Shane and Kianne Prill have been Wichita State men’s basketball season ticket holders for the better part of 25 years, watching their kids grow up in Koch Arena to the frequency of Shocker faithful roars.
With a recent donation of 50 season tickets to the Kansas Big Brothers Big Sisters, the Prills are still providing opportunities to local youth they may not have otherwise, even though their kids have grown up.
“Kianne and I are thrilled to be able to do this,” Shane, a financial investor, said. “We’ve been blessed, and we want to bless others. To think that some of these kids will have a great evening, but also could become Shocker fans for life — we feel great about it.”
The Prills’ donation has now inspired others in the community. A week after they made their donation, another couple, Rick and Barbara Hemphill, donated an additional 50 season tickets to organizations like United Way affiliates and Stand Together.
WSU Athletics estimated around 870 people in the Wichita area will benefit from each season ticket donation throughout the season, which combined is 1,740 people.
“The Prills, the Hemphills, they understand what an environment Koch Arena is when it’s rocking; what that does for the community,” head men’s basketball coach Paul Mills said. “That level of investment by each of these families … it speaks volumes about their hearts.”
Allowing the adult volunteers and children to see what a raucous Roundhouse is like during college basketball season is a reason for the Prills’ donation. Shane said that another reason is providing long-lasting memories for them.
“Some of these kids maybe have never been in Koch Arena,” he said.
Mills remembers growing up in Houston, watching the Phi Slama Jama teams in the early 1980s create an electric college athletics atmosphere for one of the largest cities in the country. While he wasn’t able to attend those games in person, they still inspired him.
Mills saw first-hand how those Houston teams “ignited a whole city,” and even spent his 11th birthday watching future NBA legends Clyde Drexler and Hakeem Olajuwon compete in one of the most notable NCAA Tournament finals in 1983.
He said that the kids in Wichita who’ll benefit from the donations will get an experience that TV can’t provide. The big screen can’t fully capture a rocking and rowdy college basketball atmosphere.
“I don’t think TV does it justice,” Mills said. “I think the same is probably the case with a lot of these kids because they can watch it on YouTube, or they could see it during a live appearance on television. To actually be here aids that process of being inspired and being motivated, especially if you enjoy sports.”
Because of the COVID-19 pandemic and other factors in the last 10 years, numbers in the stands have been in a steady decline. From the 2000s until the pandemic, Koch Arena would regularly pack in a sellout crowd. During that time, the program even reached 10,000 in attendance for 232 consecutive home games.
But with a recent resurgence of fans turning out for games in The Basketball Tournament, Wichita was reminded of what kind of an environment college basketball provides. Mills said as long as WSU is able to put a “quality product” on the floor, it’s only a matter of time for another Roundhouse boom.
“We’re sitting on gunpowder, and this thing can ignite,” Mills said.
The experiences made in Koch Arena this upcoming season for those who are able to benefit from the Prills’ and Hemphills’ donations — no matter win or lose, sellout or not — will be impactful.
Mills likened it to the Maya Angelou quote: “People will never forget how you made them feel.”
“If they can leave knowing, like, ‘Man, what a great experience. We saw quality people, we saw quality basketball — all of that being played out in front of us,’ (then we did our job),” Mills said. “I do think that without football at the collegiate level being played in the 50th largest city in America, it’s important that Koch Arena be a special place. Not only for Wichita State fans, but for our community.”
Shane agreed.
“If I was a little kid, and I was in Koch Arena for the first time at an exciting game,” Shane said. “I think that’d be a pretty, pretty wonderful evening. I think about how these kids can go to school the next day, and I bet they’re excited to tell their friends about it.”
