UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – Penn State women’s volleyball head coach Katie Schumacher-Cawley is the recipient of the 2025 Jimmy V Award, as announced by the Jimmy V Foundation on Monday. The award will officially be presented to Schumacher-Cawley at the 2025 ESPYS at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles on Wednesday, July 16. The event will air live on ABC starting at 8 p.m. ET.
Schumacher-Cawley announced publicly a breast cancer diagnosis in October but never let the disease slow her down as she led Penn State to its eighth National Championship. She continued to attend all practices, make all road trips, and coach every match from the sideline while being a beacon of inspiration to her team and the Happy Valley community.
The Nittany Lions went 35-2 and added a Big Ten title on their way to winning the NCAA crown. Schumacher-Cawley was named the Big Ten Coach of the Year following the regular season. She then went on to become the first female head coach to lead a women’s volleyball team to an NCAA Division I title.
Penn State’s run included a perfect 20-0 record on its home floor at Rec Hall. That included four wins in the NCAA Tournament, the last of which was a five-set thriller over No. 6 Creighton in the Regional Final. The Nittany Lions magical season then continued with an awe-inspiring reverse-sweep comeback win over No. 3 Nebraska in the National Semifinal at Louisville’s KFC Yum! Center. They trailed the Cornhuskers 2-0 before staying alive with a 25-23 win in the third set. The Nittany Lions had their backs against the wall again as they trailed 22-16 and 24-22 in the fourth set before rallying for a 28-26 victory. They closed the match with a 15-13 victory in set five.
The job wasn’t done yet. Up next for Penn State was the championship match against No. 4 Louisville on its home court. Jess Mruzik, the NCAA Championship Most Outstanding Player, went off for 29 kills, 14 digs, and five blocks to lead the Nittany Lions to a 3-1 win.
Schumacher-Cawley’s story caught the attention of the nation. She was featured on NBC Nightly News the day after winning the championship and just recently was honored at a White Sox game in her home city of Chicago. She is scheduled to throw out the first pitch of the Chicago Cubs game against the Baltimore Orioles on August 2.
Schumacher-Cawley was a student-athlete on Penn State’s first National Championship team in 1999. She took over as the program’s head coach in 2022 and needed just three seasons to win a title. In those three seasons, the Nittany Lions went 84-19 and were ranked in all 48 weeks of the AVCA Coaches Poll. They had players earn six All-America honors, nine all-region accolades and 11 All-Big Ten awards, including nine first-team selections, during that time.