Leaving a legacy is what Millikin University women’s basketball coach Lori Kerans does best. From winning a national championship, to being named the College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin’s Coach of the Year 7 times, she has recently added 500 wins to her legacy. Being Millikin’s all-time winning coach comes with a lot of responsibility to keep a program in tip top shape, but Kerans handles everything that is thrown at her.
Recently, Kerans finished her 27th season in charge of the Big Blue women’s basketball program. During this season, Dec. 14, 2012 soon became the best date on the calendar. Kerans became the only 15th active NCAA Division III women’s basketball coach to reach 500 wins and she is also the only women’s basketball coach in the College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin to have reached the 500 win mark so far.
Kerans said, “500 was amazing, not because it represented a milestone for me personally, but because of the passion, commitment and synergistic efforts of the women who have worn the blue. 500 wins represents 27 years of Big Blue student-athletes who were and are successful not only on the court, but also in the classroom, and on our campus.”
“The ‘next steps’ are always the same: recruit young women who will graduate from Millikin, make their families and communities proud and who will “check their egos at the door” to give unselfishly to the program.”
As Kerans works towards the continual building of the program, she always has her time for reflection. Memories are one of the things that are always changing in a program and they are specifically great in defining certain seasonal years, weather it is 500 wins or seeing athletes succeed in the classroom.
One of Kerans’s best memories of the basketball program is that, “I have been asked often in my time at Millikin, ‘what is your favorite team, player or moments?’ And that is like asking a parent or grandparent ‘which is your favorite?’ There is no right answer because every single person who has impacted our program is family. From watching a prospective student and family fall in love with Millikin during a campus visit, seeing the place, meeting the people and finding the right fit/feel to watching a young woman walk across the stage in a cap and gown on graduation day – these are some of my top ones.”
With Kerans continuing to grow and expand the program to new heights and continuing to actively recruit, she will always have this milestone in her career to remember.