Family, community stunned over South Lyon high school swimming coach’s sudden passing

A young swimming coach from South Lyon East High School died suddenly over the weekend.

Kacie Van Buskirk was a swimming and academic all-American and left South Lyon East High School with half a dozen records. She loved the sport so much that she became a coach for her former swim team.

Kacie Van Buskirk married the love of her life in August. She coached the swimming team, he coached baseball.

In just 27 years, Kacie Van Buskirk inspired a generation of swimmers. First, as a record-breaking, award-winning athlete for the South Lyon East Cougars and then as an assistant coach for her high school swim team.

On Saturday, Kacie Van Buskirk and her husband spent the evening with her parents. That night Clay called her parents and told them he woke up to find she had fallen out of bed. She had died.

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