SE: Months After Final Game, Cramer Still Setting the Standard for K-State Soccer

By: Austin Siegel

The easiest way to explain Katie Cramer's month might be in terms of a soccer match.

The moment that Cramer and her family will remember years from now came last weekend, when she married another Wildcat, former K-State defensive back Denzel Goolsby.

So that's your highlight-reel goal, your direct-from-a-corner-kick strike that Cramer knows a thing or two about from her K-State soccer career.

But the month of June also had plenty of back-to-goal moments, the little things that take place away from the ball and away from the spotlight that Katie Cramer, the player, was known for.

Winning a Prentice Gautt Scholarship was one of those.

"Honestly, I couldn't believe it," Cramer said. "I kept rechecking it like, is this right? This can't be real."

Awarded to two student-athletes at each Big 12 school, the Prentice Gautt Scholarship provides significant funding to seniors who plan to attend graduate or professional school.

Cramer and K-State track and field's Ethan Powell were chosen as the school's 2020 winners.

During her time in Manhattan, Cramer majored in kinesiology – the study of human movement through physical activity and exercise. The major can lead down a variety of different career paths, but Cramer is already focused on her next chapter.

"I want to go to physician assistant school, which is pretty hard to get into," she said. "I decided in high school that it was such a cool career because you can make a great impact on people, not only physically, but mentally. That's what I want to do."

That passion emerged around the same time Cramer was bagging 56 goals at Wichita Northwest High School, though not from success on the field, but battles she fought off it.

Cramer endured five knee surgeries before she graduated high school – a list of operations that sound like five different career-ending injuries, not the left leg of a future K-State captain.

She tore her ACL as a freshman, endured a knee manipulation to strengthen her leg, had surgery to fix bone grafts, tore her ACL again and ended high school with a third ACL surgery after her body rejected the cadaver ACL meant to solve the problem it ended up causing.

"That's what exposed me to the physician assistant profession. I could really connect with the PA's and how they've impacted my life," Cramer said. "My knee surgeries and everything that I had to go through just to get to K-State to play soccer, that was guiding my inspiration for sure."

After battling through each knee rehab, often with the help of a physician assistant, Cramer wanted to find a career path that would allow her to engage with patients a similar way.

"That was my mindset: I want to help people physically, but also be impactful in whatever area they may need in their life," she said.

When she arrived at Kansas State, Cramer was focused on a nutrition and health major, but heading to physician assistant school was already in her post-college plans. There was also the small task of helping the Wildcats launch a Big 12 soccer program on a surgically-repaired knee.

It would take experiences in the classroom and on the soccer field for Cramer to graduate as a kinesiology major and Prentice Gautt Scholar. She didn't even consider kinesiology until a conversation with one of the TA's in a class she took on anatomy and physiology.

"He talked to me about some of the classes you can take through kinesiology, learn so much and really be prepared for PA school," she said. "That's what I decided to do, and he was so right. I've learned so much that's going to apply to what I want to pursue."

Outside of her academic department, Cramer was able to experience the real-world application of her major with access to the K-State sports medicine team as a student-athlete.

Cramer said that opportunities to shadow in the team doctor's office in Manhattan helped her learn more about the medical field. Same goes with the training room at K-State, where she felt a sense of connection with trainers who dedicate themselves to getting athletes healthy.

She was also surrounded by teammates who made sure her focus on academics wasn't just encouraged, but the standard for the K-State soccer program.

"I feel like we've gotten lucky because pretty much every girl that's come in is really focused not just on soccer, but on academics," Cramer said. "I was that girl, I was that valedictorian in high school that put all her effort and energy into getting A's and then going to practice. Being surrounded by that environment at K-State really pushed me and helped me."

The more time that Cramer spent shadowing in different doctor's office, the more she realized that "I really like every single place I've been." Whether she's working in a hospital or with student-athletes at a university, Cramer said she's open to whatever the future has in store.

It's an attitude that's guided Cramer her whole life, but on the K-State soccer team, it's just another part of the culture in Manhattan that's she helped build from the ground up.

"I could have taken the easy way out during some of the tough times, but I didn't, and a lot of other girls didn't either," she said. "For them to see that and be like 'Wow, that's the standard. I'm going to have to show up and not only be the best athlete but also be the best student,' it means a lot."

For Cramer, a Prentice Gautt scholarship is about that "best athlete, best student" mentality.
But it also means she helped build a program at K-State where that attitude is what makes everything else possible.

"That was kind of the journey. I'm passionate about science and learning about the body. It's been challenging but very, very awesome," she said. "As a student-athlete, a lot of people think it's just about playing soccer and scoring goals and winning, but we all know that's not it at all. It's about getting an education, graduating and having a career."

Kansas State University Athletics

SE: Months After Final Game, Cramer Still Setting the Standard for K-State Soccer

Players Mentioned

Katie Cramer

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