By TOMMY REZAC
St. Joseph Post
Katie Koelzer had experienced a rewarding high school basketball career at Lafayette, helping take the program from two wins in 2019, four in 2020, nine in 2021 and then 16 wins this past season.
She's known for awhile that she'd to go to school at Kansas State. Never did she think she'd go there with an athletic scholarship.
Koelzer signed her national letter of intent Thursday to continue her athletic career on the K-State rowing team next year.
"Last year, I'd have never guessed I'd be a Division I athlete," Koelzer said. "Especially in rowing. I kind of just got a letter one day and I was kind of interested. So, I looked more into it and I went on a visit and I just saw all that the program could offer me for the next four years. Not just athletically, but academically."
Koelzer becomes the first ever Lafayette athlete to sign as a DI rower. It's a path she didn't expect to go down, considering her first time in a kayak was this past summer.
There's not many basketball drills that translate to rowing, either.
"Conditioning and all of the summer workouts," she said, "but that's about as much experience I'll have going into this."
Koelzer was the lone senior on Lafayette's varsity basketball team this year, becoming the first outgoing senior since coach Brad Spinner took over.
"It taught me a lot," she said of her basketball career. "Going from my freshman year to winning two games. It was a struggle and now, we're a pretty decent team, winning 16 games. It really taught me a lot about sticking with stuff and hard work. It was a lot of hard work over the last four years. But, getting to where are now, I'm really proud of the team."
Koelzer will study finance at Kansas State. Going to Manhattan on a rowing scholarship is really an added bonus for Koelzer, as she had fallen in love with the campus long before this opportunity came up.
"Everyone kind of seems close," she said. "Everyone was really nice. Kind of reminded me of Lafayette."
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