Instead of a robe, he wears a kilt. Instead of a bible in his hand, he carries a large stone. Instead of a wooden cross hung around his neck, a 20-foot wooden pole rests against his chest.
Daniel McKim, a 6-5, 285-pound mountain of a man from Liberty, Mo., has found his own special way to combine his will to compete with his passion to spread God's word. Instead of a pulpit, McKim has the Scottish Highland Games.
McKim, a MHS/NWMS graduate and thrower at both, recently turned pro as a Highland Games competitor. The Scottish Highland Games date back to the second and third centuries when Scottish chieftains and kings wanted to test the agility, cunning and physical strength of their clansmen.
These days competitions can consist of more than 10 events. Competitors participate in events such as the caber toss, Braemar Stone, heavy and light weights, heavy and light hammer and the weight over bar toss. Results from each event are tallied and combined for one total score much like a decathlon.
"It's definitely different," McKim said when asked to compare collegiate throwing to the Highland Games. "It takes all day to do instead of 30 minutes or an hour or two to throw in track and field. Your body has to adjust to it. You take a lot of beating.
"You're really, really sore, and you kind of feel like you've been beat up the next day."
Just as he did in college (Indoor All-American, six time national championship competitor), McKim has found success at the Highland Games. However, the games are about much more than winning to him.
The Games are a way to spread a message ... a message McKim displays across his back at every event. Mark 1:15: Jesus said "The Kingdom of God is near, repent and believe the good news." is written on the back of a t-shirt McKim wears to every event. On the front, the word "Believe" stands alone on his broad chest.
It's the same message McKim wore when he walked onto the field of the Kansas City Ethnic Festival to compete in his first games in July of 2004. Having seen the Highland Games on ESPN in high school, McKim thought it would be a fun way to stay competitive.
With all the places he's traveled and people he meets, McKim soon realized it was a great arena to spread God's word.
"I realize I have — for lack of a better word — a big stage that I'm on at times," McKim said. "I realize what I do and what I say is seen and heard and understood on that big stage.
"I'm very humbled with the ability to do it."
McKim, the son of a preacher, wasn't always 100 percent sure spreading God's message at the Highland Games was what he was supposed to do. He struggled with the decision and thought about giving it up until one day everything changed.
McKim said on that day a man came up to him during a competition telling him he had noticed the back of his shirt. The man then went to McKim's Web site and eventually found his way to the Lord.
"Most definitely, that one guy made it more than worthwhile," McKim said. "It kind of gave an answer to why I do what I do."
McKim's Web site www.believethrower.com is constantly updated with his many accomplishments throughout his competitions. It's also a testament to his faith. Among all of his records, videos and news clippings, McKim has a tab to what he calls true victory. It's got nothing to do with how far he can toss a 21-foot, 170-pound caber pole either.
What McKim considers true victory is "eternal life through Jesus Christ."
McKim is sure of what his calling is now, but that isn't the only thing he struggled with when beginning his Highland Games career. The caber pole isn't exactly easy or natural for that matter.
"I remember the first time I went out there with it," McKim said. "I had people running all over the place, parents protecting their children. They were waiting for me to get hurt or to kill one of their kids, I think.
"I was pretty dangerous with it."
In an effort to protect himself and others, McKim got an old telephone pole to practice with.
Three or four nights a week after work and dinner he packs up his son Titus and wife Natalie, who's expecting to give birth to child No. 2 any day now, and heads to Hodge Park in Kansas City.
It's in the woods at Hodge Park where McKim hides his practice pole. After retrieving it, McKim practices for an hour or two. He doesn't just work on the caber toss. Using other Highland Game implements he's either purchased or been given over the years, McKim perfects his craft. He also works out at William Jewell College in the mornings five days a week.
He's gotten so good he turned pro this last year. There is no official goal to reach to become a professional, but McKim said it would be wise to wait until it's time.
"You kind of just declare one day 'Hey, I'm going pro.'" he said. "But you better be good enough, you better put up good enough marks or you're not going to be invited or you're not going to be ranked high enough to make it to any of the big games."
Now that he's turned pro, McKim competes in Highland Games once or twice a month.
"As soon as I turned pro, it's kind of whatever I could get into," McKim said. "Last year, I got to go to Scotland."
McKim said his sport requires a lot of traveling and a very understanding family.
"My wife's awesome," McKim said. "She's so supportive of me to do this, and let's me have fun, wants me to do it and enjoys cheering me on, seeing me succeed and hopefully get better.
"She's been huge. If she didn't want me to do this, then I wouldn't do it."
Going pro also doesn't pay the bills. McKim said he's lucky if he can either get the trip paid for or win enough money to break even on his expenses.
So when he's not throwing giant stones and poles, McKim works as the assistant manager of the statewide housing grant program for the state housing finance agency in Kansas City.
McKim said his weekend escapades can lead to some good-natured ribbing at the office.
"A lot of people say 'That's Dan. He wears a skirt.'" McKim said. "They kind of introduce me like that."
McKim prefers to relate what he does by comparing it to the beginning of the movie “Braveheart”, when Mel Gibson's character gets a large stone tossed at him. Still, there tends to be some confusion, and some people have thought he's a competitor in the lumberjack games.
Maybe people will have an easier time understanding what he does if ESPN ever picks up the ¡Highland Games like it did when McKim was in high school. He said he hopes the sport gains prominence once again and he's among the featured competitors.
McKim's goal is to make it to nationals as a pro, a feat he barely missed by finishing 11th when the top 10 are taken. No matter how far he goes or how high up the caber pole he climbs, McKim will compete for a higher calling than his own glory.
"I have big goals athletically that I want to accomplish," McKim said. "But ultimately if He can receive more glory from this in something that many people think is obscure and out there ... if he receive glory in it, then I'm fine with that."
Maryville, Mo. —
