Cramer Awards recipient Nathan Frasier addresses Kathy McCaa, mother of Cramer Award recipient Karen McCaa, after receiving the Jack Cramer Ideals of Athletic Competition Award during a ceremony at Columbus City Hall in Columbus, Ind., Thursday, Sept. 7, 2023.
Mike Wolanin | The Republic
Nate Frasier has been a successful chiropractor and personal trainer in Columbus for the past 15 years, but he didn’t always know that was the career he would choose.
When Frasier was in high school at Columbus North, he needed a little career advice. He had some long talks with Karen McCaa, who then was a guidance counselor at Hauser.
In late June, McCaa, who had died the previous month, and Frasier were selected as this year’s recipients of the Jack Cramer Ideals of Athletic Competition Award. They were honored in a ceremony Thursday at City Hall.
“Karen is actually a wonderful person in my life,” Frasier said. “She was a mentor for me when I was in high school. I actually spent multiple days with her when we had to do our job shadowing when she was at Hauser. We walked the halls together many times. We talked about a lot of things like what I was choosing to do with my future, and she helped me more than most people know. So it’s even more of an honor for me to be (recognized) in the same year as her.”
McCaa was a standout basketball player at North, setting game, season and career 3-point records. She finished her high school career as the Bull Dogs’ all-time leader in scoring, assists and steals. She was a three-time AP All-State player and an Indiana All-Star and went on to play at Eastern Illinois.
After college, McCaa spent time as a guidance counselor at Milan and Hauser before picking up a master’s degree from University of Tennessee. She moved to Iowa and became guidance counselor at Kirkwood Community College in Cedar Rapids. She also coached Show Choir at a high school in Iowa and was on Cedar Rapids Jefferson’s football coaching staff as a life coach.
In 2010, McCaa began battling Addison’s Disease, then contracted a few other illnesses. She returned to Columbus in 2013 and served as a volunteer assistant for the North football and girls basketball teams. She gave motivational speeches to those teams, as well as the Bull Dog baseball squad.
“As one of Columbus North’s first prolific 3-point shooters, let’s consider three items when remembering her and her contributions to athletics in Columbus and specifically at Columbus North High School,” former North girls basketball coach Pat McKee said via teleconference from Florida. “Also, considering Karen’s love of football — as her father Bill was a longtime Columbus North coach — I’m borrowing a mantra for that sport that applies to Karen — ‘Faith, Family and Football,’ or in this case, just ‘ball,’ as in football, basketball and baseball, the three Columbus North programs Karen worked with over the last 10 years of her 52 years with us.”
McCaa played a key inspirational role in the Bull Dogs’ run to the Class 4A girls basketball state title in 2015 and a runner-up finish the following year.
“Despite the challenges of her condition, Karen provided counsel, inspiration and an uplifting outlook to the Columbus North girls basketball, football and baseball programs,” McKee said. “For all of the medical battles Karen faced, she found a way to always be positive about her life and be positive and encouraging to everyone she met. Karen had an ultra uplifting personality and made others see the good side, the silver lining of every situation. The unfortunate part of today, of course, is that Karen is not here in person to receive this recognition. If she were, she humbly would try to deflect the praise to others. Still, I’m confident that Karen is here in spirit, once again inspiring others, even after her passing. I’m confident that Jack Cramer would be proud for Karen to be a recipient of the award presented in his name.”
Brett White served as an assistant coach with McCaa, then took over as head girls basketball coach after McKee retired in 2021. By that time, it had been a couple of years since McCaa’s health had allowed her to attend games or practices. But when McCaa had agreed to come in and speak at one of Tom Rust’s Chapel meetings after a Wednesday practice, White was excited to hear her and for and some of his players to learn her story.
“She had been kind of away from the program because she was facing her health issues, so we hadn’t connected with her as much as what we had in the past,” White said. “So I mentioned that to our players a couple days before, and it was a reaction that I wasn’t expecting because it occurred to me the girls didn’t really know her. And that really bothered me, that they didn’t really have a chance to know Karen. So at that time, I decided that we’re going to make sure that people who play for Columbus North know who Karen McCaa is. So we started an award in her name.”
White’s wife Allison, who is five years younger than McCaa, talked about following in McCaa’s footsteps. They both attended St. Peter’s Lutheran, both became Indiana All-Stars — McCaa at North and White at Columbus East — and both wore jersey No. 10 with the All-Stars. Both played at Eastern Illinois, and both spent time as color commentators with Rust for girls basketball games on KORN Country.
“If you were to Google ‘Karen McCaa,’ I am confident you would find some of these words — ‘Passionate,’ ‘Dedicated,’ Faithful,’ ‘Believer,’ ‘Unselfish,’ ‘Encourager,’ ‘Loved,’ ‘Devoted,’ ‘Caring,’ ‘Humble,’ ‘Kind’ and the list could go on and on,” Allison White said. “If you have ever spoken with Karen McCaa just for one minute, you know she was a special person. Karen had many passions in life, and despite all of her hardships throughout her last few years, many years, one of those passions remained steady and unwavering, and that was her faith in the Lord, and boy, did she love to share and demonstrate her belief in our Lord and Savior.”
McCaa’s mother Kathy accepted the award on Karen’s behalf.
“Karen loved sports, and Karen loved people, all people,” Kathy McCaa said. “She saw the gift and the specialness of people, and she was able to focus on that. She loved working through sports and through other groups at church and school.”
Frasier, meanwhile, earned 12 letters in soccer, football and basketball before graduating in 2000. He was the kicker on the football team, but his senior year, played wide receiver in a sectional game and scored all of the Bull Dogs’ points in a 24-21 win against Martinsville.
“He’s been my best friend my entire life,” Corey Seegers said. “I will say that in all my years of playing basketball — that was my main sport, and after North, I was blessed to be able to go on to college and play and played on AAU teams where I had multiple teammates that went on and played in the NBA and excelled — and to this day, it’s one of those things where people will ask me, my own kids will ask me, ‘Who was your favorite teammate growing up?’ and hands down, without even hesitation, it was Nate, and a lot of that was of the bond that we had off the court, but it was also just because of his work ethic, his leadership and it wasn’t just toward me, it was toward everybody on the team. He just had that ability and that belief in everybody that was around him that how hard you went, there was more in the tank. His goal was to get that out of you, and he did that through positive reinforcement and just his natural leadership ability.”
Frasier has served as an assistant boys basketball and baseball coach at North. He and his wife Sarah also won “Dancing With the Stars-Columbus Style” in 2018.
In the past couple of years, Frasier has furthered his own physical development by competing in local and national Tough Mudder events. He put together a team last year that competed in the 12-hour Tougher Mudder at Ceraland, and this year, organized and trained a team of 12 mostly fathers to do the local Tough Mudder.
Frasier earned a degree in biology from Indiana University in 2003 and his doctorate from Palmer College of Chiropractic in 2007. In 2008, he opened MVP as a sports training facility for athletes in all sports. He trains high school and college athletes not only from North and Columbus East, but from all over the area. He shut it down last month to be able to devote more time to his family.
“The timing of this award is really weird for me,” Frasier said. “It’s a very bittersweet year. MVP has been a huge part of my life for a long time. Athletes in the room that I’ve worked with, families that I’ve worked with, I chose to close that this year because now I have the two most important athletes to support every day, and they deserve all my time.”
