{"id":44494,"date":"2019-03-18T08:17:55","date_gmt":"2019-03-18T13:17:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/?p=44494"},"modified":"2019-03-18T08:20:27","modified_gmt":"2019-03-18T13:20:27","slug":"%ef%bb%bffreshman-making-a-difference-from-the-sideline","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/?p=44494","title":{"rendered":"\ufeffFreshman making a difference from the sideline"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Diane Gasper-O\u2019Brien \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0
<\/strong>University Relations and Marketing <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Fort Hays State University cheer squad doesn\u2019t travel to most Tiger road games.

But the FHSU women\u2019s basketball team has a spirited cheerleader of its own, and she is a welcome sight at the end of the Tiger bench.

Freshman Kinly Grubb can be seen clapping and yelling at Fort Hays State games, cheering on her teammates from start to finish.

It\u2019s a stark contrast to the role Grubb has played for sports teams since she was 5 years old. But the 5-foot-10 guard is patient to wait her turn. After all, she is still a major part of one of the best women\u2019s teams in the nation.

Teammates and coaches credit Grubb\u2019s enthusiasm as a boost to their morale when the going gets tough.

It\u2019s a job that Grubb has come to thoroughly enjoy, but one she had to get used to after starting all four years for her high school team.

Following a preseason practice last fall, Tiger assistant coach Talia Kahrs had a talk with newcomers to the team.

\u201cWe freshmen didn\u2019t get in a preseason game, and in the locker room afterwards, Coach told us we could make the choice to be a really good teammate and support everyone or be unhappy,\u201d Grubb said. \u201cI think I really took that to heart.\u201d

Grubb, of course, was disappointed when she called home to Odessa, Mo., and talked to her parents.

\u201cThey told me to accept my role and to give it my all, no matter what I was doing,\u201d she said. \u201cMy mom told me I could change the whole energy of the building, that I could make a difference. Not being on the court has been an adjustment for sure, but I want to make a difference in whatever I do.\u201d

Grubb has seen limited action in 13 games this season but embraces her new role.

She can be seen raising her arms high in the air when a 3-pointer goes through the net or jumping around on the sideline after a good play by a teammate.

\u201cI even get up on the chairs to cheer sometimes,\u201d she said with a big smile. \u201cI usually lose my voice during games.\u201d

The strawberry blonde bundle of energy was a common sight for those watching Grubb play just about every sport imaginable while growing up. Throughout high school, she competed in cross country, basketball, tennis, soccer and track and field.

But her favorite sport was basketball. By her junior year, Grubb was getting some looks from Division I schools, and she had some experience with that level of competition.

Her older sister played soccer for Creighton University in Omaha, and her younger sister has committed to the University of Missouri soccer program next year.

But middle sister was intrigued by the stories her parents told of playing ball in a strong D-II conference.

Joe and Tami Grubb could attest to the strong competition at the D-II level as both played in the MIAA (her dad played football at the University of Central Missouri, and her mom, volleyball at Pittsburg State.)

\u201cMy parents told me all about the MIAA. I didn\u2019t want to just be a number at a D-I school,\u201d Grubb said. \u201cI wanted to go somewhere where I could make a difference.\u201d

Coaches and fellow players say Grubb has definitely made a difference this year.

\u201cI think it holds everyone else accountable to have a good attitude, even the people next to her on the bench,\u201d Tiger Assistant Coach Talia Kahrs said. \u201cIf they see that someone who isn\u2019t even playing is having that positive of an attitude, it carries over to everyone else.\u201d

Senior starting point guard Carly Heim was aware of Grubb\u2019s presence at the end of the bench this season. But after suffering a season-ending knee injury during a road game at the University of Nebraska-Kearney, Heim now has a whole new appreciation for Grubb, saying her enthusiasm is contagious.

\u201cNow that I\u2019m on the bench by her, I see that she says a whole lot of things like \u2018nice screen, work hard, nice shot,\u2019 that I\u2019m thinking but not saying,\u201d Heim said. \u201cHer energy helps keep our energy up, and it flows down the bench.\u201d

The Tigers came back from a 20-point deficit in that Kearney game to beat the Lopers by 10 points in overtime. Kahrs attributed part of that successful run to Grubb\u2019s enthusiasm.

\u201cWhen we were down at Kearney, we looked down the bench and saw her energy,\u201d Kahrs said. \u201cIt made us realize we were capable of coming back. It carries over to everyone else.\u201d

Head Coach Tony Hobson said he might have to recruit \u201canother ball of energy\u201d as Grubb works her way up the bench and into more playing time.

\u201cWe\u2019ve had kids who are real enthusiastic before, but Kinly has taken to it to a different level,\u201d Hobson said. \u201cThat\u2019s just who she is, and we hope she can use that energy to eventually get into the rotation.\u201d

Grubb is not afraid of hard work.

\u201cI know I have my work cut out for me,\u201d she said, \u201cbut I\u2019m not shy about putting in the work. My parents told me the MIAA is the toughest conference out there, so to be ready for a fight.\u201d

Each of the players\u2019 photos are posted on a bulletin board outside the Tiger women\u2019s locker room in GMC, with answers to a few questions about their experience at FHSU.

Asked to list her favorite part of being a Tiger, Grubb answered: \u201cI haven\u2019t been here long, but so far my favorite part has been the impromptu dance battles we have in the weight room.\u201d

That was early in the season. That answer continues to change as Grubb cheers her team on to victory after victory. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Diane Gasper-O\u2019Brien \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 University Relations and Marketing The Fort Hays State University cheer squad doesn\u2019t travel to most Tiger road games.… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":44495,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[7349,3395],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-44494","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","category-womens-basketball-sports"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/tigermedianet.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/Kinly-Grubb-fhsu.jpg?fit=1334%2C890&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44494","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=44494"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44494\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":44496,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44494\/revisions\/44496"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/44495"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=44494"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=44494"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=44494"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}