Madison in the Morning

Madison in the Morning

Madison in the Morning, keeping Madison informed weekday mornings on 1310 WIBAFull Bio

 

UW-Platteville coaches remember athletic director who died unexpectedly

PLATTEVILLE, Wis. (WKOW) -- To many on UW-Platteville's campus, Dr. Kristina Navarro-Krupka was the heart and soul of the school's athletic department. Now, coaches, athletes and the broader Platteville community are having to figure out the way forward without her. 

Navarro-Krupka died unexpectedly Saturday from natural causes, according to her obituary. She was pregnant, and her unborn daughter died, too. 

This week, the people she worked with on a daily basis are grappling with the grief of her death and the hole left in their routines. 

"You still want her to show up," UW-Platteville head football coach Ryan Munz said. "You're still waiting for her car in the parking lot, still waiting for her to pop down to your office and say hi."

Munz and Jeff Gard, the head coach for the university's men's basketball team, sat down with 27 News Tuesday to talk about how they're planning to remember Navarro-Krupka and the impact she had on campus. 

"In athletics, we always say there's always a playbook for stuff. There's not one for this," Gard said. 

Gard and Munz said Navarro-Krupka was an energetic, quirky and passionate person who had a strong vision for the future of her athletic department. 

"She was a unicorn, a magical person that came in with a vision that was a little bit different, but she knew the action steps to do it, and she poured her heart and soul into everything she did," Munz said. 

One of the things she dedicated herself to was building meaningful personal relationships. 

"She built a family here," Gard said. "She was the cool aunt that our, our kids loved. That's what's gonna be missed. Those memories, we're going to cherish."

Working to carry out Navarro-Krupka's mission

Gard and Munz said they view it as their duty now to complete the mission Navarro-Krupka set when she joined UW-Platteville in 2020. 

"We're a Division 3 institution. Our motto, and she really grew it, is we're D3, but we're going to act like D1, and we're not going to stop," Gard said. 

Munz said, right now, they're still following the plan Navarro-Krupka made to carry out that mission. But, eventually, that plan will end. 

"We're going to have to stand on our own two feet and say, 'Okay, I think this is what will be next. I think this is where we should go.,'" he said. "The biggest thing that she'd be concerned with is stopping. ... I know there's going to be some tough times. It's not just the next two days, right? You're always, it's always going to be in the back of your brain, but she'd want us to keep moving. 

Gard said even as he and the rest of the UW-Platteville community move forward, Navarro-Krupka's legacy will stay with them.

"This is somebody that changed, in a short amount of time, changed a lot of lives and continues to change a lot of lives," he said. "I think that's probably the lasting impact that she'll have is that she's still, even though she's not with us, she's still going to continue to change lives because people now are going to carry on the message that she was sending."

According to her obituary, there will be a visitation for Navarro-Krupka on Sunday afternoon and a mass of Christian burial Monday morning in Madison. A memorial fund is being set up in her honor. 

More at WKOW 27 News


Sponsored Content

Sponsored Content