O-R Athlete of the Week: Joel Rizor, West Greene
Name: Joel Rizor
Grade: Sophomore
School: West Greene
Sport: Football
Rizor’s week: The second quarter of West Greene’s 50-6 win over Brownsville Friday night will long live in the memories of the Pioneer faithful.
After not scoring in their first five quarters of the season, West Greene put 44 points up in the second against the Falcons and Rizor was at the center of it.
Rizor, the Pioneers’ quarterback, rushed for 208 yards and two touchdowns with both scores coming in the second.
He led all local players in rushing yards and helped West Greene get its first win of the season.
“We had two touchdowns called back in the first quarter because of holding penalties, and we had a turnover that led to them getting a touchdown, so we knew we had to bounce back after that,” Rizor said. “The first touchdown I had was about a 20-yard run and the O-line did a great job of blocking for me. The second one was probably a 60-yard touchdown. I was able to break four or five tackles to get into the end zone.”
The magnitude of the number of points West Greene scored in the second didn’t really hit Rizor until the Monday at practice.
“One of my buddies on the team told us that we were up there for the most points scored in a quarter and that’s when I realized how much we scored and how special it was,” Rizor said. “That game gives us a lot of confidence going forward.”
Adjusting to QB: Rizor did not grow up playing quarterback. He was a running back from youth league through middle school, but made the switch to quarterback starting his freshman season at West Greene.
“We’ve always had really good running backs at West Greene, but we’ve never been much of a passing team,” Rizor said. “We wanted to try and get the passing game going more, so I moved to quarterback.”
To help get more acclimated to playing the position, Rizor worked with quarterback coach Ralph DelSardo.
DelSardo played wide receiver collegiately at Morehead State, was a former offensive coordinator at St. Francis and is the cousin for former NFL quarterback Bruce Gradkowski.
“I worked with him from May until August,” Rizor said. “We worked on my footwork and my fundamentals with my passing.”
Three-sport athlete: Aside from football, Rizor is a wrestler and baseball player at West Greene. He wrestled at 152 as a freshman in the regular season and dropped to 145 in the postseason and is the shortstop on the baseball team.
Out of the three sports, Rizor feels football is his best one. On defense Rizor plays safety.
“We’ve always been good at football, especially coming up through the youth leagues,” Rizor said. “We won two championships coming up.”
Outdoorsman: When he gets time away from playing sports, Rizor enjoys riding dirt bikes golfing and is an avid bow hunter.
“I like doing archery,” Rizor said. “The biggest (deer) I’ve got is an 8-point.”
Working with numbers: Not only did Rizor enjoy watching the numbers grow on the West Greene side of the scoreboard, but he likes adding in the classroom.
Rizor’s favorite school subject is math.
“I feel like with Math you’re actually doing something,” Rizor said. “I like it better than (English language arts) or reading.”
Compiled by Jerin Steele