Fandom and family: Tribe football's Kiely receives incredible support from brother

WILLIAMSBURG, Va. - If you've attended William & Mary football games in recent years, you've probably seen Dan Kiely sauntering through the stadium.

While covered in green body paint, Dan is on a mission to cheer on the Tribe during game days and he recently added a new mission to his fandom: reach two thousand retweets on a Twitter post, which would result in the opportunity to lead the team onto the field before the 2021 home opener.

"I'm up for the challenge," Dan said. "I think it's a fun challenge."

Dan is the brother of Will Kiely, a Tribe defensive lineman. The maximum effort he puts in on game days is his way of returning the favor, because during his college football days, Will was always present in the stands.

"Will would play his high school games Friday night then drive up and watch me play on Saturday, Saturday mornings, when he's tired and didn't really want to be there," Dan said. "But he's there to support, so I kinda just made it my goal to support whenever I could."

"I'll never forget the first game he made it up for, it was the UVA game my freshman year," Will said. "It's all quiet and I just hear 'Lets go Will', like screaming, and I look up to the top of the stands and I see him.

"It's downpouring rain, he's just painted green with a fathead of my face."

Covered in green, but no longer green to the process of loading up on body paint, Dan is wise to the most efficient way to apply the bright hue, which he's been applying since 2017 when his brother was a freshman.

"It used to take about 45 minutes probably to get everything ready" Dan said. "And then we had a couple of other fans volunteer to help paint me up to make it quicker so it takes about 15, 20 minutes top, which isn't bad."

If we get to see him put that green look on display while leading the team onto the field this fall, he's prepared to bring the same level of dedication to the task.

"The fans should be ready to run through a brick wall," Dan said about possibly leading the team onto the field. "Very intense, very passionate."

"It'd be kinda cool," Will said. "My senior season home opener is also my birthday."

"It'd be a good birthday gift for him," Dan added.

To bring that gift to life all he needs is two thousand retweets on this post: