Unconditional love and basketball: Warhawk Kacie Carollo builds on family legacy

February 07, 2025

The Carollo family name is synonymous with women’s basketball — and winning — at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater.

For more than two decades the family has been deeply associated with a team that has a strong legacy at the university and is a household name in NCAA Division III women’s basketball.

Keri Carollo was hired as head coach in April 2002. In 2008, her husband, Joe Carollo, joined her on the sidelines to be an assistant coach.

Fast forward to 2025, and their daughter, Kacie, is helping the family build on that exceptional success.

 

 

A two-time All-American, Carollo, an integrated science-business major, has been a linchpin in one of the strongest four-year stretches in the program’s history.

The run has included two Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference championships, one conference tournament title, and three trips to the NCAA Tournament, including the Final Four in 2022, the Sweet 16 in 2023, and the Elite Eight in 2024.

Carollo has thrived on and off the court — she is a recipient of multiple scholarships and is a five-time member of the Dean’s List — and enjoys the small-town, community-like atmosphere and the caring faculty.

“The professors have been very understanding of our schedules and the demands,” she said. “They understand the time and energy commitment to sports, which I’m very grateful for.”

With just four games remaining in the regular season, Carollo is cherishing every remaining moment as a part of the team.

“It’s basketball, so it’s not the most important thing in the world, but it is to our family, and it is to my teammates,” she said. “Valuing every single day — and the people around me — has been super important for me, because it goes by really fast.”

Carollo’s journey to becoming a Warhawk started more than two decades ago.

 

Raised to be a Warhawk

 

 

Carollo’s first memories of being involved in the program include “picnics” packed by her parents that included snacks, puzzles and games — all things to keep her occupied during the team’s practices and games.

She recalled being pushed around in the ball cart and being on the bus with her “big sisters” on the team.

“She was very outgoing, strong-willed, and personable,” Keri Carollo said. “You could tell she was a lot like me — she wasn’t afraid to speak her mind and had a very strong personality, but was also very caring and always looking out for everyone else.”

In 2008, when Carollo was just a small child, the Warhawks experienced their first big success under her mother’s leadership. The team made its first-ever trip to the Division III Final Four, where they went on to finish in third place.

More national success followed for UW-Whitewater. The team made back-to-back appearances in the Final Four starting five years later, finishing as national runner-up in 2013 and in third place in 2014.

 

Recruited to be a Warhawk

A three-sport athlete at Whitewater High School, Carollo worked closely with her parents to explore opportunities to compete in college basketball.

After a trip to St. Louis for a college visit as a high school senior, she realized that her home for the next four years may be right in her backyard.

Carollo was recruited closely by then-assistant coach Kirsten Hammer and then-graduate assistant Brooke Trewyn, who each earned a BSE in physical education and an MSE in professional studies from UW-Whitewater and were members of the Warhawk women’s basketball team as undergraduates.

“They asked me a lot of questions, and I could tell they really cared about me as a person,” she said.

Carollo enrolled at UW-Whitewater in the fall of 2021, joining a veteran-laden team that was poised for a big season after enduring a COVID pandemic-shortened 2021 campaign.

 

Four years of success

 

 

Carollo was an immediate fit with the Warhawks during the 2021-22 season. She played a supporting role in helping UW-Whitewater capture the regular season league championship and make a run through the NCAA Tournament to the championship game.

After the team punched its ticket to the Final Four with a victory over conference rival UW-Oshkosh, Carollo embraced her mother and coach with tears in her eyes.

 

 

“Everything happened so fast, and none of it was expected,” Carollo said. “It was just so huge for everybody in that moment … I know how hard my parents have worked, so it was cool for me to be an actual, tangible piece of it rather than just supporting them.”

Most importantly, she showed her ability to blend in both on and off the court — a characteristic that’s stuck with her over the last three-plus seasons even with her parents as coaches.

“I have to give Kacie a lot of credit — she’s made it easy — and I would also give credit to the teams she’s played with,” Coach Carollo said. “They have been very understanding of that dynamic, and we’ve never had teams that Kacie’s played with give us any pushback.”

Carollo evolved into a central leader on the team starting with the 2022-23 season. The team captured its second straight conference title, won the WIAC Tournament and reached the second weekend of the NCAA Tournament.

 

 

In 2023-24, UW-Whitewater, led by Carollo and another All-American — 2024 Jostens Trophy (National Player of the Year) recipient Aleah Grundahl — made a second straight run to the second weekend of the national tournament. The Warhawks finished one game away from a trip to the Final Four.

This year’s team is ranked among the nation’s Top 25 and is just over halfway through its conference regular season slate. The postseason begins the week of February 24, and the Warhawks are hopeful for another deep run.

“We value opportunity,” Coach Carollo said. “When you’re gifted an opportunity — not everybody gets to play college basketball — you make the most of that opportunity and try to get the most out of that experience. That goes for academics and social life, too, as not everyone gets to go to college. A lot of people take it for granted.”

 

Looking back (and ahead)

 

 

The Carollos have grown closer because of their basketball experiences inside of Kachel Gymnasium and around the country.

“We’ve always been close, but I think this has brought us closer, just seeing her go through the highs and lows and challenges of being a student-athlete and a woman,” Coach Carollo said.

The couple are also firmly embedded as leaders in other spaces around the Williams Center. Keri Carollo serves Warhawk athletics as senior woman administration and assistant athletic director for compliance, while Joe Carollo is an assistant director for business affairs and event operations and a lecturer of kinesiology, teaching classes in the sport management minor.

“I know how much they care and how involved they are — it is literally their life,” Kacie Carollo said. “When they get after me or someone else, I know at the end of the day, it’s not personal — it’s just because they care.”

Carollo is on track to graduate in May 2025. She plans to remain in the area and pursue a career in health care administration.

 

 

Carollo’s focus remains on basketball as she hopes to help extend the season deep into March. She has already etched her name into the program record book, currently ranking second in both career points and rebounds, and now looks to add even more team success to an already sterling career ledger.

No result will break a mother and daughter bond that has only grown stronger after more than 20 years of bleeding purple together.

“I tell her at the start of every year that no matter what happens — wins, losses, whatever — I’m always going to be proud of you and love you unconditionally,” the coach (and mom) said.