Katie Schumacher-Cawley was honored with the Jimmy V Perseverance Award at 2025 Espy Awards

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“Cancer has changed my life, but it didn't take it,” said Katie Schumacher-Cawley on Wednesday at the Espy Awards 2025.

During the fight on the volleyball court, the volleyball head coach from Penn State also fought cancer with another battle.

Half a year later, now after six round chemotherapy, Schumacher-Cawley received the Jimmy V-Prize for endurance at the event on the top athletes and sports appearances of the year in Los Angeles.

After receiving the award, Schumacher-Cawley said that she was “humble and really grateful for this moment”.

“I could never have imagined myself last year,” Schumacher-Cawley told the applauding crowd. “It was full of challenges, with Grit, with tears, but also with perspective, purpose and incredible love. It didn't take my belief. It didn't take my mind and my team didn't take it.”

In December, the 45-year-old led against breast cancer in December and led Penn State to the eighth national championship of the program and was the first coach of the woman to win the volleyball title of NCAA Division I.

Schumacher-Cawley, who goes to her fourth season with the Nittany Lions, told her players in the crowd that they inspired them to continue to fight.

“They reminded me of what it means to be part of something larger than themselves,” said Schumacher-Cawley when their players watched. “This jersey that we wear means everything and the bond that we share is unbreakable. Sport is amazing and these women and women who came before have the stage as big as we are where we are now.”

Schumacher-Cawley thanked her family and called her her “rock” and “strength”. She also thanked her doctors at the University of Pennsylvania and Mount Nittany Medical and added that “a person does not fight for cancer alone”.

The award that the trainer received is named after the former basketball coach of North Carolina State University, Jim Valvano, who gave a legendary speech at the 1993 Espys less than two months before his death.

Schumacher-Cawley thanked Valvano and the V-Foundation for the recognition and work that it does to combat cancer.

“To be part of this mission that says that” never give up “is a privilege,” she said. “This is larger than me and greater than in this phase. Because it is about hope, it is about everyone who is sitting in a chemot driver and wonders whether they can go on. … I will continue to fight for them.”

“I share this with everyone who has ever been confronted with this disease. The survivors, with those who are still fighting, and with those that we particularly lost my father. That is for them.”

Schumacher-Cawley ended: “Immerse yourself, believe and please never give up”-a message Valvano said during his speech in the Madison Square Garden Theater more than 30 years ago.