The first Grand Rapids-area winner of Michigan's Miss Basketball Award, Kristin Koetsier was a record-setting star at Grandville High, an All-American at Western Michigan University and went into coaching.
She was honored nationally in 2002 with the Honda Inspiration Award and with a Jimmy V Foundation’s Comeback Award after battling back to play from two life-threatening blood disorders while at Western Michigan.
She earned her Miss Basketball honors in 1998 at Grandville where she also set school records for points in a game and season and earned All-State honors for three years.
At Western Michigan she became one of the most decorated players in the program’s history from 1999-2003 and led the program to a MAC West title, a MAC Tournament Championship, an NCAA Tournament appearance and a WNIT appearance.
She was an All-American as a senior and a three-time first-team All-Mid-American Conference selection in the three seasons she played around her blood disorder issues and an ACL injury. She scored 1,452 points and grabbed 68 rebounds with career averages of 16.3 points per game and 7.6 rebounds per game. She is among the all-time leaders in WMU history.
She coached AAU, middle school and high school basketball and was an assistant coach at Western Michigan following her playing career.
She is also in the Western Michigan Athletic Hall of Fame.