{"id":50288,"date":"2018-02-08T09:50:22","date_gmt":"2018-02-08T14:50:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/?p=50288"},"modified":"2022-09-28T13:30:24","modified_gmt":"2022-09-28T17:30:24","slug":"grand-fan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/2018\/02\/08\/grand-fan\/","title":{"rendered":"Grand fan"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Kristie McKiernan, Wright State grad and senior English lecturer, is a superfan of the Raiders, missing only three home games and attending road contests as far away as Chicago over the past eight years. (Photo by Erin Pence)<\/p><\/div>\n

Picture Jack Nicholson behind the bench of the Los Angeles Lakers or Spike Lee courtside for the New York Knicks. That\u2019s the kind of basketball passion and devotion Wright State University senior lecturer Kristie McKiernan has for the women\u2019s basketball team<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Over the past eight years, McKiernan has become a superfan for the Raiders, missing only three home games and attending road contests as far away as Chicago.<\/p>\n

And from her seat on the floor, McKiernan makes her presence known at the games.<\/p>\n

\u201cI do go a little crazy,\u201d she acknowledged. \u201cI once had a ref say, \u2018Hey, you\u2019ve got to be good.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

However, the Wright State players tell her they appreciate the unconditional love and support from her \u2014 screams and all.<\/p>\n

McKiernan\u2019s office in Millett Hall is a shrine to the team.<\/p>\n

Hanging from the wall are team posters, a framed, autographed practice jersey of former player Symone Denham, a pink autographed handkerchief and a gray T-shirt that celebrates Wright State\u2019s appearance in the NCAA tournament against Kentucky in 2014.<\/p>\n

McKiernan says the games appeal to her love of basketball and her competitive nature. She admires the players\u2019 stamina, skill, finesse and teamwork.<\/p>\n

“These ladies have such heart \u2014 putting in body-punishing exhaustive hours of practice and game play week after week,\u201d she said. \u201cThey do countless hours of community service, and they maintain stellar grades. They are inspiring young women, students and athletes.”<\/p>\n

McKiernan, who has been at Wright State for 30 years, spent her teenage years in Urbana. Her father served as a police officer in Urbana and later became the police chief in the western Ohio village of West Milton.<\/p>\n

After graduating from Urbana High School in 1988, McKiernan enrolled at Wright State, becoming the first member of her family to attend college. Inspired by a high school English teacher, she majored in secondary education English with the thought of teaching high schoolers.<\/p>\n

But after earning her bachelor\u2019s degree in 1992, she decided to stay at the university.<\/p>\n

\u201cWright State was very much like home to me,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

McKiernan accepted a graduate assistantship in the Office of Pre-College Programs, designing gifted and enrichment programs. The next year she landed a teaching assistantship in the Department of English Language and Literatures<\/a>, and in 1995 earned her master\u2019s degree in English, teaching composition and rhetoric.<\/p>\n

McKiernan was then hired as an adjunct and in 2003 became a full-time faculty member. She is currently a senior lecturer, teaching Academic Writing and Reading as well as Research Writing and Argument.<\/p>\n

She said many of her students today seem more committed to their education than ever. Many of them try to juggle school with jobs and family responsibilities and often have long commutes.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo if they\u2019re here, they\u2019re invested,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

McKiernan\u2019s interest in the women\u2019s basketball program began in 2010 after Courtney Boyd, a player who was in McKiernan\u2019s English class, urged her to come to a game. So she did. And she was hooked.<\/p>\n

McKiernan has since attended nearly every home game and many away games, sitting behind the team\u2019s bench or on the floor directly across the court from them. She has attended road games in Indianapolis, Detroit, Chicago and Northern Kentucky.<\/p>\n

McKiernan said one highlight was watching Wright State beat Wisconsin-Green Bay for the Horizon League title in 2014.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe met the team when they returned to the Nutter Center and went with them to learn who they would play in the NCAA tournament,\u201d she said. \u201cGoing against UK was a great experience.\u201d<\/p>\n

She also attends the coach\u2019s weekly radio shows and promotes the team over social media.<\/p>\n

McKiernan has had several players in her class over the years and tends to root for them a little harder. She acknowledges being a bit boisterous, vocal and aggressive at the games.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve asked the players so many times, \u2018Are you SURE that I\u2019m not too\u2026?\u201d her voice trailing off.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to make sure they know there are people out there for them,\u201d she said. \u201cThe more people that come to the games, the better the teams do. But also the fans feel connected to the campus. So I always say, \u2018Please come out to a game, but just ignore what I\u2019m doing.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Kristie McKiernan, Wright State grad and senior English lecturer, is a superfan of the Raiders, missing only three home games and attending road contests as far away as Chicago over the past eight years. Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":50293,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[722,733,4309,4299,729,2023,4300,2060,725,4863,747,715],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-50288","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-academics","category-alumni","category-alumni-association","category-alumni-profile","category-around-campus","category-faculty","category-faculty-profile","category-graduate","category-home-news-sidebar","category-humanities-and-cultural-studies","category-liberal-arts","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50288","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=50288"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50288\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":50300,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50288\/revisions\/50300"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/50293"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50288"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50288"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50288"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}