After a dark period, a longtime Bremerton athlete is active again

Randy McKiernan has had one of the most life-fulfilling journeys that one can have, with sports at the center almost since birth.

But the longtime Bremerton residents also had to overcome a dark period, and again, sports were there to play a role in his recovery.

The list of activities the 76-year-old McKiernan has done is long, interesting and exciting.

When McKiernan was just past two years old his dad put him on a pair of skis, and pushed him down a hill at the old Westpark School. His father may not have expected how the toddler would respond.

“I guess I just took off,” McKiernan says. “I made it all the way to the bottom, no problems.”

The family story goes that his stunned dad, Ralph McKiernan, said, “I think we got ourselves a skier.”

And that remained true for nearly 75 years. It was only recently McKiernan quit skiing. He was at Stevens Pass Ski Resort and after one last run decided it was time to let the mountain go.

“My body and mind just would not let me ski at the level I was used to. I made the difficult decision to quit skiing, McKiernan said. “It’s ok. I can live with the decision. I had a pretty good run, from 2 ½ to 76. I’ll take it.”

The level he was used to was near the top, at least locally. McKiernan raced with Pacific Northwest Ski Association Junior Racing and then shifted into a role as instructor at Ski Acres at Snoqualmie Pass and Crystal Mountain, he was the oldest instructor when he was still there teaching in his 60s.

When he wasn't racing down mountain slopes he played football, basketball and baseball in peewees, and some basketball and tennis (he was the No. 2 player) at West Bremerton High School, graduating in 1965 and then serving in the Army for two years as a clerk in Fort Lewis. (He got that job when new recruits were asked if anyone could type. McKiernan couldn’t raise his hand quick enough).

He started playing slowpitch in Bremerton while in the Army, starting out with Lent’s and continuing for 30 years.

McKiernan kept busy – real busy – with activities besides slowpitch. He is a golfer at Rolling Hills, his home course. His lowest handicap was 13 and is now 18.

One day he wandered into the city's Sheridan Park Gym expecting to maybe get in some basketball in. What he found were people playing pickleball. He now is a pickleball guy, and a member of the West Sound Pickleball Club.

Pickleball was right up his alley.

"He plays weekends at Gig Harbor, Bremerton, Kingston, Bainbridge and the YMCA at Silverdale," says friend Steve McAboy. "He’s just a going machine.”

“I play pickleball almost every day of the week, 9 (a.m.) through 12,” McKiernan says. In winter that means meeting West Sound Pickleball Club friends at the East Bremerton Community Gym, the old high school sites, which is lined for nine courts.

McKiernan also played racquetball and added cycling in the 1970s to his long list of activities.

After serving in the Army, McKiernan spent two years at Olympic College, five quarters at the University of Washington and finished at Central Washington, where he got a degree in "leisure services" in 1976.

McKiernan had important jobs at Bangor. The top one was Facility Management Specialist at Strategic Weapons Facility, which he retired from in 2002. Margo, his wife, retired from the same facility in 2001. She was an explosive ordnance truck driver.

But in the years before retirement and the discovery of new hobbies, McKiernan experience a dark time of dealing with depression and anxiety, and bi-polar feelings, he said.

He continued to function, but knew there was something wrong, starting in the late 1990s.

“About 2018 I began to get worse,” he says. “I isolated myself in my house (and away) from my friends, activities and even family in a way.”

“He kind of locked himself away,” said longtime friend Terry Tell. “He wouldn’t go out. A lot of us were concerned with him, but he worked through it and got some help.”

“I ate a lot and got real fat, up to 340 pounds,” McKiernan said. “In 2022 I decided to do something about it. With help from Margo, we figured out an eating plan where I could lose weight. I ate about half what I used to and supplemented one meal a day with a protein powder mixed with almond milk.

“After I lost some weight I began to feel like I should start some of my physical activities and get out of the house, and more like a regular person, which I did slowly.”

A doctor prescribed medication. After initially experiencing a side effect called Tardive Dyskinesia (jerking of the head and involuntarily yells and screams), he's adjusted what's prescribed and feels normal. And he's down in weight to 240 pounds.

“He’s out of a dark place,” says a friend. “He was in a depression for years. Now he’s doing good.”

And feeling good means McKiernan is back to checking activities off his long list. That includes swimming spring and summer at Twanoh State Park on Hood Canal, fishing at Bangor, workouts at Haselwood YMCA in Silverdale, bicycling, and soon a return to the golf course.

His cycling route takes him from Kitsap Mall to Clear Creek Trail to Old Town Silverdale and the waterfront, then back to the mall. Then over to the old East High gym for of hours of pickleball.

He also enjoys cycling the Discovery Trail in Clallam County, heading east from Hollywood Beach in downtown Port Angeles. This ride for him is about nine miles through forests and past farms, and then nine miles back to his truck.

“It’s a great ride,” he says.

One of the strangest activities he did was Stunt Kite competition for about 20 years. He was skeptical when his dad asked him to watch the Long Beach Kite Festival in 1988. But he went and enjoyed it.

McKiernan became a master’s level stunt kite flyer, competing in individual and team events as a member of Team Wind Dancer.

“We competed locally on the coast and also flew at many national championships at various locations across the USA,” says McKiernan.

He was on Team Wind Dancer in 1999 that finished second in ballet at the National Championships in Muncie, Indiana. McKiernan also won at individual regional events in Washington and Oregon.

The team was asked to compete in the World Team Championships at Langkwai, Malaysia, in 2000. They never made it. Civil unrest cancelled the event.

McKiernan and Margo started retirement by moving to a small modular home at the Happy Trails Resort in Surprise, Arizona.

The stayed from 2004 until 2007 and McKiernan continued to be active, riding his bike to see the Kansas City Royals or Texas Rangers play spring baseball games, golfing, swimming and playing slowpitch.

But as luck would have it, he started coughing and a rash broke out all over his body one New Year’s Eve. He went to urgent care the next morning and was diagnosed with Valley Fever, a disease caused by a fungus in some desert areas, which can be fatal if not treated.

He recovered, but it drove him and Margo back to the Northwest, right when his depression was peaking.

But McKiernan is back, going from place to place and enjoying every second of the activities that are part of his new look at life.

“How do I do all these things?” McKiernan says. “Well, for me it just comes naturally, to do things I do. It is fun and keeps me in shape, for an old guy.”

This article originally appeared on Kitsap Sun: Randy McKiernan battled depression, but is active and healthy again