It means more for OSU fans? Maybe so

The conference room at Johnsons of Kingfisher was filled to the brim with orange.

For good reason.

Kingfisher Rotary Club last Tuesday hosted a special guest speaker in Chad Weiberg, the athletic director at Oklahoma State University.

I’ve been able to cover two different governors speaking locally, I’ve met Bob Stoops and Brent Venables on recruiting trips here and also have covered numerous events in the county with dignitaries as the guest speaker.

This one ranked right up there in the “this job can be pretty cool sometimes” category.

Weiberg (see story on Page 1) talked about getting to watch in awe and in person the likes of John Smith and Robin Ventura growing up…and now (although he didn’t put it this way) being their boss.

(Unrelated: I was able to ask Mr. Smith a question when he visited Dover School not long after winning a gold medal at the 1988 Olympics. He was related to our elementary principal, Teresa Loudermilk, and made a special appearance. Each class voted to have one person designated to ask him a question when he came around for smaller sessions. I was that guy for our class...it’s almost as if I was destined for my career. Enough about me...)

Weiberg spoke of his humble beginnings in the OSU athletic department and his rise up the ladder (again, not how he worded it).

Weiberg answered questions ranging from sudden conference realignment (the departure of OU and Texas to the SEC were announced about three weeks after he officially took over) to the affect of COVID-19 on the athletic budget (the department worked at a deficit last year, but also ensured the financial effects were as short-term as possible) to an update on OSU’s appeal to the NCAA regarding men’s basketball sanctions (nothing new, he said, adding he could literally receive a call as the meeting was taking place because he expected the NCAA would want to act before another basketball season started).

There were a couple of cracks taken (not by Weiberg) at the expense of the - maybe - two OU fans in the room (yours truly and Mike Sanders…and they made us sit next to each other in order to keep an eye on us at all times).

Here’s a joke someone could have used, but didn’t: If you see someone wearing an OSU shirt, you know they went there. If you see someone wearing an OU shirt, you know they went to Walmart.

There’s SOME truth to that.

I never went to OU… yet I have an OU tag on the front of my pickup.

Why? Tough to say other than I remember being filled with pride in my formative years seeing OU football on TV and highlights of Wayman Tisdale on the evening news.

I was just drawn to the crimson and cream.

When I moved to Alabama as a 14-year-old, being an OU fan was one of my true links to “home.”

But I also had a spot in my heart for OSU.

I attended more of their football games growing up thanks to the annual band days (anyone remember those?).

I went to OSU basketball camp between my freshman and sophomore years…and even bought a pair of OSU shorts to wear back in Alabama.

But, for one reason or another, I gravitated to OU (and believe me, there were some lean football years while I lived in Alabama and had to endure it constantly).

Again, there is some truth to the OU jokes.

Some OU fans, you’ll hear, couldn’t point to Norman on a map.

I get it.

One of the biggest reasons I became an Auburn fan while living in Alabama was because of the Tide fans.

They hadn’t yet returned to football glory when I moved there in 1989, but man were they obnoxious.

And I knew 70 percent of them couldn’t spell Tuscaloosa correctly, much less tell me what the campus looked like.

I tell people all the time I know what it must be like for people moving to Oklahoma and having to deal with OU fans…I lived it myself.

I’ve never attended a class at OU. Never will.

I’ve never given money to the university and only briefly was a season ticket holder, though not in my own name.

I’m not truly a part of an OU family. And, when it comes to the “typical” OU fan, I’m in the majority.

That’s certainly not the case for OSU fans (and, to an extent, Auburn fans as well).

There were literally generations of OSU fans sitting in that room Tuesday. Not just fans, but alumni.

They don’t just wear orange, they bleed it.

OSU fandom is a family. It truly means something.

I’ve never doubted that, but had that belief cemented when John Johnson stood up to introduce Weiberg to the group.

Weiberg’s brother, Jared, was one of the 10 people associated with OSU basketball who were killed in January 2001 when a plane crashed in Colorado.

Jared Weiberg was a student assistant under Eddie Sutton.

That crash happened more than 20 years ago.

Two decades.

Yet, when John Johnson made mention of the crash, he visibly got choked up.

It hurt then. It hurts now.

Because it was family.

That’s something I’ll always respect.

And that will never change, no matter how many times I buy a vehicle from Johnsons and have Jeff take the OU tag from my old ride and put it on the new one…and makes sure it’s upside down.

Witnessing volleyball history as a Piedmont fan? Yes, thanks for asking

It’s so rare I get to be a fan anymore.

I’ve typed that in this space before, but it’s true.

Because of my profession, if I’m at a high school event, it’s almost exclusively because I’m working.

That hasn’t been the case the last two Mondays.

I was a Piedmont volleyball fan.

Yes, Piedmont. Yes, volleyball. Yes, a fan.

One of my nieces, Kaylie Marshall, is a junior for the Lady Wildcats (or Ladycats or whatever).

The team got oh-so-close last year to its first-ever volleyball state tournament, but had that dream crushed by Sapulpa in the regional.

This year’s scenario was much the same.

Piedmont was ranked seventh and got to host a regional.

This time the east-side team invading the OKC suburbs was No. 10 Coweta.

Unlike Sapulpa the year before, Coweta never stood a chance.

Piedmont swept the match and earned a trip to the Class 5A state tournament.

All the while, I stood in a corner and pumped my fist, clapped, yelled my niece’s name a few times, took pics with her after the match...I was a fan.

All I was missing out on was screaming at the officials, but I’m still learning.

That set the stage for state.

Unfortunately for me, state volleyball is played on Mondays and Tuesdays.

More unfortunate for me, this was the year for an east-side school to host.

Mondays in the fall, I’m generally writing about four football games from the previous Friday night as well as cross country and even some softball.

Working in my favor? Fall break week.

My football games were last Thursday, meaning I’d already printed them all in the weekend edition.

My Monday had been freed up.

On top of that, my boss had open heart surgery recently and can’t be in the office. There’s no way he’s going to know I’m gone.

PERFECT. (Note: Don’t tell him.)

With all that in mind, the fam and I loaded up Saturday evening and spent some extra time in Tulsa.

We spent Sunday at their zoo (not bad at all) and their version of Top Golf, ate some mediocre to bad food and prepared for Monday morning’s quarterfinal match at Verdigris High School.

I wore blue (I’ve got lots of it). My wife and daughter wore Piedmont shirts (we know someone who has lots of them).

And we cheered on Piedmont volleyball...to victory, as it turned out.

No, Piedmont didn’t win the whole thing. There are private schools in volleyball, silly.

But Piedmont did beat Claremore in the quarter-final round.

In its first-ever trip, Piedmont became a state semifinalist.

In her chosen sport, my niece played a huge part in her program’s piece of history.

The semifinals were that night, but I had to get back. As expected, Piedmont was defeated by Mount St. Mary in those semifinals.

The Rockets went on to win the state championship as they beat Carl Albert - a team Piedmont beat near the end of the regular season for the conference title - in four sets.

That part didn’t matter.

I got to witness the part that mattered...my niece being a part of history.

Her mom. Her dad. Her grandmother. Her sister. Her brother. My wife. My daughter.

They all got to see it happening, too.

And so did I.

Can’t wait to do it again next year. This time, I’ll be more prepared to yell at the officials.

And, in case you were wondering, yeah my niece is pretty good.

She’s got really good instincts, has become a very solid passer, is very athletic and has a wicked swing on her.

Are the volleyball superpowers going to be knocking on her door? No.

Is OU going to be making a call? Not likely.

However, she’s going to have her choice of some really nice scholarship offers, which, again, makes me a very proud uncle.

From where does she get her athletic prowess?

Her mom was nothing but a brat growing up. I can attest to that.

Her dad was a backup JV quarterback, or so that’s my story.

Maybe it was from the two women for whom Kaylie was named, her great-grandmothers Kaye Bishop Mitchell and the late Mildred Swisher, who many in the family called “Millie.”

Then again, maybe it’s her middle name that makes her special.

I don’t want to brag, because I’m just so humble by nature, so I’m not going to flat-out tell you what it is.

However, if you guessed Michael, you might be right.