Executive director for the Lansing Sports Commission, Meghan Ziehmer, said the event was created last year to celebrate women and girls in sport, empower them to raise their voices, and create opportunities across the region.

“It’s been a male-dominated industry, but you’re definitely seeing that shift,” Ziehmer said. “It’s truly impactful to see what happens when women are provided opportunities and provided the resources to take those steps. It’s not that women haven’t been doing it — they have — it’s just that we’re now getting those resources and our voices are being taken more seriously.”

Cathy George is one of those women who has been leading the way for so long. 

George served as the Michigan State volleyball head coach from 2005 to 2021, including during Kelsay’s time as a player. When George began her tenure, she was the only female head volleyball coach in the Big Ten, a distinction she held for 16 years. Today, there are eight female head volleyball coaches in the conference, including Kelsay.

“I’m standing on her shoulders,” Kelsay said. “I’m standing on the women who have done it and done it well, so that I have this opportunity to lead women… How cool I get to be a Big Ten head coach at this age at my alma mater, at a place that cares for and values women’s leadership.”

Michigan State is the only Power Five school to have three straight female head volleyball coaches. MSU is also the only school within that group to even have back-to-back female coaches at all since 1991. 

“There is a tendency for women to cower a little bit and sit back, because in my day and age, that was the thing. I was the outlier,” George said. “I always had to fight. Now, it isn’t easy, but it’s gotten a lot better.”

This trailblazing notion was a theme of the event, with the speakers encouraging attendees to put themselves in male-dominated spaces and have the self-respect to speak up for the resources they need.

Dr. Jen Fry, the keynote speaker, talked about being unapologetically direct and advocating for herself in sports spaces as the key to progress.

“When you are pushing forward as a strong woman, you’re going to piss people off,” Fry said. “If you are worried about pissing people off for doing the right thing, you’re gonna have a hard life.”

The speakers reflected on the idea of pushing forward despite resistance, whether internal or external. Fry emphasized the need for women to know themselves and understand what they need as a key component of success in the sports world. George extended this idea to working in sports as a mother, stressing the importance of blending work and family while setting the boundaries necessary to function in both roles.

Kelsay added that although she does not have kids, role models such as her mom and George inspired her and made her believe it was possible — and if she does have kids, she’ll see how other women in roles like hers have juggled those responsibilities. 

“I want to make sure that when I have a daughter one day, I can look her in the eye and say you have to have the self-respect to do really hard things,” Kelsay said.

But whether it’s having kids while working or just working in a position women have historically been kept from, representation matters. “If you can see it, you can be it,” was an idea frequently touched on by speakers and attendees. 

“If you see somebody doing it, you have that confidence and that faith in yourself to take that step to try it for yourself,” Ziehmer said. The Lansing Sports Commission aimed to promote this idea not only through this event for FIERCE women in sports, but also as an event for younger girls to try out non-traditional sports, including pickleball and E-sports, in its inaugural FIERCE Girls in Sport clinic on Saturday.

MSU volleyball technical coordinator Rachel Schneider emphasized the importance of recognizing progress and continued growth in women’s sports.

“I think celebrating women's sports is very important, especially considering the opportunities that are out there for women and the room there is for growth," Schneider said. "Being a part of an event that highlights that and shows how far we’ve come and how much we still have to go is a good reminder to just keep working and push through.”