CHICAGO — South Facet native and celebrated volleyball coach Katie Schumacher-Cawley led the Penn State group to victory within the NCAA Division I volleyball championship Sunday, making historical past as the primary girl head coach to win the title.
Penn State gained in opposition to the College of Louisville ladies’s volleyball group, helmed by Dani Busboom Kelly. That is the primary time each groups up for the championship have been coached by ladies for the reason that volleyball championship was added to the NCAA in 1981.
Now eight-time nationwide champs, the Penn State ladies’s volleyball group final gained the title a decade in the past after defeating BYU in 2014. Schumacher-Cawley, 44, performed volleyball and basketball at Penn State and helped the volleyball group win its first title in 1999.
Simply after the win, Schumacher-Cawley’s first phrases have been a shout-out to the South Facet.
“I simply need to say hello to the South Facet of Chicago,” Schumacher-Cawley stated on ESPN. “I really like you guys.”
Schumacher-Cawley, who’s from Morgan Park, attended St. Cajetan Elementary College and is a ’97 graduate of Mom McAuley Liberal Arts Excessive College in Mount Greenwood.
The all-girls Catholic faculty celebrated their alumna’s achievement.
“Katie Schumacher-Cawley, Class of 1997, is the right instance of every little thing we attempt for McAuley ladies to be,” faculty President Carey Temple Harrington stated in an electronic mail to Block Membership. “She is the epitome of power, grace and confidence. Everybody at Mom McAuley was cheering for her and along with her. … This can be a historic occasion and we’re mighty proud.”
St. Cajetan additionally cheered Scumacher-Cawley on.
“Nicely we aren’t stunned that this Warrior rose all the way in which to the highest and made historical past tonight!! Not solely did alumna Katie Schumacher-Cawley win the NCAA championship title for school volleyball, however she grew to become the primary feminine coach to do it!!!” faculty leaders wrote on Fb. “She is an inspiration to all and among the best function fashions for what constructive teaching ought to seem like.”
The win comes simply two months after Schumacher-Cawley introduced she was recognized with breast most cancers.
“This information has been rather a lot to course of, and as you’ll be able to think about, it has introduced a variety of feelings,” she wrote on Instagram Oct. 17. “However I’m approaching this with power, dedication, and an unwavering sense of hope. We are going to draw inspiration from the many individuals in our lives which have battled most cancers and have emerged victorious.
“I’m extremely lucky to have an incredible assist system in my household, group, mates, my Penn State household, and an unbelievable medical group. Their encouragement and love give me the braveness to face the street forward with a constructive outlook. I do know this journey could have its challenges, however I additionally know that with the care and power of these round me, I’m prepared to fulfill it head-on.”
The Mom McAuley faculty “will proceed to cheer for Katie and pray for her as she battles on,” Harrington stated.
Alongside her profitable teaching profession, Schumacher-Cawley is taken into account “among the best gamers in state historical past,” in keeping with the Illinois Excessive College Affiliation.
A fellow Chicagoan and different Illinoisans on the Penn State ladies’s volleyball group additionally celebrated their win, together with Camryn Hannah, a graduate of Mount Greenwood’s Marist Excessive College; Ava Falduto, a graduate of IC Catholic Prep in Elmhurst; Gillian Grimes of Nazareth Academy in La Grange Park; and Catherine Burke of Loyola Academy in Wilmette.
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