User:Easeegmiller/sandbox

Name: Debra Kiick

Birthday: November 11, 1958

Birth Place: Clinton, IL

Workplace: Millikin University

Known for: Female Advocate, Head Collegiate Volleyball Coach

Introduction

Debra Kiick was born to John and Sally McFeeters on November 11, 1958. Her father, John, supported the family and ran his own business, McFeeters, INC, an International Harvester Dealership in Clinton, IL. Her mother (Sally) raised 4 children, older sister Carol (born in 1957 and died of Glioblastoma Brain Tumor 3.5 years ago), and two younger brothers:  Steve, (1960) and Brian, (1965). Sally was a stay at home mom until after Debra was in college. John was an alcoholic, so she never developed a relationship with him because he was rarely present in her life. He died at age 59 after 3 attempts in an alcohol rehab facility, from alcoholism related problems.

Although Debra was born pre-Title IX, she had to create her own competitions to fill the competitive drive she always had. Some examples included that she never played with girls during recess; she always played football or dodgeball or basketball with the boys during recess. She also actively participated with her male friends playing football, baseball, bike riding, flying kites, etc. When her brothers had batting practice, Deb was always their only fielder, running down every ball that they hit. She would also run to the backstop when the pitching ball bucket was empty and throw all the balls back to the pitcher. She was also a state champion bowler, and her mother and her were national champions in a mother/daughter bowling tournament, showing the other communities’ women could do it too. Now she is coaching a successful program at Millikin University. In 2017, Debra had her 400th career win.

EDUCATION

She graduated from Clinton High School in 1976. After high school graduation in 1976, Debra attended Eastern Illinois University. She competed in Basketball there one year, and softball there all four years of college as a pitcher/infielder. She paid her own way through college by delivering newspapers, walking beans, detassling corn, and working in a restaurant as a waitress. She received her undergrad from EIU 1980 graduating with a Bachelor of Science in Education and in Community Health. She minored in Driver Education.

CAREER

Debra began her coaching career in 1976, the year that girls’ softball was started in Mt. Zion. She coached travel softball from 1976 until 2003. Debra met her husband, Brad Kiick, when she was student teaching at Clinton High School where she taught. Together, they coached the girls’ basketball team together there. She has taught and coached in Clinton, Byron, Mt. Zion, and Warrensburg prior to coming to Millikin in 2001. During this time, she taught Phys Ed, Health Ed, Driver Ed, and coached Volleyball, Basketball, Softball, and Cross Country. In 2001 Debra came to Millikin University to coach Volleyball. During her time here, she has had a fulfilling career, teaching in Exercise Science, Coaching Volleyball, Coaching Softball, Running the Intramural Program, and served as the Senior Woman Administrator.

As an almost 60-year-old feminist, she has spent her entire career trying to be sure female athletes have equal competitive opportunities as males. Some early career examples follow: Starting the softball program at Mt. Zion HS, she fought for a full softball schedule for girls’ softball. At this time, the boys’ baseball program had 36 games and we had 7. Debra was pink slipped shortly after this battle, because she was a non-tenured teacher. Then she converted the Country Girls Softball League, a league of 12 communities who played girls slow pitch softball, to a fast pitch league, writing rules for 6 different age groups in the league. When Debra coached Girls basketball at Clinton, they were assigned a smaller than regulation court for our practices. At this time, Boys Varsity, Boys JV, and Boys Freshman each had turns on the full-size court and our Varsity girls did not. She fought and soon got this changed. In addition, she still faced adversity by address issues that happen on a regular basis at Millikin University. Examples of this included a situation where she had to stand up to have permanent volleyball lines put in the designs for a new athletic court. (It was suggested to have it only have basketball court lines permanently on the court…and to paint volleyball lines on temporarily just during the season.) Also, all female sports were sharing one locker room, while our men’s programs took over the second locker room, giving them three total locker rooms, with no one sharing locker rooms. Again, recently, Debra stood up to have the other women’s locker room assigned to our women’s soccer program.

HONORS

Debra won Coach of the Year several times while coaching High School sports in basketball, volleyball and softball. She was awarded Macon County Coach of the Year when coaching volleyball at Warrensburg. She was Macon County Coach of the Year when coaching softball at Mt. Zion, in 1983. Again winning, IHSA Basketball Region Coach of the Year in the 1980s for this award. After leaving high school sports and coming to Millikin, she has been coach of the Year at Millikin 5 times. She was CCIW Coach of the Year for volleyball in 2010, 2015 2016, 2017 and Softball 2011 again for this award, all conference coaches are considered. She is also the only coach to win a championship and Coach of the Year in 2 sports in the same year in two unrelated sports. Debra was also awarded, out of all the employees at Millikin University, The Millikin Employee of the Month in November 2017.