Glise reflects on Patriot Games experience
ST. JOSEPH, Mo. (KQTV) -- Despite not coming out on top, St. Joseph Christian Senior Year Student-Athlete Maddie Glise is thankful for the experience she got at the Patriot Games in representing Missouri for the girls division.
This brand-new multi-day competition aired nationally on the ESPN App August 9-11. An hour-long special, a culmination of the events, also aired on ESPN and ABC two days after the competition concluded on August 13.
"I was just very blessed to have the opportunity, honestly, to be able to go and represent Missouri," Glise said about the trip as a whole.
Glise said she was taken aback by Spire Academy in Geneva, Ohio, where the games took place. Spire is a boarding school in Ohio that specializes in sports.
Besides competing in the games and getting the chance to be on national television, Glise was excited about all the exclusive merch she and other athletes received.
"I think everybody was surprised with our dorms because that's where our merch was. They didn't give it to us when we got there; they gave merch to our parents, so we hadn't gotten anything (until going to the dorms)," Glise said. "Our beds were decked out with shirts and backpacks. We had personalized bedding. We had our state completely decked out. And my favorite thing was probably that they had a Stanley, which I wasn't expecting."
During the trip to Geneva, she was joined by her mother Amanda, which she said she got to see quite often.
Along with keeping in touch with her mother on the big stage, she and the other athletes also got to say hello to United States President Donald Trump, who attended the finale. Tagging along with President Trump was also former professional athlete and current sports talk show host and analyst Pat McAfee.
Glise said Trump and McAfee conversed with as many athletes as possible whenever they were close by.
"(There was a boy two seats away from me), he said something to Pat, and he heard him, and he turned around. They had a conversation. So that was very cool," Glise said about being close to the public figures. "Another kid was like, 'Trump, God loves you' or something like that. And Trump was like, ' Yes! Yes!" Like he had a whole conversation with Trump; it was very cool."
As for the competition, Glise said it was intense but fun, and the points system balanced individual and team achievements. The multi-sport athlete said the competition that gave her the most trouble was the medicine ball throw that resembled a shot put-like event.
Although Glise didn't come out on top in the girls' competition, she was about as close as she could be.
She shared that her roommate during the games was Kansas' girls' representative from De Soto, Kansas, Kennadi Fuhrman. If Fuhrman's name sounds familiar, that's because she won the entire competition in the girls division.
Glise said that her introduction to Fuhrman that evening was a tad unorthodox compared to normal camp arrivals.
"It was first night, so everybody got there except my roommate. She was a day and a half late. So I was like, well, maybe I don't have a roommate," Glise said. "Then the second night, she shows up, and she's unpacking, and we have this late-night conversation, and we're like, okay, one of us has to win and everything like that. She ended up winning. That was my roommate!"
Fuhrman earned $125,000 in scholarship money with the victory.
Glise is finishing out her senior year at St. Joseph Christian during the 2026/2027 school year. She shared that she intends to become a lawyer after high school and join the armed forces like her mother.
Missed the Patriot Games or want to rewatch them? The hour-long special is available via Hulu, Disney+, and ESPN's subscription service.
