GREEN BAY (NBC 26) — The name Grzesk and UW-Green Bay go hand in hand.
Gary Grzesk, shined for the Phoenix in the 90s, helping Green Bay reach the NCAA tournament 3 times.
Now his daughter Gracie, after spending a year at Wisconsin, is coming home.
The former Notre Dame Academy star is transferring to play for UWGB and looking to create her own legacy.
“I think it’s really special being able to come back and play for my dad’s alma mater and just kind of carry on the tradition,” said Gracie.”It’s just special to be back here.”
Grzesk said the reason she committed to Wisconsin over UWGB in high school was because it was a little farther from home. She wouldn’t dive into too much about why she entered the transfer portal, some of it had to do with playing time. Last season she played 71 minutes in 16 games for the Badgers. Marisa Moseley also resigned as the Badgers head coach.
Grzesk said she knew where she wanted her next stop to be.
“I wanted to stay close to home by my parents and there’s no place like Green Bay,” she said. “The winning tradition and the culture here is just really special.”
She’s known Phoenix head coach Kayla Karius for quite some time. Karius recruited Grzesk when she was coaching at Wisconsin, Drake and then South Dakota and at Green Bay.
“Kayla was actually the first college coach to ever call me, which is really full circle,” Grzesk said. “I have literally known Kayla since I was in 8th grade and talked to her forever and she was always like one of my favorite coaches to call.”
Gracie understands the legacy her father Gary created at Green Bay and she’s ready to create her own path. As you can guess, dad was pretty ecstatic about his daughter coming to his alma mater.
“He actually got really emotional and it just was a really special moment,” Gracie said. “He obviously wanted me to go here from the beginning.”
While she doesn’t know what the future holds for her Phoenix playing career, she plans to uphold the great tradition that has been built. She went to many games and many Phoenix youth camps growing up.
“I'm really excited to keep it going. Green Bay is a great program. they’ve dominated the Horizon league for years now and made the NCAA tournament – I don't know how many times in the past couple of years.”
