Senior Kacy Edsall Thrives Amid Health Challenges and Academic Rigor

Senior swimmer Kacy Edsall isn't a typical athlete. Her family is more involved than most and her body constantly fights her whenever she dives into the pool. Still, Kacy continues to swim and set a high standard for the James Madison swimming and diving program.

For Kacy, her family has been the unfailing encouragement she needs to keep her motivated and successful in the pool.

"My family was my biggest support system. They helped me and led me in the right direction," Edsall said.

Her mother, Jodylee, used to be a swimmer herself and inspired both Kacy and her sister Kali Edsall, a sophomore swimmer at JMU, to swim competitively through college. Their father, Duke, is a NCAA Division I basketball referee. In addition, former Maryland football Head Coach Randy Edsall, now on staff with the Detroit Lions, is the uncle of the Edsall sisters.

"Our mom was really good about keeping us level-headed," Kali said. "And our dad has done a good job of being the voice of reason. He uses other sport tactics to bring into swimming and just uses his mentality as a sports-minded person. They're easy to talk to, they get what it's like when we're frustrated."

Coming from a family deeply rooted in sports has helped foster Kacy's successes at JMU. As a sophomore, Kacy was part of a team that won the 200-yard medley relay at the CAA Championships with a time of 1:40.34, a CAA meet and program record time. As a junior, she was a NCAA B cut finalist at the CAA Championship meet in the 100 backstroke and finished 16th overall.

"Kacy is a great leader. She had a lot of challenges to deal with and the fact that she overcame all of that and was successful, she's a leader in that sense," swimming and diving Assistant Coach Jacy Dyer said.

One of these challenges is the constriction of Kacy's airwaves and lungs. When she was in middle school, Kacy was diagnosed with severe asthma and allergies and many doctors suggested she quit swimming. Instead, Kacy refused to let her asthma hold her back and remained determined to prove the doctors wrong. She used this chronic disease to propel her to be better.

"It's just been a different challenge. I can't do as much as the other girls on the team a lot of the times," Kacy said. "It's been a lot of working with [Head Coach Dane Pedersen] and maybe not doing things the traditional ways, thinking outside the box with ways of training."

Though her sister, Kali, has watched Kacy grow and develop as a swimmer due to her asthma, she's still not used to seeing Kacy during an asthma attack.

"She has this thing about her where she doesn't quit. There were so many times that we would have to jump into the pool because she would be having an asthma attack in the middle of a race and would not be able to finish. So we had to jump in and pull her out of the pool," Kali said. "Even though she knows she shouldn't swim it, she still does because she doesn't want to let the team down."

As someone who suffers from severe asthma and allergies, Kacy has had extensive experience interacting with nurses and other hospital personnel. It's these interactions that helped shaped Kacy's career choice.

"I knew I wanted to go into a profession that helps people, so in some ways I felt that going into nursing was my way of giving back to the people who have helped me so much," Kacy said.

While competing and battling asthma in the pool, Kacy worked even harder in the classroom. She's the first swimmer in JMU program history to compete on the team for all four years while going through the rigorous nursing program. As a freshman, Kacy made the Dean's List for both fall and spring semesters. Then, as a sophomore, she was named a JMU Athletic Director Scholar-Athlete. Kacy is also a member of the Nursing Students' Association and was inducted into Pi Mu, a nursing honor society.

"Not a lot of people can do what she did, but Kacy has that attitude and mentality to do it and be successful," Dyer said. "It takes a special person to accomplish what she has."

Kacy's hard work in the pool and the classroom has paid off, though, as she has accepted a job at Carilion Roanoke Memorial Hospital that will begin in the summer. For these accomplishments, Kacy credits JMU swimming head coach Dane Pedersen and professor Christina Lam in the nursing program, who's in charge of scheduling.

Through it all, Kacy continues to inspire her teammates and all those around her.

"She's always had the drive to be the best she can be," Kali said. "She just has this light about her that keeps everybody smiling, even through her own hard times."

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