DAYTON – Never give up. That's the mentality of University of Dayton junior pre-veterinarian medicine/biology major Colleen McDonnell. That determination has served her well in her academic and athletic endeavors, including becoming a walk-on for the NCAA Division I Flyer women's rowing team.

"Over the last two-and-a-half years, Colleen has been a vital member of the rowing team," said Dayton head coach Mike Wenker. "She is a talented athlete who brings a competitive spirit to the team. Colleen wants to do great things, so she pushes herself and her teammates." 

Vanderbilt's Sarah Fuller has put a national spotlight on females breaking down barriers and making history by becoming the first woman to ever appear in a Power 5 football game. McDonnell's been a pioneer in football too.

She broke down barriers in her hometown of Jackson, Mich., becoming the first female in program history to score a point for the Lumen Christi Catholic School football team when she made a PAT in the 2017 season-opening 27-24 victory over the defending Division 5 state champs. To close out that historical season, she became the first female to win a boy's football state championship in Michigan (the Titans defeated Ithaca, 40-34, in the 2017 final to capture the second of three consecutive MHSAA Division 6 titles).

McDonnell joined the football team with that exact accomplishment in mind. Ever since she saw her older sister Shannon, as a freshman, win a cross country state championship, the thought of winning her own state title consumed her. The joy she saw when her sister celebrated with her teammates was something she knew she wanted to experience too.

Two years later when she started high school, McDonnell joined her sister on the cross country team. She ran two seasons with Shannon before the elder McDonnell sibling graduated and went to study pre-medicine at Loyola-Chicago. Colleen ran two more seasons without her sister and each time, she got very, very close to winning that state title. She was part of four conference and three regional championships, but she still had not reached her ultimate goal.

Despite standing at just 5-foot-7, McDonnell also excelled as goalkeeper on the Lumen Christi girls' soccer team. Playing the sport since she was three years old, she was highly successful – a three-time all-state performer and broke the record for most shutouts in school history (33).

But still no state championship.

She sought an alternative option. She reached out to the head coach of the Lumen Christi football team and asked if she could try out for the team. After putting in the work, she won the starting placekicker position leading up to her senior season.

"It took courage to step on the field or to even ask our head coach if I could be considered to play. It was a bit scary at first when I didn't know how it would be taken by the team, coaches, female classmates, and community," said McDonnell. "I just knew that I wanted to win a state championship more than I wanted anyone's approval. My teammates didn't question my presence on the first day of camp and they treated me with the utmost respect through the season.

"I never thought that I couldn't play," she added. "A lot of times our culture will push this idea that girls will not be accepted in sports like football. I was raised thinking that there was nothing I couldn't be with a solid work ethic, and I believed it."

That belief led to her finally reaching her goal of winning a state championship and it happened at the Detroit Lions' Ford Field with her teammates.

"There was a lot of hype going up to it, but I was very excited. The stadium was so loud – the noise just would shake you – and it was very intimidating," said McDonnell. "It was my senior year. It took such a long time to get there and I realized it's going to finally happen. I loved it."

Her drive to never give up led to her becoming a role model.

"When I visited the elementary schools with teammates the little girls loved me," said McDonnell. "We noticed more girls coming to the youth football camps the following summer and there was a middle school girl that joined her boys' football team because she saw me, and I was able to watch her play and support her."

In addition to playing football, soccer, running cross country, and being a role model, McDonnell was also the senior class president, had a 3.9 GPA, and involved in the National Honor Society.

On top of all that she was a competitive Irish dancer. Her grandfather Bob Quaine taught her the basics when she was 12 years old and she went on to win several feis (competition in Irish dance) at her level. She and teammates Elli Ertl and Grace Yingling took third place this year at Dayton's virtual talent show with their Irish dance performance.

McDonnell attributes a lot of her drive, and subsequent success, to the mental toughness and support her family instilled. They also had an influence in her chosen studies. Her father Michael is an obstetrician/gynecologist and has his own practice. Her mother Patricia was an ER nurse and now works at the family practice. Her sister Shannon is currently in medical school with plans of becoming an ER doctor.

McDonnell knew she wanted to attend a Catholic university and major in biology/pre-medicine. Former Flyer rower Danielle Foust '17 attended the same high school as McDonnell and that connection led her to UD and its rowing program.

"I knew Danielle went here and rowed and loved it. I was always told rowing was the hardest sport you could do," said McDonnell. "And I wanted to try the hardest sport so I reached out to the novice coach."

And so began her rigorous rowing and academic journey at UD. McDonnell, after one full season with the Flyers competing in this sport for the very first time, was named the 2019 Most Outstanding Novice. She was also a finalist for the 2019 RUDYS Female Rookie of the Year. She was named the Co-Female Rising Star at the 2020 RUDYS, a year-end event for the student-athletes recognizing individuals and teams for their accomplishments. She also earned her place on the UD Dean's List and A-10 Commissioner's Honor Roll.

Rowers are often out on the river before 6 a.m., and push their bodies to the limit –blistered hands, extreme weather conditions battering their skin, and muscles screaming to stop.

But McDonnell and her teammates fight through it. Another indicator of her incredible drive to succeed.

"I definitely think mental discipline is a big part of rowing," said McDonnell. "There's no taking a stroke off."

She describes the feeling of the start and finish of a 2K race:
You go into your anaerobic threshold very fast compared to other sports. During a 2K you sit there and wait, balanced until the horn, and then the start is a sprint with a stroke rate of 42. The coxswain will see another boat is starting to bring the rate up a bit and encourage us to try to stay up with that. You can hear your coxswain saying, 'alright Colleen, we want you to take stroke seat right here'.  I'll be stroke seat equivalent and so you want to walk through each seat. Take another seat and keep doing that together. And, with 500 meters left you'll start to sprint again for two minutes and that is brutal. I usually don't remember the last few meters, but as soon as you cross the line you are experiencing fatigue: it's your legs, your arms. It's your lungs. It's your forearms. And it's just exhausting. You're mentally screaming, 'You can do this. Come on. Right here, right here, just keep going, going, going', so you're mentally tired and the rest of your body is physically tired too.

Her favorite race was at SIRAs in Oak Ridge, Tenn. her freshman season.

"We were finally together as a team – our blades were going in all together. The chemistry was there that race," said McDonnell. "We could feel the boat lift. If you are moving the boat efficiently and if you have good technique, you will hear this waterfall go under you. That's when you know it's moving really well."

Coming into her sophomore season, McDonnell and the Flyers had really high expectations. The V8 was so close to making the medal stand at the Atlantic 10 Championships the year before. Everyone in that V8 was coming back except Kiley Tempert. They included: Sam Bauer (coxswain), Isabelle Blanchard, Beth Hoffman, Erin Dwyer, Maggie Cahill, Osa Wheeler, Casey Becker, and Bridget Kallmeyer.

McDonnell even switched to starboard from port (which is not easy to do) so she could earn that final seat.

"We were so excited because we were doing very, very, very well," said McDonnell. "We were thinking 'we're going to win A-10s this year'. Straight line. We were locked in on that goal."

Then came something that McDonnell and her teammates couldn't overcome during the spring of 2020. No matter how much can-do attitude she had, COVID halted the entire world. Their season was canceled. Their chance at redemption at A-10s was shut down, at least for that year.

This fall the team was sidelined for the first six weeks due to COVID testing, physicals, EKGs, and several more safety protocols.

McDonnell said her best advice to her fellow student-athletes for coping with all this is leaning on your teammates and to let go of what you cannot control by relying on your faith.

"People are very stressed out right now, especially seniors," she said. "My faith is very important to me. The Catholic faith has just really driven me in my life. Just being able to trust that you can put it in God's hands and you will be fine is something I really like, especially during these times where you cannot worry about things that are out of your control. I've always said, 'do your best and let God do the rest.'

"I definitely have developed a leadership mentality and really strive to foster treating everyone with kindness," she added.

It's that compassion and love of medicine and animals, along with working at the Blackman Animal Clinic in Jackson, Mich. that made her a perfect fit to be a veterinarian.

McDonnell had a Golden Retriever named Clancy. She passed away this February but before she did, Clancy had a big impact on McDonnell choosing veterinarian medicine as well. The past three summers she's continued to work at the Blackman Animal Clinic soaking up all the knowledge she can, learning how to draw blood from animals, treating them, and even assisting in surgeries such as amputations. McDonnell also works with 4 Paws for Ability, a service dog program based out of Xenia, Ohio.

Following her time at UD, she plans to attend veterinarian school. While completing her studies at Dayton in tough courses such as organic chemistry or working in the neuro lab, she's also been writing a book, chronicling her historic football season.

"My teammate Maggie Cahill is editing it for me for a thesis," said McDonnell. "It's finished. It was four years in the making. I just want to remember it so I felt I needed to write it down."

While most of the book is about her drive and desire to win a state championship, parts of it detail how she had to overcome critics of her playing on the boys' football team.  In the end the book celebrates how she worked together with her teammates and how they had such a mutual respect for each other.

One of the most important messages she sent by breaking barriers and showing courage is her example to girls everywhere.

"Do not be afraid and never limit yourself. Never miss an opportunity to give your full effort," said McDonnell.