{"id":10175,"date":"2018-01-31T17:10:39","date_gmt":"2018-01-31T21:10:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/?p=10175"},"modified":"2022-03-22T13:46:04","modified_gmt":"2022-03-22T17:46:04","slug":"womens-football-player","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/womens-football-player\/","title":{"rendered":"Women’s Football Champion Inspires Campus with Tale of Perseverance"},"content":{"rendered":"

Every year Kalamazoo College athletes and coaches present a Community Reflection<\/a> session titled \u201cWhy We Play\u201d<\/a> where they share with the entire campus stories of what motivates them to compete, and the lessons and rewards of NCAA Division III athletics.<\/p>\n

\"Women's
Former women’s football champion Liz Okey \u201907 displays the gold medal she won as part of the 2013 U.S. team.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Inevitably, a few seniors also express regret that their sporting careers are about to end. In 2007, Liz Okey was one of them. A Hornets volleyball<\/a> player who served as team captain, Okey was moving on to graduate school and a career in Chicago.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I graduated \u2026 I thought my athletic career was over,\u201d she told the audience in Stetson Chapel<\/a> as she returned to K share her story at this year’s \u201cWhy We Play\u201d<\/a> reflection in late January.<\/p>\n

Instead, she began a completely new adventure, discovering women\u2019s tackle football, and in 2009, becoming a lineman for the Chicago Force, part of the Women’s Football Alliance.<\/p>\n

\u201cI tried out for the Force and traded my knee pads for shoulder pads,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Women\u2019s tackle football is just like the men\u2019s game, she said, except the ball is slightly smaller \u2014 and there\u2019s no pay. She loved the game, and kept on playing until her fourth year. In the home opener of that season, which would see the Force contend for a national championship, she suffered a devastating injury.<\/p>\n

Recovering from surgery for a fractured fibula required extensive physical therapy, she said, and after the Force lost a \u201cnail-biter\u201d championship game, she thought about retiring from football.<\/p>\n

\"Women's
Former women’s football champion Liz Okey \u201907 lines up at center for the Chicago Force during the 2014 season.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cMy body had been through it all, and I had spent eight months a year for the last four years living and breathing football,\u201d she said. \u201cAfter a lot of soul searching, I returned to the questions that brought us all here today: Why do I play? And I realized I was not ready to hang up my cleats. I had more to give.\u201d<\/p>\n

She recalled an annual volleyball drill at K that, as she put it, was \u201cdesigned to cause players stress\u201d by forcing them to compete against a numerically superior squad while repeatedly changing up their offense.<\/p>\n

\u201cEssentially, these players had to achieve the near-impossible, and yet the rule was they couldn\u2019t quit. Every year we knew we were going to be pushed to the edge, and we only had one choice: to dig deeper and overcome,\u201d she said. \u201cI knew following that injury that I had more inside of me. I had more to give to my teammates, to my coaches, to the city that I represented and to the sport of football. I was not done yet.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nine months after her surgery, she won the competition to become the starting center on the U.S. Women\u2019s National Team. The team went on to win the world championship that July in Finland, where the Americans crushed opponents from Sweden, Germany and Canada.<\/p>\n

\"Women's
Former women’s football champion Liz Okey \u201907 in a Chicago Force official team photo.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

After that, Okey returned to the Force, which won a national championship the next month. When the team failed to repeat in 2014, she retired. She still proudly wears her championship rings and serves on the executive committee of the board of USA Football, the official youth football development partner of the NFL.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a magical thing about sports,\u201d she said. \u201cIt teaches you things about life. How to withstand, react and rebound from life\u2019s greatest adversities.\u201d<\/p>\n

She said returning to speak at K had been a dream of hers, and she urged current Hornets to pursue their own dreams with similar dedication.<\/p>\n

\u201cFuture Hornets, this amazing campus and community has not seen your talents yet. Prepare to give it your all. Current students, your adult life is about to take off. Give the world everything you\u2019ve got,\u201d she said. \u201cFaculty and coaches, you\u2019re shaping the leaders of tomorrow. Protect them, push them and give them all the tools they need to succeed. Each of us will be tested on a regular basis. And under the layers of doubt and fear we each have more to give. So do one more rep, run that extra mile, volunteer one more hour and give it one more shot. You never know where that extra effort will take you.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Every year Kalamazoo College athletes and coaches present a Community Reflection session titled \u201cWhy We Play\u201d where they share with the entire campus stories of what motivates them to compete, and the lessons and rewards of NCAA Division III athletics. Inevitably, a few seniors also express regret that their sporting careers are about to end. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":156,"featured_media":10192,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[232],"tags":[36,9,62,210],"post_formats":[],"class_list":["post-10175","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alumni","tag-athletics","tag-community-reflection","tag-phys-ed","tag-why-we-play"],"yoast_head":"\r\nWomen's Football Champion Inspires Campus with Tale of Perseverance<\/title>\r\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Former Women's Football Alliance champion Liz Okey was among the former K athletes speaking at this year's "Why We Play."\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\r\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/womens-football-player\/\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Women's Football Champion Inspires Campus with Tale of Perseverance\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Former Women's Football Alliance champion Liz Okey was among the former K athletes speaking at this year's "Why We Play."\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/womens-football-player\/\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"News and Events\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/KalamazooCollege\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2018-01-31T21:10:39+00:00\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-03-22T17:46:04+00:00\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/files\/2018\/01\/Womens-Football-Champion-Okey-3.jpg\" \/>\r\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"887\" \/>\r\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"960\" \/>\r\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@kcollege\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@kcollege\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\r\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/womens-football-player\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/womens-football-player\/\",\"name\":\"Women's Football Champion Inspires Campus with Tale of Perseverance\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/womens-football-player\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/womens-football-player\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/files\/2018\/01\/Womens-Football-Champion-Okey-3.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2018-01-31T21:10:39+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-03-22T17:46:04+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"\"},\"description\":\"Former Women's Football Alliance champion Liz Okey was among the former K athletes speaking at this year's \\\"Why We Play.\\\"\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/womens-football-player\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/womens-football-player\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/womens-football-player\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/files\/2018\/01\/Womens-Football-Champion-Okey-3.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/files\/2018\/01\/Womens-Football-Champion-Okey-3.jpg\",\"width\":887,\"height\":960,\"caption\":\"Former women's football champion Liz Okey \u201907 lines up at center for the Chicago Force during the 2014 season.\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/womens-football-player\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Women’s Football Champion Inspires Campus with Tale of Perseverance\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/\",\"name\":\"News and Events\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"\"}]}<\/script>\r\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Women's Football Champion Inspires Campus with Tale of Perseverance","description":"Former Women's Football Alliance champion Liz Okey was among the former K athletes speaking at this year's \"Why We Play.\"","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/womens-football-player\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Women's Football Champion Inspires Campus with Tale of Perseverance","og_description":"Former Women's Football Alliance champion Liz Okey was among the former K athletes speaking at this year's \"Why We Play.\"","og_url":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/womens-football-player\/","og_site_name":"News and Events","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/KalamazooCollege","article_published_time":"2018-01-31T21:10:39+00:00","article_modified_time":"2022-03-22T17:46:04+00:00","og_image":[{"width":887,"height":960,"url":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/files\/2018\/01\/Womens-Football-Champion-Okey-3.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@kcollege","twitter_site":"@kcollege","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/womens-football-player\/","url":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/womens-football-player\/","name":"Women's Football Champion Inspires Campus with Tale of Perseverance","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/womens-football-player\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/womens-football-player\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/files\/2018\/01\/Womens-Football-Champion-Okey-3.jpg","datePublished":"2018-01-31T21:10:39+00:00","dateModified":"2022-03-22T17:46:04+00:00","author":{"@id":""},"description":"Former Women's Football Alliance champion Liz Okey was among the former K athletes speaking at this year's \"Why We Play.\"","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/womens-football-player\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/womens-football-player\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/womens-football-player\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/files\/2018\/01\/Womens-Football-Champion-Okey-3.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/files\/2018\/01\/Womens-Football-Champion-Okey-3.jpg","width":887,"height":960,"caption":"Former women's football champion Liz Okey \u201907 lines up at center for the Chicago Force during the 2014 season."},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/womens-football-player\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Women’s Football Champion Inspires Campus with Tale of Perseverance"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/","name":"News and Events","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":""}]}},"featured_image_src":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/files\/2018\/01\/Womens-Football-Champion-Okey-3.jpg","featured_image_src_square":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/files\/2018\/01\/Womens-Football-Champion-Okey-3.jpg","author_info":{"display_name":"","author_link":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/author\/"},"guten_post_layout_featured_media_urls":{"full":["https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/files\/2018\/01\/Womens-Football-Champion-Okey-3.jpg",887,960,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/files\/2018\/01\/Womens-Football-Champion-Okey-3-139x150.jpg",139,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/files\/2018\/01\/Womens-Football-Champion-Okey-3-300x325.jpg",300,325,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/files\/2018\/01\/Womens-Football-Champion-Okey-3.jpg",887,960,false],"large":["https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/files\/2018\/01\/Womens-Football-Champion-Okey-3-600x649.jpg",600,649,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/files\/2018\/01\/Womens-Football-Champion-Okey-3.jpg",887,960,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/files\/2018\/01\/Womens-Football-Champion-Okey-3.jpg",887,960,false],"ab-block-post-grid-landscape":["https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/files\/2018\/01\/Womens-Football-Champion-Okey-3.jpg",370,400,false],"ab-block-post-grid-square":["https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/files\/2018\/01\/Womens-Football-Champion-Okey-3.jpg",554,600,false],"pl-blogpost-landscape":["https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/files\/2018\/01\/Womens-Football-Champion-Okey-3.jpg",370,400,false],"pl-blogpost-square":["https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/files\/2018\/01\/Womens-Football-Champion-Okey-3.jpg",554,600,false],"guten_post_layout_landscape_large":["https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/files\/2018\/01\/Womens-Football-Champion-Okey-3.jpg",739,800,false],"guten_post_layout_portrait_large":["https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/files\/2018\/01\/Womens-Football-Champion-Okey-3.jpg",887,960,false],"guten_post_layout_square_large":["https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/files\/2018\/01\/Womens-Football-Champion-Okey-3.jpg",887,960,false],"guten_post_layout_landscape":["https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/files\/2018\/01\/Womens-Football-Champion-Okey-3.jpg",370,400,false],"guten_post_layout_portrait":["https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/files\/2018\/01\/Womens-Football-Champion-Okey-3.jpg",600,649,false],"guten_post_layout_square":["https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/files\/2018\/01\/Womens-Football-Champion-Okey-3.jpg",554,600,false],"campus-posts-thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/files\/2018\/01\/Womens-Football-Champion-Okey-3.jpg",277,300,false],"gform-image-choice-sm":["https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/files\/2018\/01\/Womens-Football-Champion-Okey-3.jpg",277,300,false],"gform-image-choice-md":["https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/files\/2018\/01\/Womens-Football-Champion-Okey-3.jpg",370,400,false],"gform-image-choice-lg":["https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/files\/2018\/01\/Womens-Football-Champion-Okey-3.jpg",554,600,false]},"category_info":"<a aria-label=\"archive of category Alumni\" href=\"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/category\/alumni\/\" rel=\"category tag\">Alumni<\/a>","tags_info":"<a href=\"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/tag\/athletics\/\" rel=\"tag\">athletics<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/tag\/community-reflection\/\" rel=\"tag\">community reflection<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/tag\/phys-ed\/\" rel=\"tag\">phys ed<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/tag\/why-we-play\/\" rel=\"tag\">why we play<\/a>","social_share_info":"<a data-share=\"facebook\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/womens-football-player\/\" class=\"pl-facebook-share social-share-default pl-social-share\" target=\"_blank\"><i class=\"fab fa-facebook-f\" aria-hidden=\"true\"><\/i><\/a><a data-share=\"twitter\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/share?url=https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/womens-football-player\/\" class=\"pl-twiiter-share social-share-default pl-social-share\" target=\"_blank\"><i class=\"fab fa-twitter\" aria-hidden=\"true\"><\/i><\/a><a data-share=\"linkedin\" href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/shareArticle?url=https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/womens-football-player\/\" class=\"pl-linkedin-share social-share-default pl-social-share\" target=\"_blank\"><i class=\"fab fa-linkedin-in\" aria-hidden=\"true\"><\/i><\/a>","wordExcerpt_info":"<p>Every year Kalamazoo College athletes and coaches present a <a href=\"https:\/\/reason.kzoo.edu\/chapel\/reflection\/\">Community Reflection<\/a> session titled <a href=\"https:\/\/vimeo.com\/253246366\">\u201cWhy We Play\u201d<\/a> where they share with the entire campus stories of what motivates them to compete, and the lessons and rewards of NCAA Division III athletics.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_10190\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-10190\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-10190\" src=\"\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/files\/2018\/01\/Womens-Football-Champion-Okey-1-300x400.jpg\" alt=\"Women's Football Champion Liz Okey\" width=\"300\" height=\"400\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-10190\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Former women’s football champion Liz Okey \u201907 displays the gold medal she won as part of the 2013 U.S. team.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Inevitably, a few seniors also express regret that their sporting careers are about to end. In 2007, Liz Okey was one of them. A <a href=\"http:\/\/hornets.kzoo.edu\/sports\/wvball\/index\">Hornets volleyball<\/a> player who served as team captain, Okey was moving on to graduate school and a career in Chicago.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen I graduated \u2026 I thought my athletic career was over,\u201d she told the audience in <a href=\"https:\/\/map.concept3d.com\/?id=198#!m\/183441\">Stetson Chapel<\/a> as she returned to K share her story at this year’s <a href=\"https:\/\/vimeo.com\/253246366\">\u201cWhy We Play\u201d<\/a> reflection in late January.<\/p>\n<p>Instead, she began a completely new adventure, discovering women\u2019s tackle football, and in 2009, becoming a lineman for the Chicago Force, part of the Women’s Football Alliance.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI tried out for the Force and traded my knee pads for shoulder pads,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>Women\u2019s tackle football is just like the men\u2019s game, she said, except the ball is slightly smaller \u2014 and there\u2019s no pay. She loved the game, and kept on playing until her fourth year. In the home opener of that season, which would see the Force contend for a national championship, she suffered a devastating injury.<\/p>\n<p>Recovering from surgery for a fractured fibula required extensive physical therapy, she said, and after the Force lost a \u201cnail-biter\u201d championship game, she thought about retiring from football.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_10192\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-10192\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-10192\" src=\"\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/files\/2018\/01\/Womens-Football-Champion-Okey-3-300x325.jpg\" alt=\"Women's Football Champion Liz Okey at center\" width=\"300\" height=\"325\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-10192\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Former women’s football champion Liz Okey \u201907 lines up at center for the Chicago Force during the 2014 season.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>\u201cMy body had been through it all, and I had spent eight months a year for the last four years living and breathing football,\u201d she said. \u201cAfter a lot of soul searching, I returned to the questions that brought us all here today: Why do I play? And I realized I was not ready to hang up my cleats. I had more to give.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>She recalled an annual volleyball drill at K that, as she put it, was \u201cdesigned to cause players stress\u201d by forcing them to compete against a numerically superior squad while repeatedly changing up their offense.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEssentially, these players had to achieve the near-impossible, and yet the rule was they couldn\u2019t quit. Every year we knew we were going to be pushed to the edge, and we only had one choice: to dig deeper and overcome,\u201d she said. \u201cI knew following that injury that I had more inside of me. I had more to give to my teammates, to my coaches, to the city that I represented and to the sport of football. I was not done yet.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Nine months after her surgery, she won the competition to become the starting center on the U.S. Women\u2019s National Team. The team went on to win the world championship that July in Finland, where the Americans crushed opponents from Sweden, Germany and Canada.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_10191\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-10191\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-10191\" src=\"\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/files\/2018\/01\/Womens-Football-Champion-Okey-2-300x451.jpg\" alt=\"Women's Football Champion Liz Okey kneels\" width=\"300\" height=\"451\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-10191\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Former women’s football champion Liz Okey \u201907 in a Chicago Force official team photo.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>After that, Okey returned to the Force, which won a national championship the next month. When the team failed to repeat in 2014, she retired. She still proudly wears her championship rings and serves on the executive committee of the board of USA Football, the official youth football development partner of the NFL.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere\u2019s a magical thing about sports,\u201d she said. \u201cIt teaches you things about life. How to withstand, react and rebound from life\u2019s greatest adversities.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>She said returning to speak at K had been a dream of hers, and she urged current Hornets to pursue their own dreams with similar dedication.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFuture Hornets, this amazing campus and community has not seen your talents yet. Prepare to give it your all. Current students, your adult life is about to take off. Give the world everything you\u2019ve got,\u201d she said. \u201cFaculty and coaches, you\u2019re shaping the leaders of tomorrow. Protect them, push them and give them all the tools they need to succeed. Each of us will be tested on a regular basis. And under the layers of doubt and fear we each have more to give. So do one more rep, run that extra mile, volunteer one more hour and give it one more shot. You never know where that extra effort will take you.\u201d<\/p>\n","comment_info":"No Comments","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10175","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/156"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10175"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10175\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11102,"href":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10175\/revisions\/11102"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10192"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10175"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10175"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10175"},{"taxonomy":"post_format","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post_formats?post=10175"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}