Kathy Colclasure was about a year removed from her graduation from Illinois State University when she was serving as a substitute teacher at Bradley-Bourbonnais when a surprising question came her way.

“I was walking to go sub up in the (gym) balcony for an aerobics class and three kids were up there playing badminton,” Colclasure recalled. “I said, ‘Can I play?’ And they said, ‘Actually, can you be our coach?’ ”

Colclsaure, who played volleyball, basketball and softball as a 1983 Bradley-Bourbonnais graduate, was just a handful of years removed from the end of her own athletic career as a Kankakee Community College volleyball player. She knew she wanted to become a coach – it was the driving force behind her going into education – but she didn’t know much about badminton.

She got the job, the start of a coaching career that was highlighted by 34 years leading the Boilermaker’s badminton program and a combined 66 seasons and counting when factoring in girls tennis and girls golf, the latter of which she still coaches.

“I didn’t even think they were going to give me the job,” Colclasure said. “I never in my wildest dreams thought I’d still be coaching at 60. But it’s been my passion, been my reason to keep going.”

An inductee into this year’s Hall of Fame class at Bradley-Bourbonnais, Colclasure is also the Daily Journal’s 2025 Female Sports Citizen of the Year. While she never imagined such a long, successful career alongside and in the footsteps of the same coaches she played for, Colclasure did realize quickly in life that coaching was the road she wanted to travel.

“I had a love of coaching at a young age,” Colclasure said. “I was playing youth softball and got such a thrill out of helping a younger teammate throw, catch or hit. When she was successful, I was probably more excited than when I was successful.”

Although she coached different sports than she played as a Boilermaker, Colclasure was able to take the lessons she learned from her own coaches, drawing inspiration from Boilers like the late Debbie Mallaney, Darla Moldenhauer, Brenda Kurtz and Nancy Schiffner, especially for off-field lessons.

Perhaps none were as important as the core lessons Mallaney taught her.

When she was in high school, Colclasure remembers telling Mallaney that although she wanted to teach and coach, she wasn’t sure how she’d afford college. Mallaney encouraged a young Colclasure by telling her how she herself had managed to get through college by working a pair of jobs, one of the several times Mallaney set an inspiring example for never settling or saying no.

“This is why we do it, for that kid and to try and encourage them like Deb Mallaney did for me,” Colclasure said. “Tell them to reach for the stars and that nothing’s holding you back. … Just keep living your dreams, never give up, and never have an excuse for why you say no."

As a PE teacher at Bourbonnais Elementary School District No. 53 from 1992-2024, Colclasure often got to reunite with her former students who wound up playing the prep sports she coached, similar to how she would come back to coach with some of the same women who helped mold her.

While Colclasure joked that an unusually high amount of her players now being doctors is a benefit as she ages, some of those students, like Jess Jaenicke, got a third chance to reunite with Colclasure when they came back to teach and coach, too.

A 2009 Bradley-Bourbonnais graduate, Jaenicke was a four-year badminton player for Colclasure and returned to serve as an assistant in 2012.

“If you know her you love her; you can’t describe her. She’s crazy, she’s great, she’s funny,” Jaenicke said. “She’s so devoted and dedicated to each of her programs. … She made me want to be there. It was hard as a new teacher to be involved in coaching, and she made it worth it; her program made it worth it. Those were some of the best times of my life.”

Jaenicke, Sara Youssef and Sarah Lenfield served as Colclasure’s assistants for several years together, as did Molly Rudinski, the current badminton coach. During Colclasure’s 34 seasons as coach, she had at least one player qualify for the IHSA State Finals 29 times.

She retired from coaching badminton at the same time she retired from her PE career and passed the tennis torch on more than a decade ago, but golf – one of several girls sports Colclasure has been pleased to see added during her career – is something she’s not ready to quit yet.

Whether it’s her own passion for the sport, derived from the different competition each hole provides, the chance to teach a new generation a sport that can be played late into life or just the opportunity to continue to serve as a positive adult influence for her girls, there are too many positives that keep her on the links.

How long will they keep her there?

“Until the wheels fall off,” she said.