Kris is a former Madison East basketball standout who came to MATC in 1986. (Since then MATC has never been the same.) In her first season on the MATC women’s basketball team Kris’ leadership qualities were apparent, as she was selected team co-captain. In that first season she helped lead MATC to an impressive 25-4 mark and one of the finest seasons in the school’s history. With Kris again as captain during the 1987-88 season, her leadership, attitude, and work ethic bonded the team together and pushed them to new heights. The team eclipsed the mark they had set the prior season, finishing 26-1, with their only loss coming in the region tournament.
After her final season as an athlete she continued working in the MATC Athletic office, graduating with an Administrative Assistant degree, and taking on assistant coaching duties the very next season for the same team that she had brought success to as a player. After co-coaching during the 1989-90 season she took over as head coach the following season.
Kris never looked back as her team’s compiled an impressive 197-78 record over nine years. Her teams were continually ranked nationally in Division III, while they dominated state junior colleges rivals, winning 63 consecutive games in one stretch. She won two state coach-of-the-year honors and developed 15 All-State players, 10 All-Region selections, and two All-Americans during her tenure, sending many of them on to four-year schools. In addition to the almost 120 players Kris coached during her career, Kris continues to touch countless student-athletes, friends, and co-workers lives everyday. Always with a smile on her face and compassion for what she is doing…the people she has worked with and coached have left better having known Kris. Some of the alumni, friends, and family she has touched have come back tonight to honor Kris as she is inducted into the Hall of Fame.
In 1999, she gave up her head coaching duties, but came back the following year as an assistant. This is not at all unusual for Kris, as she has continually helped out the department in time of need, helping coach softball and tennis teams over the years. Over the past few years, she has organized the MATC Athletics Heart-to-Heart program where student-athletes play bingo and give prizes to sick children at the UW-Hospital Children’s Hospital. Giving her heart, as she always does, she makes sure MATC student-athletes and those children at the hospital have a great experience. She buys prizes, schedules student-athlete, and drives them to the hospital. In addition to helping in the MATC Athletic Department as an Administrative Assistant and Recruiting Coordinator, Kris currently works in the MATC Fitness Center, coordinating many community and youth activities.
But beyond any numbers, statistics, or her long resume of service to MATC, Kris is foremost an extremely caring and thoughtful person whose compassion to help in any way she can, always with a smile on her face, is an inspiration to all those who have had the pleasure to be around her.
Kris currently lives in Oconomowoc with her husband, Jim and their new beautiful daughter Alyssa.
