As the nation honors National Girls and Women in Sports Day, Prairie Fire Athletics celebrates the women who lead and impact student-athletes every day: Associate Director of Athletics for Compliance and Administration and Senior Woman Administrator Ryanne Breckenridge, Assistant Director of Athletics for Student Programming and Head Volleyball Coach Maliah Blakemore, and Head Athletic Trainer Erica Witkowski. Together, they form a leadership core that strengthens Prairie Fire athletics through coordination, trust, and shared accountability, and each was elevated or provided new titles this academic year that more fully reflect the scope of their work and their importance to the College.
Breckenridge's systems-level perspective provides the framework that allows the department to operate with clarity and confidence. Her work emphasizes education, transparency, and partnership, ensuring that coaches, staff, and student-athletes understand not just expectations but the reasoning behind them. That foundation supports collaboration across roles and creates space for thoughtful, informed decision-making.
Within that structure, Blakemore's leadership centers on connection and voice. Through student athlete programming, Student Athlete Advisory Committee leadership, and collaboration with campus partners, she helps translate institutional values into lived experience. Her work ensures that student-athletes are active participants in College life, reinforcing a culture built on inclusion, engagement, and shared purpose.
Witkowski's leadership completes that continuum by anchoring daily operations in care, preparation, and communication. Coordinating sports medicine requires constant collaboration across coaches, administrators, and health professionals, all aligned around student-athlete well-being. Her approach reinforces that health and safety are not individual responsibilities but collective commitments that depend on strong systems and trust.
Taken together, their roles inform and strengthen their collective work, creating an environment where student-athletes are supported academically, competitively, and personally. When leadership teams reflect a broader range of perspectives, blind spots shrink, collaboration improves, and decisions are more responsive to the full student-athlete experience. This collaborative approach reflects a legacy at Knox where women's leadership has shaped not only programs, but the values and systems that sustain them.
Knox College athletics has long understood that informed leadership strengthens decision-making, deepens trust, and better serves student athletes. This tradition is rooted in a storied history of women whose leadership has shaped who we are and continues to guide who we will become. Past leaders such as Vernie Mendrek, whose decades of service as a coach, educator, and administrator helped establish and sustain women's athletics at Knox; Kathy Wagoner, a longtime softball and volleyball coach who guided Knox athletic programs from the mid 1980s through 2006; Kim Schrader, who served Knox as both a coach and an administrator with impact within athletics and across the broader College; Daniella Irle, the first female director of athletics at Knox; and Lexi Vernon, whose leadership roots at Knox led to her current role as commissioner of the College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin. Their leadership helped to shape Knox student-athletes and the athletics program across generations.
By continuing to elevate women in administrative and decision-making roles, Prairie Fire Athletics affirms that informed leadership is central to our identity. From Vernie Mendrek and earlier pioneers to today's leaders, women have been integral to shaping the vision, expertise, and conviction that define Prairie Fire Athletics.
