ROCHESTER, N.Y. – Like so many women of her generation, Katie Curtiss fell in love with sports while watching the 1999 United States Women's National Team blaze its trail to a World Cup soccer championship.

The history-making '99ers – Michelle Akers, Julie Foudy, Brandi Chastain, Kristine Lilly, Joy Fawcett, Briana Scurry and Mia Hamm – brought women's sports into the mainstream and helped young Katie and her mother, Liz Worth-Curtiss, form an unbreakable bond.

"Mia Hamm will always be my favorite," says Katie, who was in the stands at Rochester's Frontier Field when Hamm scored her 100^th career goal on Sept. 18, 1998.

Katie's passion runs deep. She often wears a University of North Carolina hat autographed by members of the USWNT, and she and Liz still travel across the country to attend soccer matches.

Katie remains a loyal fan of the Tar Heels and also supports the Golden State Warriors, New York Liberty, New York Yankees and Buffalo Bills.

She is also a beloved member of the Roberts Wesleyan University Athletics family and manager of the Redhawks' women's basketball team.

'I had to become an adult pretty quickly'

Diagnosed with kidney disease at age 5, Katie was unable to play sports or engage in physical activity while growing up. She had the first of her three kidney transplants in sixth grade and underwent an experimental – and successful - cancer protocol for 10 months after a "football-sized tumor" was discovered in her liver in 2010.

While her friends were outside riding bikes and playing games, Katie was undergoing dialysis and chemotherapy.

 "I had to become an adult pretty quickly," Katie says. "To say that I have seen death's door is an understatement."

Her mother estimates that Katie has endured 10 to 15 major surgeries in addition to enduring years of blood work, and having dialysis performed five or six times per week.

"She didn't get to have a childhood," Liz says.

Katie was often treated at Rochester's Golisano Children's Hospital, which the Roberts Athletic Department supports with a benefit basketball doubleheader as part of its Redhawks Reach Out program each year.

"I was a regular there," she says. "So much so that even the cleaning crew knew my name."

As difficult as things were, Katie and Liz leaned on each other.

"My mom was my nurse," Katie says. "She's like my best friend. She was there for everything, and she has always been that crutch that I needed."

Liz, who has an older daughter, Margaret Hannan, and a younger son, Joe Curtiss, was Katie's strongest advocate. She also made sure others didn't give Katie special treatment because of the hardships the family was enduring.

"If she did something wrong in school, I told her teachers to scold her just like they would anyone else," Liz says.

Liz also says the family never felt sorry for itself.

"When you have issues, you just deal with them," she says. "We were lucky her whole life, because we could deal with whatever Katie was going through. There were treatments for every disease that she had and that isn't true for every child and every family."

'An obvious fit'

Katie graduated from Rush-Henrietta High School in 2010 and attended Monroe Community College before enrolling at Roberts. She was one of the first people Emily Miller met as a first-year student in 2016.

"We had a statistics class together and I was wearing Duke gear and Katie had on a UNC shirt," Miller recalls. "Katie, being a UNC fan, immediately struck up a conversation and gave me a hard time about it."
A friendship was formed.

Miller was also a forward on the women's basketball team who went on to score more than 1,000 points and grab more than 1,000 rebounds in her career. Katie and Liz attended many of the games and struck up a friendship with Miller's mother, Therese, who they often sat with in the stands.

"She was definitely one of our most loyal fans and our relationship just grew from there," Miller says.

The summer before Miller's senior year, the women's basketball team needed a manager. Katie, a self-described introvert at the time, saw a flier on campus and decided to go for it.
"Something in me was like 'take a shot,'" she recalls. "So I applied."

She met with coach Kevin Clifford, who did reference checks with Miller, fellow senior Sara Nady and others and offered Katie the job.

"She was an obvious fit because she was friends with so many of us," Miller says.

Katie embraced her role wholeheartedly, taking on the traditional tasks of a manager such as recording statistics and running the clock during practice, making sure that players have water and snacks during workouts, washing and folding laundry and packing equipment for road trips.

Most of all, she follows the No. 1 rule of "always being positive."

"Anything the players need, they let me know and I try to the best of my ability to get it done," she says.

"She's the best team manager that I have ever had in 18 years of coaching college basketball," Clifford says emphatically. "She's reliable, she's trustworthy, she's consistent and she has a good relationship with the players and coaches."

'Everyone smiles more when she is around'

When Katie graduated from Roberts with a degree in Homeland Security and Applied Intelligence in 2019, she thought her days as a manager were finished.

She took a full-time job at L3Harris in Inventory Management Support and COVID-19 arrived in the spring of 2020, changing everything.

As the 2021 season approached, the Redhawks were again in need of a manager and Katie was interested in returning. The details were ironed out and, much to the delight of Katie and the Redhawks, she came back.

"When she graduated, she resigned herself to being done," Liz says. "So, when this opportunity opened up again, she took ownership of the situation. It's all about her being there and giving back."

Now, she works a full-shift at Harris during the day before arriving at Roberts, where she puts in about 20 hours per week with the team during the season.

"She is a super hero," junior forward Emily Palmer says. "You can definitely tell that she is passionate about what she does. She works a full-time job and then she comes here and does what she does because of her passion for the team. She shows up every single day and does a good job."

"She honestly is like a mentor to us," junior guard Danielle DiCintio says. "We all love her, and she is like a sister to us."

Katie's role has grown through the years. In addition to taking care of all of the job requirements, she is a confidant for many of the players and often contributes thoughts on strategy to the coaching staff.

"She makes a difference, we wouldn't be able to do what we do without her," junior guard Georgia Haverlock says. "We just love Katie. Her character really shows through and she is really about serving others above self."

"She's the glue that keeps us together," Clifford says.

She has also become legendary for her one-liners and always having the right flavor of gum.

"She's the GOAT when it comes to gum," Haverlock says.

For Katie, it is all a labor of love.

"I don't see this as a job," she says. "I don't do it for the money, I enjoy what I am doing. When I am around the team, we are like a family. It gives me an adrenaline rush. When I go home from here, even after a 12-hour day, I am hopping around."

And her energy is infectious.

"The word for Katie is happiness," DiCintio says. "Everyone smiles more when she is around."

Katie is smiling, too. After not having the opportunity to participate in sports as a child, she is a healthy and happy member of a very special team.

"Short of being on the court or being on the field, this is the best thing that she can be doing," Liz says. "Being with the team just lights her up and she just cares so much for all of the girls.

"This child is supposed to be here in this world for a reason and she will always be here for a purpose. I don't know why she has to go through everything that she does, but she is here to help people."