Olympic Curling Trials had to be modified to qualify enough teams for the championship. In these modifications, Curling Canada created the 2021 Canadian Curling Pre-Trials Direct-Entry Event, an event where eight teams would compete to try to earn one of two spots into the 2021 Canadian Olympic Curling Pre-Trials.[10] Team Galusha qualified for the Pre-Trials Direct-Entry Event as the fourth seed. The team qualified for the playoffs by going 3–0 in the A Event and then defeated Team Robyn Silvernagle (skipped by Jessie Hunkin) 10–8 to earn the first spot in the Pre-Trials.[11] The next month, the team competed in the Pre-Trials where they finished with a 1–5 record, only beating Team Penny Barker.[12] The 2022 Northwest Territories Scotties Tournament of Hearts was cancelled due to the pandemic and Team Galusha were selected to represent the Territories at the national women's championship.[13] At the 2022 Scotties Tournament of Hearts, the team finished the round robin with a 5–3 record, qualifying them for a tiebreaker against Manitoba's Mackenzie Zacharias. Team Galusha won the tiebreaker 8–6, earning themselves a spot in the playoffs and becoming the first team solely representing the Northwest Territories to qualify for the playoffs in Scotties history.[14] They then lost in the first game of the playoff round to New Brunswick's Andrea Crawford and were eliminated from contention.[15]

To begin the 2022–23 season, Team Galusha reached the quarterfinals of the 2022 Saville Shoot-Out where they lost to Casey Scheidegger.[16] They then played in the 2022 PointsBet Invitational where they again lost to the Scheidegger rink in the opening round. The team continued to have success on tour in October, reaching the semifinals of the 2022 Tour Challenge Tier 2 Slam and the quarterfinals of the North Grenville Women's Fall Curling Classic.[17] In the new year, they again went undefeated to win the 2023 Northwest Territories Scotties Tournament of Hearts, defeating Reese Wainman 8–1 in the final. Representing the Territories at the 2023 Scotties Tournament of Hearts, Team Galusha started the event with a 3–1 record before losing their next three games. They won their final game against the Yukon to finish fourth in their pool with a 4–4 record, missing the playoffs.[18] Also during the 2022–23 season, Rizzo skipped Ontario to a fourth-place finish at the 2022 Canadian Senior Curling Championships.[19] After a 7–3 round robin record, she lost both the semifinal and the bronze medal game.

The Galusha rink did not have as much success on tour the following season, only reaching the playoffs in two of their first six events. This included a semifinal finish at the Alberta Tour Kick-off and a quarterfinal appearance at the 2023 KW Fall Classic. In December, the team went undefeated at the Stu Sells Brantford Nissan Classic until the final where they lost to Courtney Auld.[20] After winning the 2024 Northwest Territories Scotties Tournament of Hearts, the team announced the 2024 Scotties Tournament of Hearts would be their last event together as they would disband at the end of the season.[21] At the Hearts, the team finished fifth in their pool with a 3–5 record.[22] This included defeating Manitoba's Jennifer Jones in their final round robin game and having the largest comeback in Scotties history, overcoming a seven-point deficit after three ends to defeat Ontario's Danielle Inglis 10–9.[23][24]

Personal life

[edit]

Jo-Ann and Nick have three children. She was inducted into the Brantford and Area Sports Hall of Recognition in 2018. Her uncle is well known icemaker Shorty Jenkins.

References

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  1. ^ "VATERS Kitty Gerda". Ancestry.com. 2020-01-08.
  2. ^ Windsor Star, November 23, 1988, pg D3, "Bonspiel scheduled"
  3. ^ "2020 Scotties Tournament of Hearts Media Guide" (PDF). Curling Canada. Retrieved 2020-02-17.
  4. ^ "Three join sports hall". 2018-06-13.
  5. ^ "Galusha Reaches 2019 AMJ Campbell Shorty Jenkins Classic Quarters". CurlingZone. Retrieved December 7, 2021.
  6. ^ "Galusha Reaches 2019 Stu Sells Toronto Tankard Semifinals". CurlingZone. Retrieved December 7, 2021.
  7. ^ "Scotties Tournament of Hearts: Scores, standings, schedule". Sportsnet. Retrieved December 7, 2021.
  8. ^ "Scotland's Mouat, South Korea's Kim pick up victories in Canada". TSN. September 13, 2021. Retrieved December 7, 2021.
  9. ^ James McCarthy (September 19, 2021). "Role reversal: Team Galusha beats Hollie Duncan in final of KW Fall Classic". NNSL Media. Retrieved December 7, 2021.
  10. ^ "2021 Trials proceess revised". Curling Canada. February 4, 2021. Retrieved December 7, 2021.
  11. ^ "Heading to Liverpool!". Curling Canada. September 25, 2021. Retrieved December 7, 2021.
  12. ^ "Familiar feelings for Team Tardi!". Curling Canada. October 27, 2021. Retrieved December 7, 2021.
  13. ^ "In keeping with NWTCA policy if a championship cannot be held, Team Galusha, defending champions, has been appointed as the NWTCA representatives to the 2022 Scotties Tournament of Hearts Jan 28-Feb 6 in Thunder Bay, ON". Facebook. NWT Curling. January 5, 2022. Retrieved February 22, 2022.
  14. ^ "Playoff quest realized!". Curling Canada. February 4, 2022. Retrieved February 22, 2022.
  15. ^ "2022 Scotties Tournament of Hearts: Standings, schedule and results". Sportsnet. January 28, 2022. Retrieved February 22, 2022.
  16. ^ "2022 Saville Shoot-Out". CurlingZone. Retrieved February 25, 2024.
  17. ^ Jonathan Brazeau (October 23, 2022). "Oskar Eriksson skips Team Edin into HearingLife Tour Challenge men's final". Grand Slam of Curling. Retrieved February 25, 2024.
  18. ^ "Jones eyes record book!". Curling Canada. February 23, 2023. Retrieved February 25, 2024.
  19. ^ "Five Straight for Sherry!". Curling Canada. December 10, 2022. Retrieved February 25, 2024.
  20. ^ "2023 Stu Sells Brantford Nissan Classic". CurlingZone. Retrieved February 25, 2024.
  21. ^ "Galusha on team: We've really committed to each other". TSN. February 14, 2024. Retrieved February 25, 2024.
  22. ^ Bryan Murphy (February 24, 2024). "Scotties Tournament of Hearts 2024: Scores, standings, schedule & TV channel for women's curling championship". The Sporting News. Retrieved February 25, 2024.
  23. ^ "It's Playoff Time". Curling Canada. February 23, 2024. Retrieved February 25, 2024.
  24. ^ "Northwest Territories stages historic comeback at Scotties in Calgary". Global News. February 20, 2024. Retrieved February 25, 2024.
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