USF’s Passaglia Honored as CL’s First Senior Women’s Leader of the Year

JACKSON, Mich. – The Crossroads League announced on Tuesday that Kelsey Passaglia of the University of Saint Francis had been named its 2025-2026 Senior Women's Leader of the Year. The award is in its first year of existence for the Crossroads League.

"It is a tremendous honor to be selected as the inaugural recipient of this award," said Passaglia. "I am grateful to the Crossroads League for this recognition and to the University of Saint Francis administration for their trust, support and commitment to our student-athletes and athletic department."

Passaglia came to USF after three years at Purdue Fort Wayne, where she worked as the Assistant Director of the Mastadon Academic Performance Center, as well as the advisor for the Student-Athlete Leadership Team.

Since coming to Saint Francis, Passaglia has been active within the USF athletic leadership, becoming the school's first-ever Senior Women's Leader and helping to boost the support staff, while driving the launch of USF's women's flag football program.

Passaglia owns a bachelor's degree from Northern Illinois, where she was a four-year starter on the women's soccer team before going on to earn a master's in health education from Western Illinois.

"KP has been a tremendous leader for Saint Francis since arriving here three years ago," said Saint Francis Vice President for Student Life and Athletics Mike McCaffrey. "She could be an Athletic Director at any NAIA school right now if she wanted to be. The way she has accelerated through the leadership of the association within the Senior Women's Leader group has been awesome to watch. She is admired and respected by everyone who gets the chance to work with her. She launched Indiana's first collegiate women's flag football program from scratch and has overseen the growth of our sports information department with student workers, volunteers and graduate assistants. Her background as a high level college athlete has given her the perspective and experience to relate to our student-athletes on a daily basis and she has proven to be a great mentor for them all."

The Crossroads League Senior Women's Leader-of-the-Year award was voted on by Athletic Directors from the Crossroads League.

Crossroads League Senior Women's Leader-of-the-Year Recipients
2025-2026 – Kelsey Passaglia, Saint Francis