Katie Schumacher-Cawley Accepts Jimmy V Award For Perseverance At 2025 ESPYS

Posted on by Ethan Kasales

Penn State women’s volleyball head coach Katie Schumacher-Cawley spoke to millions of people around the world Wednesday during a beautiful acceptance speech on ABC at the 2025 ESPY Awards.

Schumacher-Cawley was named this year’s recipient of the Jimmy V Award for Perseverance on June 30, a few weeks before she and her family flew out to Los Angeles, California, for ESPN’s annual awards show. The award, given in honor of the late Jim Valvano, a championship-winning college basketball coach who died of adenocarcinoma in 1993 at the age of 47, has been presented annually since 2007.

Longtime NC State women’s basketball coach Kay Yow, who passed in 2009, won the inaugural Jimmy V Award. Previous winners also include former Penn State and NFL defensive tackle Devon Still and his daughter, Leah, who beat stage-four neuroblastoma and recently celebrated 10 years cancer-free.

While accepting the first Arthur Ashe Courage Award at the inaugural ESPYS at Madison Square Garden in 1993, just weeks before he passed, Valvano gave one of the most famous speeches of all time, imploring the audience to laugh, think, and have their emotions moved to tears daily.

“If you laugh, you think, and you cry, that’s a full day,” Valvano said. “That’s a heck of a day. You do that seven days a week, you’re going to have something special.”

Valvano also announced the creation of the V Foundation for Cancer Research during that emotional speech. With the support of ESPN and countless donations since 1993, the V Foundation has raised nearly $400 million to date for cancer research grants.

New York Giants quarterback Russell Wilson introduced Schumacher-Cawley to the audience at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood. Before she took the stage to a standing ovation, the broadcast aired a terrific video, produced by ESPN, that documented Schumacher-Cawley’s battle with breast cancer, and how she led her team to the 2024 NCAA national championship while fighting the disease, never missing a match during their 35-2 season.

Schumacher-Cawley made the nearly 200-mile trip from State College to Philadelphia many times to receive treatment at the world-class University of Pennsylvania Abramson Cancer Center, and finished chemotherapy in February. During her speech, she thanked her doctors at UPenn and nearby Mount Nittany Medical Center, as well as her family, coaching staff, and the Penn State community for rallying around her and providing unwavering support.

Schumacher-Cawley invited her assistant coaches — Brian Toron, Megan Hodge Easy, and Mike Henchy — to attend Wednesday’s ESPYs with her, as well as her five-member senior class from the 2024 season. Jess Mruzik, Taylor Trammell, Camryn Hannah, Anjelina Starck, and Quinn Menger were seated together, dressed to the nines, looking on in admiration when one of the TV cameras found them. During her speech, she encouraged the broadcast to highlight her husband, Mike, her mother, Cathy, and her three daughters, Stella, Nora, and Shea.

“Thank you to my team and my former players,” Schumacher-Cawley said. “You inspired me every day to keep fighting. You reminded me what it means to be part of something bigger than yourself. That jersey we wear means everything, and the bond we share is unbreakable.”

A proud Chicagoan who starred in volleyball and basketball at Mother McAuley High School before an All-American career in which she helped Penn State win the 1999 NCAA national championship, the first in program history, Schumacher-Cawley began her coaching career at University of Illinois Chicago, where she spent 14 seasons, including eight as head coach.

After one season as head coach at the University of Pennsylvania in 2017, Schumacher-Cawley returned to her alma mater in 2018 and spent four seasons as an assistant coach under her mentor, Russ Rose, before the legendary, seven-time national championship-winning coach retired following the 2021 season, setting the stage for Schumacher-Cawley to take over.

“It meant the world to come back and to be in this environment at Penn State,” Schumacher-Cawley told ESPN. “I wanted to help these players have the same experience I did. I wanted to win a national championship, and to have my players have that experience.”

Moments after becoming the first female head coach to win a Division I NCAA women’s volleyball national championship last December in Louisville, Kentucky, Schumacher-Cawley gave a shoutout to her hometown. “I just want to say hi to the South Side of Chicago. I love you guys. I know you’re watching somewhere fun. Coach Rose and Lori [Rose], this is for you guys.”

Speaking on the topic of her historic win and what it means for female head coaches moving forward, with blue and white confetti raining down on her and star outside hitter Jess Mruzik at center court, Schumacher-Cawley said, “There have been so many who have been before me, who have paved the way for me. I’m so grateful. Hopefully, there will be more in the future who want to coach and be a part of it. I’m so happy.”

This February, after compiling an 84-19 record during her first three seasons as head coach of the Nittany Lions, Schumacher-Cawley signed an incredibly well-deserved contract extension. She is among only five active Division I women’s volleyball head coaches who have won a national championship, including Texas’ Jerritt Elliott, Wisconsin’s Kelly Sheffield, Kentucky’s Craig Skinner, and Stanford’s Kevin Hambly.

“These seniors, they wanted to make a change, and they did,” Schumacher-Cawley said in Louisville. “It started last year after we lost. I’m just proud of the work they put in and how they led this younger group.”

The V Foundation released a heartfelt video Thursday, featuring a special appearance from Russ Rose on the steps of Rec Hall, that will be sure to bring a smile to Penn State and sports fans around the world’s faces.

The Nittany Lions, now eight-time champions, can tie Stanford for the most national titles in Division I women’s volleyball history in 2025. After adding two of the most sought-after transfers in the nation in Kennedy Martin and Emmi Sellman to an already talented roster, Penn State is firmly in the mix for a top-three spot in the AVCA preseason poll.

In a March interview with ESPN commentator Holly Rowe and her son, McKylin, on the “Call Your Mom” podcast, Schumacher-Cawley revealed that her doctor called to tell her the news of her breast cancer diagnosis while she was in her car in the parking lot before a high school volleyball match that her daughter, Stella, was about to play in.

“I was freaking out a little bit by myself, but then, I’m like, ‘Okay, I have to walk into this gym and go sit at a high school game and try not to even focus on that.’ It was pretty wild at that point. I wanted to know the plan. I’m really, kind of OCD on a schedule and where I have to be and what has to be done for things to happen. It was a pretty wild moment at that point in time, but looking back, now, I’m like, ‘It was what it was supposed to be, and here I am.'”

Schumacher-Cawley threw out the first pitch at the Chicago White Sox game on June 8 and will return to her hometown to do the same on August 2 when her beloved Chicago Cubs face the Baltimore Orioles at 1:20 p.m. CT at Wrigley Field. Schumacher-Cawley’s family had season tickets to Cubs games growing up, and she was in attendance for the infamous Steve Bartman playoff game on October 14, 2003.

Later this month, Schumacher-Cawley will represent the Nittany Lions at the fourth annual Big Ten volleyball media days in Chicago alongside sophomore setter Izzy Starck and senior libero Gillian Grimes, a fellow Chicagoan. Penn State’s contingent is scheduled to speak to the media on Monday, July 28.

Schumacher-Cawley’s entire ESPYs speech can be found here and in full below. She finished by shouting out her late father, Jerry, who died of prostate cancer at age 62 in 2013. Schumacher-Cawley also gave a nod to Valvano’s often-quoted, “Don’t give up. Don’t ever give up.” Donations to the V Foundation in honor of Coach Katie can be made securely right here, or by typing “v.org/coachkatie” into your internet browser.

“I share this [award] with everyone who’s ever faced this disease: The survivors, with those still fighting, and with the ones who we’ve lost, especially my dad. This is for you. Keep showing up, keep believing, and please, never, ever give up. Thank you so much.”