“Cancer changed my life but it didn’t take it,” Katie Schumacher-Cawley said at the 2025 ESPY Awards on Wednesday.
While fighting a battle on the volleyball court, the Penn State women’s volleyball head coach also grappled with another battle – cancer.
Half a year later, now in remission after six rounds of chemotherapy, Schumacher-Cawley received the Jimmy V Award for Perseverance at the event honoring the top athletes and sport performances of the year in Los Angeles.
Schumacher-Cawley, upon receiving the award, said she was “humbled and truly grateful for this moment.”
“This past year has been one I could have never imagined,” Schumacher-Cawley told the applauding crowd. “It’s been filled with challenges, with grit, with tears, but also with perspective, purpose and unbelievable love. … It didn’t take my belief. It didn’t take my spirit and it didn’t take my team.”
In December, while fighting breast cancer, the 45-year-old led Penn State to the program’s eighth national championship, while becoming the first woman coach to win the NCAA Division I volleyball title.
Schumacher-Cawley, who is going into her fourth season with the Nittany Lions, told her players in the crowd that they inspired her to “keep fighting.”
“You reminded me of what it means to be a part of something bigger than yourself,” Schumacher-Cawley said as her players looked on. “That jersey we wear means everything and the bond we share is unbreakable. Sports are amazing and these women and the women that came before have set the stage to where we are now.”
Schumacher-Cawley expressed gratitude to her family, calling them her “rock” and “strength.” She also thanked her doctors at the University of Pennsylvania and Mount Nittany Medical, adding that “a person does not fight cancer alone.”
The award the coach received is named after former North Carolina State University men’s basketball coach Jim Valvano, who gave what became a legendary speech at the 1993 ESPYs less than two months before his death from cancer.
Schumacher-Cawley thanked Valvano and the V Foundation for the recognition and work it does to fight cancer.
“To be a part of this mission that says ‘don’t ever give up’ is a privilege,” she said. “This is bigger than me and bigger than this stage. Because this is about hope, it’s about every person sitting in a chemo chair right now wondering if they can keep going. … I’ll keep fighting for you.”
“I share this with everyone who has ever faced this disease. The survivors, with those still fighting and with the ones we’ve lost especially my dad. This is for you.”
Schumacher-Cawley ended with, “Keep showing up, keep believing and please never ever give up”– a message Valvano said during his speech at the Madison Square Garden Theater more than 30 years ago.
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