Enshrined: Raising Her Family in a Perfect Place
Steffan-Greenwald felt Fort Collins would always be home
Mike Brohard
Throughout life, moments and memories will stick with you and help form the person you become. Kate Steffan-Greenwald can’t remember a time when her mother missed one of her events, and there were too many to count.
She came to Colorado State to play volleyball, and by the time her four-year career was done, she had found her future husband (Sam) and home. They would leave after graduation, but the overall desire was they would be back.
“I loved being around. I loved my time here,” Steffan-Greenwald said. “I love being close enough to the mountains to get away if we wanted. I still love driving up to Horsetooth, and we live five minutes from downtown Fort Collins.
“The lighting ceremony in November is still one of the coolest things after all these years. We went to Disneyland as a family a few years ago and just walking down Main Street and being, man, I live where this was based. You know, it's just cool.”
An AVCA All-American during one of the most productive runs in Colorado State history, Steffan-Greenwald is one of five former Rams who will be inducted into Colorado State’s Athletic Hall of Fame on Oct. 2 during a ceremony at Canvas Stadium. Tickets are available for the banquet, which begins at 4 p.m.
Some aspects of life just take time, require patience. Kate knew that long before devoting her life to raising three children. She understood it as a player in a program stacked with talent. She grasped the value of seizing the moment, the one which allowed them to return to Fort Collins.
Sam graduated with a degree in construction management and landed in the field of oil and gas construction, a profession she said had them moving about once a year for five years. Now that he is based in Greeley, six years ago they decided to establish residence in Fort Collins.
Simply waiting for the right time doesn’t always do the trick, especially on a volleyball court. Particularly when playing for Tom Hilbert. Her first three seasons, Kate was an important member of teams which not only won conference titles and qualified for the NCAA Tournament but won when they got there. Those Ram teams regularly won big matches with a loaded roster.
While Kate was performing as an opposite hitter, Danielle Minch was earning conference player of the year honors in 2009 and 2010. Then Hilbert came up with a crazy idea: move Kate to outside hitter her senior year. Hilbert’s assistants thought it was risky.
“We moved her to be a six-rotation outside hitter in her senior year, and she had been playing right side most of the time. And then she was sort of this hybrid,” Hilbert said. “She had a role, one rotation where she was middle for a rotation and then played right the next two. It was like, she's always doing something different and she just evolved into this sort of all tool player.
“She did become a leader through developing trust and through her understanding of the game of volleyball. Now, remember -- this is the other thing people don't realize -- that kid never played club volleyball. She was a three-sport athlete for the Dickinson Midgets. She was track basketball, volleyball. She was recruited more highly for basketball than volleyball, and so she learned a lot about the game in her redshirt year. Then she grew as a player, and by the end, she was a coach on the floor. She was telling people, this is what you do here. I've always thought to myself, she should have been a coach when she got out of college.”
Every day is an adventure, a new adventure, and who knows what's going to come next.Kate Steffan-Greenwald
At the end of her senior season, not only was she the conference player of the year (part of a streak of 10 consecutive years a Ram earned the honor), she was named an AVCA third-team All-American.
Which she did for a few years, and eventually she would like to get back to coaching volleyball at a local school or club. She still plays once a week with her husband in a rec league.
For now, she’s content coaching her kids in what they do athletically, primarily basketball. Her oldest, Eli, is 13, born with a rare form of muscular dystrophy; Abby is eight, Carter five. As a family, they like to be active by going camping or creating their own adventures, all while making sure it is all accessible for Eli.
Being a mom is where she finds her joy, all the while realizing a plan will rarely stay in place. Then again, that’s part of the fun and much of the reward.
“Of course you ask about that as they’ve been pulling each other’s hair out and it’s about time to go back to school,” she said with a laugh. “Every day is an adventure, a new adventure, and who knows what's going to come next.
“I think that goes along with motherhood. As I've watched my older two get a little bit more independent, responsible, things like that, I notice that I'm still instilling that in my 5-year-old. You know, we're still trying to get the routines down and stuff like that, and it's just a game of patience and putting in the work every day. But hopefully, sometime down the road, we're doing all of these things ourselves, and we're happy kids.”
The volleyball player Hilbert watched grow is exactly the type of person he would expect to be a good and devoted mother, a role model for her children.
She was talented, yet unassuming. She was never animated, yet her star shone brightly as a Ram. As a lone senior, she guided through example to another title, another tournament and national recognition for herself. The 2011 squad was really good, better than some expected.
“And it was because Kate was a fantastic leader,” Hilbert said. “And she never got credit for that.”
Not that she sought any, and her election to the Hall caught her off guard. It took her back to the past right in the middle of her current life.
She was making dinner when CSU Director of Athletics John Weber called. She went into an adjacent room and became emotional.
“He said, ‘congratulations, you're being inducted into the Hall of Fame. And I said, ‘you're kidding me,’” she recalled. “He said, ‘no, this is the best part of my job. And I just … I even said to him, I have never been this speechless, and I had to wait a grueling 15 minutes for my husband to get home before I could share the news with him. I told my husband that I think the call when I found out I was an All-American and the call from John were some of the coolest moments of my life.
“I mean, I never thought I was going to get a call that I was an All-American. I had a very successful senior season, but I always wanted to be even better, so you just feel like it still wasn't good enough or something. And so, yeah, I've watched some of my teammates get into the Hall of Fame at CSU and just been so incredibly proud of them and proud to have played with them. But yeah, I never expected my name to make that list. So it's pretty cool.”
Patience has had a way of paying off for Kate. The part of her life which was part of her plan, and particularly the occasions when she’s been caught off guard in the best of ways.
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