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Bixby’s Christian Kaiser poses for a portrait at Bixby High School on Thursday. Kaiser has become a social media star with over a million followers with his dance videos.
Bixby senior receiver Christian Kaiser has accumulated 1.2 million followers on the social media site TikTok, creating an unorthodox career path for the 18-year-old.
Bixby’s Christian Kaiser has become a social media star with over a million followers with his TikTok videos.
BIXBY — The crowd surrounding Bixby’s locker room had grown to more than 50 people by halftime.
It was a good mix of young and old. They clamored about taking a selfie with someone inside. Maybe there was even the possibility of grabbing a group photo with him.
The gathering was starting to create such a distraction at halftime, Bixby coach Loren Montgomery needed to step out of the room to tell the crowd to leave.
But they just wanted a picture with someone famous.
“Even after the game I’m like, ‘Can I get a picture with my own son?’” Jennifer Kaiser said.
Kaiser’s struggle to grab a postgame picture with her kid isn’t anything new. As weird as it is for her to admit, he is famous now. Whether in Sand Springs, Bartlesville or Bixby, people know him — and not for his football play.
Christian Kaiser, a senior wide receiver for the Spartans, is better known by the crowds for his notoriety on TikTok, a popular social media site centered around short videos. After starting an account two years ago to have fun with his friends, Christian’s popularity has skyrocketed, gaining him 1.2 million followers and a bevy of fans.
It’s also given him a career path to follow.
“Christian’s probably making more money than many of the coaches on our staff doing that sort of thing,” Montgomery said with a laugh. “More power to him; he’s a talented kid.”
Through sponsorships and money paid out by the app, Christian is making a living off his content and hopes to tap into other markets in the future. His popularity stems from dance videos he does on the app, often wearing Bixby football clothing and having teammates cameo in the short clips.
“I’ve got a whole plan on what I’m doing, but yeah, it’s kind of taken off in a cool but weird way,” Christian said. “I didn’t really expect it but I’m kind of rolling with it.”
The plan was never to do too much with the app when he originally downloaded it, but once his videos started gaining traction — and money began rolling in — Christian started to take a more serious attitude toward his efforts.
His big break came from a TikTok dance called “The Dancing Cowboy,” a routine Christian doesn’t take credit for inventing but does claim to have made popular after five of his videos doing the dance gained more than 10 million views.
“A lot of people would see it as my dance,” Christian said. “That dance went pretty crazy for me. That got me a lot of my followers; a lot of credit goes to that dance, but I didn’t make it myself.”
His dance background comes from his mother, Jennifer, who has owned the Jenks Dance Academy for 22 years. Christian said he never fully committed to dance, instead spending more time with football and wrestling, but that’s the foundation he has built his TikTok content on.
“I just kind of did the hip-hop classes because it was cool,” he said.
As the fame grew, it was hard for his family to understand it. His older family members still don’t quite comprehend what he does, but they support him.
“At first we were like, ‘I don’t know about this; you need to go to college and focus on your grades,’ but he just blew up,” Jennifer said. “He was able to do it all.”
Christian travels across the country often for work. He’s been to Florida, California, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, Ohio and New Jersey recently just to shoot content with other influencers.
He spent the entire summer in Texas working with other TikTokers to make videos together.
After he graduates high school early in December, Christian will move to Nashville to continue his career. He plans to move in with other famous TikTokers, including Taylor Holder, who has 20 million followers on the app.
Nashville is also optimal for Christian because of its prominence in country music, something he currently is exploring. Christian said he has started writing songs, and currently helps artists promote their work at various festivals.
“He’s got (country music artists) Bailey Zimmerman and Morgan Wallen, those are his buddies,” Jennifer said. “They’re all influencing him and being in the Nashville scene I think he’s getting the bug to try it out.”
Country music fits Christian’s lifestyle. He drives a Ford F-150. He’s excited for bowhunting season starting soon. He spent last week tagging calves on his family’s ranch. His curly mullet, something he’s had since eighth grade, is now “part of his brand” on social media. He ropes in his limited spare time.
“I mean he’s a country kid — he’s got some horses and they’ve got some land and things like that, but he’s definitely domesticated,” Montgomery said with a laugh.
There’s no sign of Christian slowing down after he graduates. And while it might still be hard for him to fathom, the crowds waiting to meet him will only continue to grow.
“I’ve got plenty of haters now and I don’t ever respond back to them and just keep it going but I don’t know,” Christian said. “It just blew up way bigger than I ever thought and it’s still going.”
In this bonus episode of the high school podcast, Dean Ruhl talks to the Bixby QB about his dreams, his recruitment, growing up around football and being a Tom Brady fan and more.
dean.ruhl@tulsaworld.com
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I write about high school sports for the Tulsa World and OKPrepsExtra.com and contribute to Oklahoma State University athletics coverage.
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Bixby’s Christian Kaiser poses for a portrait at Bixby High School on Thursday. Kaiser has become a social media star with over a million followers with his dance videos.
Bixby senior receiver Christian Kaiser has accumulated 1.2 million followers on the social media site TikTok, creating an unorthodox career path for the 18-year-old.
Bixby’s Christian Kaiser has become a social media star with over a million followers with his TikTok videos.
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