Hall of Fame
Kim Kottmeier-Whitlock ’96, ’98 was a star forward for the women’s soccer team from 1992-1995.
She is the third women’s soccer player to be inducted into Cal U’s Hall of Fame, joining teammates Sherry Valera -Veneziale ’96 and Audrey Dawson-Anderson.
“This is such a great honor that it’s hard for me to try and comment without getting emotional,” Kottmeier-Whitlock said. “It’s such a privilege to be part of this and the fact that Cal thinks enough of me to put me in the Hall of Fame is something I really can’t express how I feel because it means so much.”
A two-time all-conference selection, Kottmeier-Whitlock enjoyed immediate success during her 1992 freshman season, when she scored 14 goals with seven assists for 35 points. Her goal and point totals that season still rank eighth in single-season school history, and she helped the 1992 team compile a 12-5-1 overall record, which gave the program its first winning season in Cal U’s third year as an NCAA Division II varsity sport.
Despite missing considerable action due to a medical issue her sophomore season, Kottmeier-Whitlock helped the 1993 team go 10-10 overall. Her nine assists that year still rank sixth in the school record book.
In 1994 Kottmeier-Whitlock registered 14 assists, a single-season total matched by only one other player in school history. The Vulcans again won 12 games, and the 1992 and 1994 teams’ win totals remained the school standard for 15 years.
Kottmeier-Whitlock earned all-conference honors for a second straight season in 1995. She finished her playing career with 30 goals, 35 assists and 95 points.
She remains Cal U’s career leader in assists and ranks fourth in career points. From a conference standpoint, her single-season and career assist totals rank fourth and fifth, respectively. Her freshman-season total of 35 points ranks 21st.
An exceptional student who made the Athletic Director’s Honor Roll each semester, Kottmeier-Whitlock earned a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration in 1996.
While working toward a master’s degree in business administration, which she completed in 1998, Kottmeier-Whitlock was a graduate-assistant coach for one season under recently retired coach Dennis Laskey and a part-time assistant for another year.
During her six years at Cal U she also taught aerobics classes at Herron Recreation and Fitness Center.
Understandably, Kottmeier-Whitlock praised Laskey, who retired this past summer as the men’s head coach and guided the women’s program from 1991 through 2000.
“Dennis Laskey will always be one of my most favorite people and holds a special place in my heart,” she said. He’s a class act who has taught me so much about life in general. He has shaped who I have become in business and a person.”
Kottmeier-Whitlock said Laskey had many sayings but one of the few things she disagreed with him on was that he believed the players were who they are by the time they came to play for him.
“I was naïve and a much weaker player when I got there,” she said. “I really did not realize how life is not always fair and Dennis taught me to never give up and showed me there’s always a way if you keep pushing and trudging forward. There’s no doubt he made me a better player and his passion really kept the program going in those early years.”
Laskey, a 2007 Mid-Mon Valley All Sports Hall of Fame inductee, said he was proud to have had the opportunity to be associated with Kottmeier-Whitlock and that if not for her injury she would have been the program’s all-time leading scorer.
“I’ve coached a lot of people and she was going to get there regardless of who coached her,” he said. “She was very self-motivated and took a lot of pride in her athletic and academic performances. Kim never took a short cut in anything she did.
“People would ask me if I like coaching women but it wasn’t like that. It was about coaching athletes and you can’t differentiate. Kim was a great, highly motivated athlete.”
The veteran coach said Kottmeier-Whitlock’s strong traits as a player carried over to her coaching and ultimately professional career.
“She wanted to give back what she knew and really motivated and inspired a lot of the players,” Laskey said. “She has an incredible sense of humor and is the type of hard working, personable and ambitious person employers are looking for.”
A 1992 graduate of her hometown’s Bethel Park High School, Kottmeier-Whitlock was a three-time All-WPIAL soccer selection that also competed in track and field. She was a standout for the Pennsylvania-West Olympic Development Program’s all-star team and set league scoring records as a high school player.
Since graduating from Cal U, Kottmeier-Whitlock has enjoyed considerable success in the business world. After working as a corporate account manager for DHL Global Forwarding, she has spent the past six years as a global account manager for BSI Management Systems.
She and her husband, Mike ’95, live in Haymarket, Va. They have two sons: Alex, 6, and Crosby, 3. Still an active player, Kottmeier-Whitlock is team captain for Haymarket’s first-year Piedmont Football Club and also plays for the Tortugas co-ed soccer team.
Kim also helps setup women’s adult programs wherever she has lived because “Soccer moms that have never played love it and their kids love seeing them out there even more.”
Kottmeier-Whitlock returned to Cal U last April for the alumni game and is impressed with the new soccer complex and the team’s emergence as a national power. She looks back on her Cal U days with considerable pride and happiness. Her and Dawson-Anderson were each other’s Maid of Honor at their weddings.
“It was unbelievable and those were some of the best times of my life,” she said. “I met my husband at Cal and my teammates are still my best friends to this day. There’s a certain bond you share with the people you play with and are coached by.”
updated 10/10/13
