UWEC Athletics Hall of Fame
The list of honors for Liz Kooistra-Cass is mind-boggling. The former All-State track athlete at Lakeville High School in Minnesota was UW-Eau Claire's nominee for NCAA Woman of the Year in 2009 after her spectacular senior seasons in soccer and track.
During the 2008-09 seasons, Kooistra-Cass was named to the All-Conference soccer team for the fourth straight year as well as being named the WIAC Player of the Year. She also was a NSCAA second-team All-American after leading the Blugolds to their fourth consecutive NCAA post-season appearance. In track that year, she won gold medals in the conference indoor 200, 400 and 4x200 relay as well as the conference outdoor 400 and 4x400 relay. At the indoor nationals she placed third in the 400 and seventh in the 4x400 while winning the national championship in the outdoor 400 with a fourth in the 200. She was also named to the track/cross country Academic All-American first team after receiving the WIAC Judy Kruckman Scholar-Athlete award for outdoor track.
During her soccer career, Kooistra-Cass led the Blugolds to three regular season and three conference tournament championships. The Blugolds were 28-1-3 in the conference regular season and 10-1 in conference tournament play during her career with the only four NCAA playoff appearances in school history and an overall 74-10-11 record. She currently is tied for first in school career assists with 29 and ranks sixth in career points with 99. During her sophomore season, the Blugolds won a school and conference record 23 games and reached the third round of the NCAA tournament. The Blugolds outscored their opponents 64-10 that season.
During her track career, Kooista-Cass won seven WIAC indoor individual and relay titles and three outdoors. She was a seven-time indoor All-American including two seconds and a third in the 400-meter dash. She was a four-time outdoor All-American with the one national title. Individually, she competed in the 200 and 400 and contributed to Blugold conference and national places in the 4x200, 4x400 and Distance Medley relays.
For her outstanding achievements, Kooistra-Cass was named to the WIAC's All-Centennial teams in both sports in 2012.
Kooistra-Cass graduated from UWEC with a behavioral emphasis in psychology in 2009 and received an Outstanding Senior Award and Student Service Award. She then pursued a Master of Science degree from Southern Illinois University.
She began her professional career as a senior therapist. She has been a licensed Board Certified Behavior Analyst (BCBA) since September, 2011. Upon getting certified as a BCBA, she joined Caravel Autism Health where she had been for the 13 years leading up to her induction and served as a Regional Director. She has published research in the Journal for Research in Autism Spectrum Disorders.
At the time of her induction, she and her husband Kenny, a sales manager for Dancing Goat Distillery, were the parents of two children: Brody (4) and Audrey (1). They resided in Mount Horeb, Wisconsin.
