KAITLYN SEILER

The Girl in the Hat Comes Back STORY BY CLAY BILLMAN

During every game, dozens of cameras dot the sidelines at Boone Pickens Stadium or the baselines at Gallagher-Iba

Arena. Armed with powerful telephoto lenses, photographers pan the crowd looking for that compelling shot, the one that tells a story or captures spectators’ emotion and the essence of gameday atmosphere.

A decade ago, OSU photographer Gary Lawson’s gaze was caught by a little girl in a big hat — A BIG, FURRY, FABULOUS, BRIGHT ORANGE HAT!

Ten-year-old Kaitlyn Seiler was easy to spot in the south side stands in 2009. Along with her fuzzy headwear, she sported a “Cool Chicks Wear Orange” shirt and a Pistol Pete puppet on her right hand.

“It was my goal every game to get on the Jumbotron,” Seiler says.

She was usually successful. Her outgoing attire was a magnet for the media. Lawson’s photo wound up being used by OSU Athletics to promote the Pistol Pete’s Partners kids club in membership brochures and marketing materials.

“When all this happened, we lived in Wichita and had season tickets,” she explains. “My grandparents (Brian and Charlotte Johnson) live in Oklahoma City so we would go visit them a lot and go to games.

“I actually remember where I got the hat,” Seiler recalls. “I saw it at the store in Boone Pickens Stadium in 2008, and the reason I wanted it was because we had Crazy Hat Day at school and I’d never had anything to wear. My mom was like, ‘Okay, maybe some other time’ … And then it was Bedlam, and it was really cold outside. We were waiting to get into the stadium and my Nana bought it for me and surprised me with it. I wore it ever since.”

For gamedays in 2010, the sixth-grader donned a new No. 24 replica jersey and adorned her wrist with the latest youth fashion craze. Lawson’s lens found her again.

“Kendall Hunter signed my jersey on Fan Appreciation Day,” Seiler said. “I had OSU Silly Bandz back when those were a thing, and he asked to trade me. Now I look back and think, ‘Oh my gosh, look at the Silly Bandz!’”

Seiler is an OSU legacy — the daughter of 1991 grads Michael and Kerri (Johnson) Seiler. A retired Air Force colonel, Michael’s job meant frequent moves across the country: Washington, South Carolina, Alabama, Kansas, Florida, Illinois …

“IT WAS MY GOAL EVERY GAME TO GET ON THE JUMBOTRON.”

“Being an Air Force family, OSU was really our connection to home,” Kerri says. “Since OSU was where Mike and I met, of course it would be a part of our kids’ lives. No matter where we lived we always wore orange and rooted for the Cowboys. If any of the OSU teams were playing anywhere near us we went and took the kids.”

Now living in Edmond, Okla., Michael and Kerri don’t miss a game — and for good reason. Because in 2017, the girl in the hat came back — as a member of the OSU Pom squad.

“My mom said when I was in kindergarten I told her that’s what I want to do,” says Seiler, now a junior multimedia journalism major. “I had always been in dance and I didn’t start to get serious about it until high school, but that was always the end goal. People would always ask me what I wanted to be, and I’d say, ‘I’m going to go to college at OSU and be on the Pom squad.’

“I remember OSU played a Halloween game against Texas (2009), and they were encouraging fans to dress up. I had a pair of jazz pants that I would wear to dance class, and I had an OSU cheer top that looked like one of the tops they wore so I wore that all day and carried pompoms.”

As a teenager in Belleville, Ill., Seiler attended a number of OSU pom clinics and camps to prepare for the highly competitive tryouts.

“I just got lucky because I have great people behind me that gave me all the tools I needed to be successful. That goes back to my mom and dad just being so awesome, taking me to all those clinics and prep classes. Without them I definitely would not be here.”

Though Seiler spent most of her life far from Stillwater, there was never any doubt as to where she’d end up.

“She was all-in for OSU always,” her mother says. “I never worried about her wanting to go to any other university because her heart was with OSU.”

“I remember in high school they asked me my top four college choices. I wrote, ‘Oklahoma State, Oklahoma State, Oklahoma State, Oklahoma State’ … I missed a lot of things so I could be ready for this. I missed my prom to try out, and it didn’t bother me. I wouldn’t take any of it back.”

Seiler says being a member of the OSU spirit squad has exceeded her expectations.

“It was more than I ever thought it could be. I watched these girls on the Pom squad for so long and I knew the dancing part, but there’s so much more that goes into it that I don’t think I could’ve ever anticipated. Our coach (Beki Jackson) always says it’s about 10 percent dancing, and the rest of it is all the community service we do, interacting with your teammates, going to OSU events. I think back to all the things I’ve gotten to do. There’s no way I would’ve been able to do that anywhere else. We get to do Coaches vs. Cancer and the Tim Tebow ‘Night to Shine’ prom — those are two of my favorite events.”

Another magical memory stands out, she says.

“My rookie year we went to the Camping World Bowl in Orlando and got to be in a Disney World parade. That was the coolest thing I’ve ever done. I walked by the castle and was thinking, ‘Oh my gosh, I can’t believe this is real!’ I got a little teary-eyed.

“It’s so crazy to think about because I feel like that was yesterday when I was that 10-year-old with the crazy orange hat in Boone Pickens Stadium.”

WE GET IT

Carter’s shoe store in downtown Sand Springs, Okla., (my hometown) was a

small, family-owned place. They had a variety of shoes for men, women, boys and girls. It wasn’t Michael Kors, Cole Haan, Prada or Gucci. Rather than high fashion, they provided high touch — when you walked in, they knew your name, what was happening in your life and what your growing shoe size was. The owners wanted to converse about hometown happenings and, at the old-fashioned cash register, they would hand you a free lollipop. The Carters were kind and friendly. Relationships were as important

as the sale.

If you grew up in a small town, you probably frequented a store like Carter’s, along with a host of other small-town staples like Woolworth’s, OTASCO, CR Anthony and others. Think back to going inside those stores with your parents. Each visit was like Christmas — a primary reason why our parents probably despised taking us there. They knew the all-toofrequent question (“Can I have this?”) would commence. Those places were cool. You could buy a banana seat for your bike and an Old Timer pocket knife for your dad’s birthday all in the same place. You went to school and church with the children of the people who worked in those retail establishments. How they treated you mattered, and that was why your family kept going back. This type of retail experience is part of what made your hometown special, and the catalyst for all those great memories you recall from time to time that make you long for simpler eras.

George Strait sings a song — ironically about Tulsa — which reminds us, “But all good things must end, all rivers have to bend.” The mega-marts moved in and everything changed. Sure, efficiency and volume of sales skyrocketed, which was good for big business. But the customer experience was never the same. The transition to online purchase habits have placed a whole other twist on things. The reality is, a key piece of small-town character disappeared when those locally owned and operated cornerstones fell.

Bigger isn't always better. Quality interactions add color to life.

All of you reading this have several things in common, one of which is Stillwater. There is no shopping mall here. In fact, a recent Fortune Magazine study finds that shopping malls are dying all across America, and only the ones who go through extreme reinvention through insertion of more restaurants and colossal churches have a chance to survive. When anchors like Sears, JCPenney and Macy’s set sail, malls scramble for viability.

What Stillwater does have is people who provide a unique atmosphere which can’t be manufactured because it comes

from your roots. It’s about sincerity, kindness, hard work, education and a love for a land grant university and everyone associated with it. Stillwater personifies the exact opposite of the mega-mart mentality where one concrete jungle town grows into the next. And that is a huge competitive advantage for Oklahoma State.

A lot of prospective students and their families visit Stillwater each year, facing decisions about attending college and, often, contemplating playing a sport for Oklahoma State. Those families always remark about how this place feels. Sometimes they have difficulty articulating it, but the conversation usually includes something to the effect of, “We just feel

at home here.”

In some ways, Stillwater has preserved the nostalgia many of us fondly associate with places we grew up — and that gives parents and students comfort. The hometown of Oklahoma State University is proof that bigger isn’t always better in a place where the quality relationships color our life in the brightest shade of orange.

When you’re here, you get it. #WeGetIt.

GO POKES!

KYLE WRAY

Vice President Enrollment & Brand Management

Kyle Wray OSU @KyleWrayOSU

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