LOUISVILLE, Ky. — At 12:56 a.m. Friday, minutes after Penn State pulled off a miraculous reverse sweep over No. 2 general seed Nebraska within the NCAA ladies’s volleyball match, head coach Katie Schumacher-Cawley was nowhere to be discovered. Three of her star gamers, Jess Mruzik, Caroline Jurevicius and Gillian Grimes, made their strategy to the information convention podium with large grins plastered on their faces. Mruzik, a crew captain, mentioned Schumacher-Cawley was proper behind them and would be part of them shortly.
For 5 minutes, everybody waited, peering on the door within the again.
Then, the 44-year-old Schumacher-Cawley sauntered into the room. She had thrown on a brand-new nationwide championship finalist black pullover with a “PSU!” sticker slapped on the suitable aspect of her chest. She was carrying a black material cap that lined her head, from the nape of her neck to her brow. It match snugly. She touched her cap as she sat down.
She mumbled to her gamers that she wanted to vary her cap earlier than heading to the information convention. Her gamers held her gaze. They’ve at all times been in sync, this group, however the unity has heightened this season.
“I’m drained,” Schumacher-Cawley declared. “I do not learn about you guys.”
From 9:42 p.m. to 12:40 a.m. ET, which was well past her bedtime, Schumacher-Cawley stood by the courtroom as her crew saved two match factors and pulled off one of many biggest comebacks in volleyball historical past.
For the subsequent 20 minutes from the rostrum, Schumacher-Cawley’s eyes brightened, and he or she sat up straighter each time any person requested her about her gamers. When she was requested about herself, she deflected, and Mruzik intercepted with an, “I do know Katie does not like speaking about herself…”
Schumacher-Cawley has shared few particulars about this surreal season: In September, firstly of her third season as head coach at Penn State, after a number of hospital visits and checks, she was identified with Stage 2 breast most cancers. She shared her prognosis on Instagram in October and requested for the eye to be saved on her crew and the “unimaginable issues they do.” Schumacher-Cawley, who has three daughters of their teenagers and preteens, started therapy instantly.
She may have taken the yr off. God is aware of her crew would have understood. But that thought did not even cross her thoughts.
“Being round this crew and the workers is once I really feel most traditional,” Schumacher-Cawley mentioned the day earlier than the nationwide semifinal. “For me, being at apply and within the health club with them makes it an entire lot simpler.”
Schumacher-Cawley and the Nittany Lions program go means again. As a participant, she helped Penn State win a nationwide championship in 1999 and racked up greater than 1,300 kills in her profession. In 2022, after serving because the affiliate coach for 4 years, Schumacher-Cawley was promoted to go coach. She took over a program that had gained seven nationwide championships, together with a four-peat from 2007 to 2010, below Russ Rose, her former coach. She led the Nittany Lions to the regional semis in every of her first two years.
But Penn State hadn’t been to the championship match because it gained the title in 2014. Schumacher-Cawley at all times had grand plans for this system and her gamers.
So even with the most cancers prognosis, even throughout her chemotherapy therapies, she confirmed as much as the health club each day in her black cap. She did not miss a apply.
“I’m going to be wholesome, and I’ll get by way of this, and it is simply a part of my journey and my life proper now,” Schumacher-Cawley mentioned.
Her braveness made her crew stronger. Her struggle off the courtroom gave them a motive to struggle on it. If they took care of enterprise on the courtroom, she may sleep simpler, they thought, and he or she may deal with getting higher. At the start of the season, the crew gathered for a gathering. It picked out its core values. The first one — and crucial one which has guided the squad by way of this complete season — Bigger than us.
“Sometimes we will get caught up within the second — we have been enjoying this sport for many of our lives, so it could look like crucial factor in your life,” Mruzik mentioned. “But the way in which that Coach is ready to are available and be the identical each single day it doesn’t matter what’s occurring places a lot into perspective for us as a result of this actually is only a sport. Obviously, we wish to win, and that is what we’re right here for. But on the finish of the day, it is only a sport, and we do not have to take this too severely as a result of typically life outdoors of sports activities will be more difficult than what you are coping with in volleyball.”
The prognosis has made Schumacher-Cawley be extra intentional together with her time. She enforced a no-phone coverage for her crew throughout each group meal. She desires her gamers to be current with one another. And, in flip, for her to hearken to them asking their foolish “what would you do if …” questions and the cacophony that ensues throughout their innumerable video games of Mafia.
So, in large moments, the Nittany Lions swung freely and performed fearlessly. They misplaced simply two matches within the common season, to Pitt and Wisconsin. They beat Nebraska in 4 units of their regular-season finale. Mruzik, an out of doors hitter, put up unimaginable numbers, her accuracy and angles boggling a number of the finest defensive gamers within the nation. She was named an AVCA first-team All-American. Setter Izzy Starck posted 17 double-doubles this season, profitable the AVCA Freshman of the Year award, a primary for a setter from Penn State. Senior center blocker Taylor Trammell rounded off the crew by being one of the crucial environment friendly attackers within the nation, hitting .441.
Through all of it, Schumacher-Cawley stood on the sidelines, arms behind her again, a quiet drive of confidence. If she was in ache, no one knew.
“It’s essential to understand that this is identical Katie from final yr and the yr earlier than this, most cancers or not,” Trammell mentioned. “She nonetheless comes into that health club each day with the identical hearth and depth.”
How is that potential?
Perspective.
Every time Schumacher-Cawley walks into the hospital for her therapy, she passes a youngsters’s medical heart throughout the road.
“People speak about inspiration and issues like that. I’ll let you know — there’s infants and youthful children which are actually sick, that is my perspective,” she mentioned.
With that perspective, she flew to Louisville for the nationwide semifinals together with her husband, Mike Cawley, three youngsters and her crew. She confirmed up Thursday evening to what would find yourself being Penn State’s second straight five-setter within the NCAA match, after beating Creighton within the regional ultimate. Like a brick, she stood courtside, yelling “Go Izzy,” when Starck wanted a jolt of vitality, and whispering directions in Mruzik’s ears throughout timeouts.
When the Nittany Lions have been down 2-0 in opposition to Nebraska and all appeared misplaced, she huddled together with her crew, telling the gamers how proud she was of them. She advised them to settle in, to be extra assured.
The crew appeared impressed within the third set. If this was going to be their final set this season, the gamers have been going to present it their all — for Schumacher-Cawley. Their serving and passing improved. Defensively, they started selecting up extra balls. They gained the third set. In the fourth, going through two match factors, the Nittany Lions appeared extra fearless than ever. Mruzik acquired two kills, Grimes served an ace and Camryn Hannah slammed two kills to finish an unimaginable comeback and ship the match to a fifth set.
Up 12-10 within the ultimate set, Schumacher-Cawley known as timeout and beckoned her gamers for a huddle. They fashioned a circle round her. When they broke the huddle, the Nittany Lions appeared unstoppable. Their vitality was palpable.
Minutes later, Hannah slammed a kill for the win. Schumacher-Cawley grinned from the sidelines. Her crew ran onto the courtroom and fell right into a dogpile. Schumacher-Cawley stood by, taking a deep breath and soaking all of it in.
On Sunday, Schumacher-Cawley will be part of Louisville’s Dani Busboom Kelly for a historic match. Regardless of the result, a girl head coach will turn out to be an NCAA nationwide champion for the primary time.
“I can’t think about going by way of a season going by way of chemotherapy and what that should have been like,” Busboom Kelly mentioned. “She hasn’t missed a apply all yr, and that makes it much more unimaginable to me that she’s been ready to try this.”
After the win over Nebraska, Schumacher-Cawley placed on a brand new high and altered her cap. She felt sizzling below her cap through the sport, however she does not wish to be seen in public with out it. (Although her gamers say she seems fairly.) After arriving on the information convention a couple of minutes late, she saved the deal with her gamers.
But on volleyball’s largest stage, Mruzik made certain everybody knew Schumacher-Cawley is the supply of their inspiration.
“We’re clearly wanting to do that for her as a result of she’s been so superb all through this season,” Mruzik mentioned. “So I feel simply that gritty five-set win helped put one other brick into that piece that we’re attempting to construct this season.”
After the season’s ultimate match, Schumacher-Cawley will return dwelling. Her surgical procedure is scheduled for the primary week of January.
“I’ve mentioned that each day, however I’m happy with their struggle and the way in which that they stick collectively,” Schumacher-Cawley mentioned. “They discover a strategy to win.”
She stood and stepped away from the rostrum. She had one other sport to teach.
