May 20, 2018
By John Heisler
The name Byron V. Kanaley may not roll off the tongues of Irish fans when they list the most noteworthy heroes and role models in University of Notre Dame athletic history.
Yet the longstanding annual awards presented in his name remain the most distinguished given by the University to its student-athletes.
Consider a few of the highlights of the half-dozen graduating seniors who claimed the 2018 versions of the Kanaley Awards:
–All six captained their respective Notre Dame teams for at least one season, most for more than one year.
–Two were multi-year All-Americans, one who earned at least third-team honors all four of his years on campus.
–Each of the six produced a final career grade-point average of at least 3.4.
–They all played prominent roles within their individual teams in the community service realm.
–Their academic majors ran the gamut from IT technology to management consulting, science business, engineering, neuroscience and behavior to theology.
–They came from six different states — from New York to California.
All that and much more explains why Matt Habrowski (men’s soccer), Jessica Harris (women’s track and field), Natalie Johnson (volleyball), Allison Miller (women’s tennis), Jonah Shainberg (men’s fencing) and Sandra Yu (women’s soccer) produced the sorts of glittering resumes to merit the Kanaley, named after a former Irish baseball player and 1904 graduate who went on to become a prominent name in the financial sector in Chicago as well as a University Trustee.
The Kanaley Awards beginning in 1926 and for decades were presented at commencement exercises where mostly only fellow graduates learned of those honors. In recent years the selection process has been moved up to enable the Kanaleys to be handed out at the annual O.S.C.A.R.S. year-end athletic event.
These awards are noteworthy for two more reasons:
- Each Irish head coach is permitted to nominate only one graduating senior each year.
- The award winners are determined by deliberation of Faculty Board on Athletics members.
Since those respective head coaches had the benefit of watching their nominees grow under their eyes over the course of at least a four-year-period, their comments on what impressed them most about the student-athletes qualify as particularly instructive:
–Habrowski (Berkley, Michigan) in four and a half years at Notre Dame earned both a bachelor’s degree (engineering) and a master’s degree (applied and computational mathematics and statistics). He started 65 games as a central defender and notched two game-winning goals.
“Matt was a special player on our team as he was the consummate student-athlete and was a perfect fit for Notre Dame,” said new Irish men’s soccer coach Chad Riley.
“He was a very influential captain both his senior year and his fifth year as a graduate student. He had excellent leadership skills and was a superb role model both as an athlete and as a student. He was very much a servant leader and was a tremendous example for the underclassmen.”
–Harris (Cockeysville, Maryland) claimed a handful of both indoor and outdoor All-America honors, including first-team designations in the mile and with the Irish distance medley relay unit. She was a two-time Atlantic Coast Conference indoor champion in the mile.
“While the women’s track and field team has had several standout athletes in the recent past, Jessica Harris is a name that was often overlooked despite her national level achievements,” said Notre Dame head coach Alan Turner.
“When Jess arrived at Notre Dame as a freshman she hadn’t been highly touted and was expected to be a role player on the team. By December of her freshman year, it was clear that Jess had something special. In her freshman track season, she broke both the indoor 1,000-meter and 800-meter school records, which both had been set by multiple-time All-Americans.
“While Jess was always focused on her athletics and academics, she consistently took time for others. Throughout her time at Notre Dame, she invested time working as a tutor at the Center for Social Concerns and reading with students at McKinley Elementary School.
“In addition to those volunteer opportunities, Jess spent last summer at a Summer Service Learning Program. While working as a teaching intern at the El Centrito Family Learning Center, she instructed third-eighth graders in STEAM curriculum (science, technology, engineering, art and mathematics), worked on lesson plans and mentored students. Within the community of Notre Dame athletics, Jess took a leadership role from the time she arrived.”
–Johnson (Pasadena, California) led the Atlantic Coast Conference in 2017 in aces and helped Notre Dame back to the NCAA Championship this past season for the first time since 2012.
“Through the development of her God-given ability and an enormous amount of hard work, Natalie became one the greatest leaders that I have ever coached in my 29 years of being a volleyball coach,” said Irish head coach Jim McLaughlin.
“Aside from all of her athletic accomplishments, what I admire even more is the fact that she is an even better person than she is a volleyball player. Natalie’s actions continually proved that she was and still is the type of person that we want to represent our program and University.
“She is unique and special in many ways. She is the certainly one of the greatest teammates that I have ever coached. Every day at practice, every film session, every road trip and essentially every moment with Natalie was wonderful as well as meaningful. She is one of the most loyal people that I have ever worked with. I was continuously impressed with her presence and the way she handled a variety of challenging situations.
“As a person, her influence on people was unmatched. She was very proactive and would do what it took to get the job done. I have always believed that the top people in their respective fields, the great ones, have the ability to make the people around them better.
“Natalie constantly made the people around her better, including me.”
–Miller (Norcross, Georgia) played number-one doubles and number-two singles for her Irish team as a senior in 2017-18.
“I have been coaching college tennis for 39 years and have had the opportunity to work with some of the top players in college tennis,” said Notre Dame head coach Jay Louderback, who announced his retirement following the 2018 season.
“Allison is the hardest worker I have had the privilege of coaching. I am amazed at how she managed her time to be able to not only compete at a high level in college but also excel in the classroom. She somehow managed to put in extra time on the court almost every day. Many times it is hitting on the ball machine by herself with no one around. On weekends when her teammates took some time off she was working to improve.
“Allison was a remarkable team captain and teammate. Seniors usually ride in the front of the van on trips and warm up for practice on the top courts. Allison decided this year since we had so many freshmen they would ride in the front of the van and warm up on the top courts while the juniors and seniors would take the back.
“Many seniors have so much going on they don’t take the time to get to know the freshmen on the team. With academics and tennis taking up most of Allison’s time she found the time to bond with all of our freshmen. She not only brought her work ethic to practice every day but also a positive attitude which spread throughout the team.”
–Shainberg (Rye, New York) won four straight All-America designations for his efforts at NCAA Championships, won more individuals matches (196) than any other fencer in Notre Dame history and helped the Irish to NCAA titles in 2017 and 2018.
Said Irish fencing coach Gia Kvaratskhelia, “Jonah’s record with our fencing program was off the charts. He was an All-American not just once but all four seasons in which he competed. No fencer in Notre Dame history won more bouts than he did — that involved amazing consistency at a high level. On top of that he played a major role in helping Notre Dame win two NCAA championships.
“He also received the 2018 Management & Organization Department Student Service Award from the Mendoza College of Business, and he served as a teaching assistant in business problem solving and innovation and design thinking courses throughout his senior year. Last summer he worked as a financial services business advisory intern, reviewing high-risk bank accounts to determine anti-money laundering compliance. He also did case analyses of transactions for potential money laundering and terrorist-financed operations.
“Jonah did a superb job of getting the most out of every one of his opportunities and experiences at Notre Dame.”
–In addition to receiving All-America honors as a senior, Yu (Strongsville, Ohio) spent three years as a member of the Notre Dame athletic steering committee that provides feedback and reaction to University vice president and James E. Rohr athletics director Jack Swarbrick.
“Sandra had numerous examples where she demonstrated leadership and excellence,” said new Irish women’s soccer coach Nate Norman, an assistant on the Notre Dame staff during Yu’s final season in 2017.
“There was a specific game last season where Sandra did not feel one of her teammates was giving everything she had. Sandra calmly spoke to this player in a positive manner–explaining to her teammate why she was such a valuable member of this team on and off the field and what the expectations are of every player on the team every time they step on the field. This type of conversation happened at other various moments throughout her career as Sandra was not only concerned with pushing herself to become her best, but was consistently willing to inspire her teammates to become the best versions of themselves.
“Sandra was able to achieve all of this athletic and academic excellence in 2017 all while juggling being in an intensive graduate-level academic program. During preseason she was doing everything she could to be successful in both areas. She would often have to miss training sessions due to class commitments and would make it up by doing training on her own or with a coach. She had to miss a portion of our preseason when we went up to northern Michigan because she couldn’t miss class. There wasn’t a single person that doubted her commitment to the team and everyone knew she would do workouts on her own to ensure she was ready for the season.
“This consistent work ethic she showed in all areas of her life earned the respect of all her teammates and allowed her to be a great leader. These actions inspired her teammates as many of our players looked up to Sandra and sought her advice when they were feeling overwhelmed by the pressures of the academic and athletic experience at Notre Dame. She did a wonderful job of reaching out to her teammates and inspiring them to persevere through adversity.”
Here’s where the 2018 Kanaley Award winners now are headed:
–Habrowski will begin work as a data science consultant for Booz Allen Hamilton in Washington, D.C.
–Harris plans to enter a physician assistant program and eventually the healthcare profession.
–Johnson hopes to work for a tech firm or start-up company.
–Miller also is planning to attend physician assistant school.
–Shainberg expects to enter the financial services industry.
–Yu initially plans to play professional soccer (she was the eighth overall selection by Portland in the National Women’s Soccer League draft in January) and ultimately would like to start her own clothing business.
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The Kanaley Awards go to the senior monogram athletes “who have been most exemplary as students and leaders.”
McLaughlin, the Irish volleyball head coach, provided one final example of how one of these individuals impacted Notre Dame.
“There was one point in the season when I had a heart-to-heart talk with Natalie (Johnson).
“Natalie did everything right. She was the first one to practice and the last one to leave. She worked extremely hard on every play and in every drill. She had tremendous energy on every play and in every drill. Again, she did everything right but she wasn’t improving — and the foundation of our program is improvement.
“Natalie had to learn how to learn. She began to process information better, she became more mindful, she listened better and followed better. As a result, she improved her passing from 37 percent perfect to 56 percent perfect–a quantum leap statistically. She came in outside of practice time to work on her serve and became the number-one server on our team — and when she served we scored more points in her rotation. She also improved her vertical jump by five inches in one season which is unheard of for a defensive specialist who doesn’t jump and spike or jump and block.
“In another meeting I had with Natalie after the season, I asked her what the staff could do better, how we could help her and her teammates more and she responded by telling me to put more pressure on the players in practice drills to get them ready for bigger moments during live games.
“Her teammates took notice and her example impacted each one of her teammates. She also carried herself with extreme humility at all times.
“The greatest leaders that I’ve been around listened, followed, got better at what they did and carried themselves with great humility. Because of that, those people became great examples to others.
“Everyone wanted to emulate Natalie Johnson. She became the shining example of the level of commitment it takes to be great, how to improve, how to be a teammate and how to carry oneself on and off the court.”
Notre Dame provides a variety of programs to help its athletes — many of them already elite-level competitors–become better leaders.
The Kanaley Award winners represent some of the best success stories of that commitment.
Senior associate athletics director John Heisler has been following Notre Dame athletic fortunes since 1978.