Miller Kerr is a Kilgore Rangerette Captain

Ursuline grad takes uncomfortable path to lead best-known drill team

As 2022-2023 captain of the Kilgore Rangerettes, Miller Kerr takes the field, never letting her audience see the painful journey behind her dance steps.

Since grade school, she has dealt with Complex Regional Pain Syndrome, an abnormal nerve condition caused by an overreaction to pain signals that the nervous system cannot shut off.

“CRPS is known to affect your quality of life in a negative way,” Kerr said.

The first hints of the condition came in the fifth grade after getting hit accidentally in the thigh while playing basketball with friends at recess.

The pain from what her family first assumed was a bruise worsened into a stabbing sensation that traveled throughout Kerr’s whole leg.

After many failed diagnoses, hours of therapy, different hospitals, and a failed procedure, the Kerrs found the Cleveland Clinic. There, a three-week intensive treatment extended to six weeks as Kerr was diagnosed with CRPS, also known as Reflex Neurovascular Dystrophy.

“Slowly, I lost the ability to use my right leg,” Kerr said. “Suddenly, I was walking slower, could not participate in physical activities, and struggled getting around my house. By that point, I could no longer keep up with my fellow classmates, friends, and family.”

One of Kerr’s doctors told her mother that along with physical therapy, she needed a form of exercise to work her leg and regain her strength after not using it for so long.

Mom figured her daughter would go back into golfing, like before the accident, but to her surprise, Kerr wanted to enroll in a dance class.  

Kerr began with one for students aspiring to make a high school drill team eventually and found her passion.

“Dance became so much more than a way to keep my body moving,” Kerr said. “Dance served as both physical and mental therapy for me.”

In her years at Ursuline Academy, Kerr was ecstatic to make the Jesuit Rangerettes drill team.

As a Jesuit Rangerette, she attended a Kilgore College football game and, for the first time, saw the famed Kilgore Rangerettes perform.

She had a new goal.

“I knew being a Rangerette would not only challenge and push me to become a better dancer but help me grow as a young woman,” Kerr said.

Founded in 1940, the Kilgore Rangerettes were the first group of their kind to bring show business to the football field. Known as the world’s best-known drill team, its members travel from coast to coast showcasing their skills.

“I chose the Kilgore Rangerettes over other dance teams because of their poise, standards, and skill level,” she added.

Kerr has also worked on spreading awareness and raising money for CRPS. She started Walk Strong, a 3K event. Last April, participants raised $13,500.

Her mother, Holly Kerr, admires the efforts to inspire other CPRS warriors. “She now wants to let the world know that if you live in pain, you still can do great things.”