This is a story about four generations of UW graduates and great Wyoming fans.

It's also about twins Kaylee and Megan Knadler who, like their mother before them, played golf for the Cowgirls.

But it is specifically about Kaylee, the most recent graduate of those four generations.

Kaylee is just finishing up her degree in Sociology with a plan to enter nursing school in the fall.

She is the latest graduate of the Knadler and Hodge clans—there are two additional family names, Thomas and Williams-- who have been graduating from UW for over 50 years.

Kaylee is actually one-minute-and-30-seconds older than her twin sister.  But Megan graduated a year in advance of her older sister because Kaylee redshirted her sophomore year.

Like so many, Kaylee's senior year was wrecked by the virus.  She didn't get to compete this final spring, and she didn't get to go through graduation.  She did have the option, however, to return for next year as part of the Cowboy and Cowgirl senior class whose final chapter was erased, but salvaged thanks to Head Football Coach Craig Bohl's generous gift allowing them one more year. 

After consultation with her coach Josey Stender, Kaylee opted to move on with her life.

"It's a bummer (not experiencing a senior season)," she says.  "It has been such a disruption.  I missed competing my senior year and I missed my graduation.  I could have come back for a sixth year, but I want to become a nurse, and I just couldn't push that plan back another year.  I would have been even further behind.  So after five years (including her redshirt year) it's time to move on."

The twins' mother, Kathy (Hodge) Knadler, was an outstanding player for the Cowgirl golf team from 1988 through 1991, when the sport was a relatively young Wyoming program.   She was an Academic All-American in 1989 as well as a Western Athletic Conference Scholar Athlete honoree.  During her senior season, she helped the Cowgirls finish third at the WAC Championships while finishing in a tie for seventh.

The Knadlers sent me the family tree. It was thorough and impressive.  Rather than go through the branches, let me say that among the Williams family, Thomas family, Hodge family and Knadler family there are 25 University of Wyoming Alumni!

The twins have kept that pipeline moving.

"There were a lot of excited family members when Megan and I decided to come to Wyoming," Kaylee says.  

Their arrival at Wyoming is an interesting story. I'll let Kaylee tell it.

"As twin sisters we, of course, were inseparable.  When we started talking about college, we actually decided that it might be best for us to go our separate ways.  After all, we had been doing pretty much the same things, with pretty much the same best friends growing up.  But the more we talked about it, the more we thought, 'no, let's stick together.

"So we started looking at colleges to go to school and play golf.  Unfortunately, the scholarship offers were partials, like Megan was offered a 30 percent scholarship—she's the stud—and me 10 percent.  Offers like that.  I reached out to Wyoming because of the family history.  Joe (Golf Director Jensen) and Josie got back to us and said they wanted us both!  It was so exciting.

"We will always appreciate that because it was absolutely the best move we could have ever made."  

The Knadlers' younger sister also is an outstanding athlete.  Grace, who is five years younger, will enter Maryville University (St. Louis) this fall on a soccer scholarship. "We tried to get her to go to Wyoming, but Maryville gave her the opportunity to play volleyball, and we are really excited for her," says Kaylee.

As a matter of fact, the twins probably could have gone to college on cross country scholarships.  They were both outstanding distance runners, as well as excellent distance swimmers. Their grandfather, David Hodge ran cross country in college.

While Kathy was raised in the Ft. Collins area, she and husband Pete, raised the twins in Phoenix.  Not surprisingly, she encouraged her daughters to play golf at a very young age.  "Oh yes we were playing with little plastic golf clubs when we were probably three," Kaylee laughs.

In fact Kathy was their coach through the eighth grade.  "She taught us the basics of the swing, and to respect the game," Kaylee says.  "Megan and I really had a lot of fun times playing golf, and had the chance to meet kids who became our very best friends.  It was around 13 when Megan and I decided that golf might be our way to college, our ticket.  So we really got serious about it.  We got really nice clubs and practiced every day.

"Our parents are really proud of us, especially Mom since she played here.  What we always appreciated about her as we grew older she left the coaching to the coaches.  She provided the hugs and kisses.

"She was able to see two or three tournaments in the fall, and three or four in the spring.  Like a lot of our family she is a hardcore Wyoming fan.

Megan and I couldn't be happier that we came here to school," Kaylee continues.  "I will always remember the people here.  They are amazing.  They care so much, and they always have your back. When we had a tough day, they were there for us, and just so supportive.  I will always appreciate that, and never forget it."

Kaylee's redshirt year would eventually cause the twins to separate for the first time in their lives.  Megan graduated a year ahead of her sister because of that.  "After she left, the first couple of weeks without her were really hard," Kaylee says of Megan's departure.  "In the long run it was probably a good thing for us to get a break from each other.  "But we had great years together at Wyoming.  It was so much fun."

This story gets better.

Kaylee's boyfriend of seven years is Wyoming's outstanding Cowboy golfer Dan Starzinski, a senior who has decided to return in the fall for his "second" senior year.

"We met in Arizona through Megan's boyfriend at the time," Kaylee says.  "We had a lot of fun together. That was seven years ago, and we're still having fun together."

When they first met, Starzinski was heading to play golf at the University of Arizona.  But Kaylee emailed Josey and Joe and told them about him.  Joe ended up recruiting him, offering him and signing him.  "I guess I could say I helped recruit him," Kaylee says.

"We really enjoy playing golf together, but he's still competing so that's his life right now.  I totally understand that.  We might go out and play nine together once in a while, but he's playing with a different mindset.  There'll be plenty of time for us to play together, which is the beauty of the game, you can play forever.  It's so much fun.  Since I'm not competing anymore playing golf is different, but different in a good way."

Who knows, maybe one day there will be a fifth generation of the family tree coming to Wyoming.