When Kaylee America Rodriguez enrolled at the University of Michigan four years ago, she planned to spend her time studying and playing softball, as a sport management major and an infielder for the Wolverines. 

By the end of her first year at U-M, though, her focus had shifted; her younger brother, Keanu, was diagnosed with lymphoma in 2021. She peppered her sophomore fall with calls and trips home to support Keanu, and he was declared cancer-free by November.

But less than a year later, the unthinkable happened when Rodriguez was diagnosed with an unrelated cancer: Ewing sarcoma, a rare bone cancer that had caused a massive tumor to envelop her left hip.

Rodriguez’s diagnosis was life-changing. A few weeks into her junior year, she returned home to Miami to undergo several months of chemotherapy and a partial hip replacement. The treatment was successful at eliminating her cancer; in August, Rodriguez  “rang the bell” to celebrate finishing chemo at the same facility where her brother had wrapped up treatment almost two years prior. But the experience took her out of softball indefinitely.

“Treatment ripped away my abilities,” Rodriguez says. “What I could do on the field, my ability to walk, my hair — just everything.” Yet it also showed her the assets she still had, including the one she values most of all: her “village” of friends, family, and teammates.

“Being an athlete, especially in a sport like softball, I always had the mentality of, you know, putting it all on my back,” she says. “But going through what I went through, being vulnerable in every way — they were there to pick me up.” 

Rodriguez returned to U-M last fall, and she’s training daily in the hopes that she may play softball again before her eligibility expires in 2025.

With the help of her sport management professors, though, she’s also started looking ahead to a life after cancer, after softball, and after college. 

Her Kines classes have prompted her to consider pursuing program development, coaching, or marketing after graduation. But she’s also intrigued by motivational speaking. Rodriguez has a blog where she writes about her cancer journey, and her story has been picked up by enough media outlets that some mentors have suggested hiring a PR agent. 

“I’m still learning my story as I go,” she says for now.  But eventually, “I’d love to speak to thousands. That’s my goal: to just change the world as much as I can.”