When Denzel Keyes walked off the field at Tarboro last November he thought he had played his final high school football game.
Nope. He has one more.
Keyes, an athletic 6-foot-5 wide receiver, has been selected to play in the annual N.C. Coaches Association East-West All-Star football game this July.
The selection makes Keyes the 18th from Kinston High School to play in the game, which has taken place each summer since 1949.
This year’s game will be held at 8 p.m. on July 24 at A.J. Simeon Stadium in High Point.
“First and foremost I just want to thank God, because without him I can’t do anything,” Keyes said. “It means a whole lot because I get to fill in my brother’s shoes and do the same thing that he did.”
Keyes’ nod to the game follows in the footsteps of his older brother, Angelo, who played in the event last summer.
Denzel Keyes said everything he and his brother do is one “big competition.” Both competed with one another on the football field and basketball court at Kinston, and they’ll compete with one another next fall when Denzel enrolls at N.C. A&T, where Angelo is a linebacker, to play football and basketball.
“We like to challenge each other. It’s like a big competition,” Denzel Keyes said. “That’s why I push myself just like he pushes himself, and he pushes me, too.”
The younger Keyes led the area last season among public schools with 646 yards and 12 touchdowns on 39 receptions.
He’s hoping to contribute for the East squad in July like he did for the Vikings last fall.
“I just want to get stronger, faster and run my routes better,” Keyes said. “It’s going to be a lot of fun.”
While Keyes gets to play both football and basketball in college, he couldn’t do the same at the East-West games.
Keyes was also selected to the East’s basketball team, but per the organization’s rules an athlete can play only one sport, so he chose football.
The decision makes sense. He’ll already be in Greensboro working out with the Aggies.
“I chose football because I was already going to be working out with football and getting stronger and getting bigger,” he said.
Participants for the East-West games are nominated by their coaches, then selected by a committee that looks at a student-athlete’s body of work on and off the playing surface.
Kinston head boys basketball coach and Athletic Director Perry Tyndall has watched Keyes for four years, and knows just how special of an athlete he is.
“Denzel’s been an unbelievable student-athlete. His academics speak for themselves, his athletics speak for themselves and his character speaks for itself. Both Denzel and Angelo are great kids who do things the right way,” Tyndall said.
“(Denzel is) deserving of both in football in basketball. It’s a testament to him, it’s a testament to his hard work and doing things the right way. I’m really proud of him and he’s represented Kinston very well.”
Ryan Herman can be reached at 252-559-1073 or Ryan.Herman@Kinston.com. Follow him on Twitter: @KFPSports.
