Donnelly to continue athletic career in graduate school

2020 CCS alum decides to stay at SUNY Poly to get MBA, play soccer, basketball

(Kate Donnelly has decided to extend her playing career at SUNY Poly. Photo by Meelan Media.)

Kate Donnelly will begin her fifth year at SUNY Polytechnic as a two-sport, graduate student, playing for the women’s soccer and women’s basketball teams, while working on her Master of Business Administration degree.

Donnelly, a 2020 CCS graduate, has another year of eligibility left because the 2020-2021 sports seasons were cancelled because of the coronavirus pandemic.  

“I graduated high school in 2020 and lost some important moments then,” Donnelly said via email with Cooperstown Sports News this month. “Being the last college class that had a ‘COVID year’ to play, I thought I should take advantage of something finally being returned after losing so much.”

She said having an opportunity to play another year of college sports also helped her return to SUNY Poly to pursue an MBA.

“It was a super easy decision to continue my education at SUNY Poly,” Donnelly said. “The past four years I have been there, I have created friendships and memories that I wasn’t ready to leave quite yet. Extending my college sports career was one of the biggest factors in the decision to return for my masters.”

Donnelly said during her senior year at CCS she wasn’t sure she if she wanted to play college sports at all, but that changed after the pandemic and through conversations with her brother Jack, a 2015 CCS graduate.

“When COVID started, I was given a lot of guidance on my decision to continue athletics,” she said. “I watched my older brother Jack play baseball for as long as I can remember. He continued his career into college and shared how college sports are one of the quickest ways to make friends and stay active while in school.”

She originally went to SUNY Poly with the intention of playing both soccer and basketball, but said she ended up only playing soccer until this past year when the basketball coach reached out to ask if she had any interest in playing both again.  

After playing in 45 games over three seasons on the pitch for the Wildcats, including 35 as a starter, Donnelly’s return to the hardwood her senior year lasted only one game.

“I broke my humerus and dislocated my shoulder in the first basketball game of the season,” she said. “This was definitely a huge bummer, because I ended up being out for the rest of the season.”

According to the school website, Donnelly started at guard and played 34 minutes in the season opener against Clarkson, scoring eight points before being injured. 

Despite her injury, Donnelly said she really enjoyed being on the basketball team. This was in large part because of her coaches, who she said were some of the best she has ever had, especially after the challenges of having three different soccer coaches over her college career.

(Donnelly won two section titles in basketball at Cooperstown and said she was excited to return to the sport during her senior year at SUNY Poly. Photo courtesy of Kate Donnelly.)

“After this past season of playing, I do slightly regret not playing both the four years I have been at college,” she said. “The injury allowed me to learn how to coach from some of the best. This was one of the coolest experiences, seeing how the game is played from a coach’s point of view.”

Her arm and shoulder healed quickly, thanks to the medical care she received, and the school’s trainers helped her get back into playing condition, Donnelly said.

“The recovery from this injury went way smoother than I thought it was going to,” she said. “I had a really great doctor and my athletic training staff at school really got me through physically and mentally.”

Donnelly said she thinks she has always been better at basketball, but now that she is playing both sports again, she isn’t sure she has a “favorite.”

“My teammates on both teams are some of my closest friends, which makes it hard to choose,” she said. 

Playing college sports helped Donnelly maintain great grades and she had better time management while being a student athlete too, she said.

“I always try to stress to incoming freshman students that playing athletics is super beneficial to education,” she said. “Yes, you are busy and yes, you are maybe more tired than a regular student.

“That being said, being on a rigorous schedule with athletics and education helps you stay focused and motivated on the playing field and in the classroom,” Donnelly said.

Two of Donnelly’s fondest memories as a student athlete were helping the Wildcats become North Atlantic Conference regular season champions and scoring in her first collegiate match.

“In the 2023 soccer season, I scored the winning goal against Vermont State-Johnson to crown us regular season champions. This was probably one of my favorite memories from my sports career,” she said. “My first collegiate game in 2021, I scored my first collegiate goal, which was also pretty awesome.”

Being teammates with lifelong friend and high school classmate Ashley Kiuber was also a special part of Donnelly’s college career, she said.

“Ashley was one of my first friends ever, she’s also been my longest teammate,” Donnelly said. “When we came to school together, it was very comforting knowing we still had each other.”

Kiuber and Donnelly graduated together in May. Kiuber then passed her nursing boards and is working for Bassett Healthcare Network.  

“Now that we are done playing together, it will definitely be different,” Donnelly said. “I am very proud of her for chasing her career dreams as a nurse back in Cooperstown, even though she will no longer be on the field with me. I know, even though she is not my teammate anymore, I will always have support from her.”

SUNY Poly will compete in the Empire 8 Conference this season, and Donnelly said she is looking forward to facing some better competition than she’s experienced in the past and making the most out of her last two seasons of college sports.

Donnelly, who ran the Boilermaker last month in Utica, said she is ready for one last run at college sports.

“My first goal is to stay healthy throughout both seasons. My second goal is just to have fun,” Donnelly said. “I never thought there would be a time in my career where things actually have to come to an end, and I want to make sure that I really enjoy every moment playing, practicing, or just being around both teams.”

(The Donnelly family celebrates Kate’s success last year at SUNY Poly. Photo courtesy of Kate Donnelly.)

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