June 21, 2022, GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. -- Twins Maddie and Kyla Wiersema this summer are working at Coasters, a restaurant inside the Michigan’s Adventure amusement park. But there is no coasting when it comes to their careers as student-athletes.
Previously two-sport competitors at Western Michigan Christian in volleyball and basketball, both Maddie and Kyla became three-sport athletes their senior year, when they made good on a forgotten promise to an old friend and joined the track and field team.
The result?
Both competed in multiple events at the state meet, including a third-place finish for Maddie in the shot put and a seventh in the hurdles and a fifth-place finish for Kyla in both the discus and the hurdles. Their performances helped WMC win the state championship team title.
“It was always one of our goals to win a state championship in high school,” Maddie said. “We just didn’t think it would be in track.”
That’s because the twins’ two main sports have always been volleyball and basketball. They love them both, admitting that their favorite generally is whatever season they happen to be in.
They’re both a touch over 6 feet tall, and they’re both good athletes, strong and mobile.
They play the post in basketball, and both can score and rebound. In volleyball, Maddie plays the right side and Kyla is a middle hitter. Both are equally adept at the net, blocking the opposition attack or putting the ball away with a well-placed kill.
Volleyball and basketball are the two sports they’ll compete in at GRCC, and they can’t wait.
“Oh my gosh, we’re so excited,” said Kyla. “We wanted to go to a school where we could do both (sports), and GRCC ended up being perfect.”
Added Maddie: “We weren’t really planning on GRCC, but we thought, ‘We’ll just visit and see how it is.’ So, we did a campus tour; we met the coaches, and – wow -- we were so impressed.”
And it wasn’t just the athletic facilities that the twins said were the highlight, though both were wowed by the gym, the locker rooms, the gear and more.
They also appreciated the overall campus, including the classrooms.
“All of the facilities are so nice,” Maddie said.
“Everything is so clean and bright, and the classrooms are amazing, too,” Kyla added.
Amazing is how opposing coaches often described the performances of the Wiersema sisters during their stellar high school careers.
Their many awards and accolades are too numerous to detail in full, but at the end of the 2021-22 basketball season, Kyla was named First-Team All-State after averaging a school-record 23 points per game, while Maddie was All-State honorable mention and averaged 12 points and nine rebounds per game, even after suffering a serious ankle injury midway through the season.
Kyla also was First-Team All-State in volleyball her senior year, while Maddie was a Second-Team honoree.
GRCC head coach Chip Will said the Wiersemas will be the fifth set of twins he has had during his 15 years at the helm of the Raiders.
“The previous four sets were great volleyball players but also great people,” he said. “Kyla and Maddie are the same. They are dynamic athletes, but, more importantly, they are great people, on and off the court.”
Seventh-year women’s basketball coach David Glazier is also excited.
“Our program has always leaned on being strong defensively, looking to pressure teams on the perimeter when we have a rim protector behind our guards,” he said. “With Maddie and Kyla, we have secured that ability for the next two years, given we have the reigning (MCCAA West) Defensive Player of the Year in Grace Lodes who can help them grow even more as rim protectors. We are excited for how they fit our program coming in and the ways they could possibly help the program grow.”
Both Wiersemas have terrific high school GPAs but are still deciding what exactly they’d like to study with Maddie leaning toward business and marketing as a springboard to a possible career as a pharmaceutical sales rep and Kyla considering a Criminal Justice major.
“We didn’t know exactly what we wanted to do, and we didn’t want to waste money not knowing what we wanted to do at a four-year college,” said Maddie. “The price is so right at GRCC, and we can take our time and figure out what we want to study.”
Eventually, they’d both like to use their degrees and athletic careers at GRCC as a launching pad to a four-year university, where they’d complete bachelor’s degrees and continue their volleyball or basketball careers -- or both.
“We think GRCC will be the perfect place to develop as students and athletes,” Maddie said. “The goal is definitely to use what we learn to go on to a four-year university. GRCC will give us a chance to see what college is like, and we’re ready.”
This story was reported by Phil de Haan.