By Dave Krider
MaxPreps.com
“When he got hurt, the whole school felt it,” Keith Wilson said of the career-ending knee injury suffered by Desert Vista (Phoenix, Ariz.) senior Devon Kennard. In fact, the entire country felt the loss, because Kennard is ranked as the No. 1 defensive player nationally by Tom Lemming of CBS College Sports Television.
Wilson, who is president of the Desert Vista Football Booster Club, revealed just how loved Kennard is by his teammates when he added, “My son (Conner) is a three-year starter and he told me, ‘I wish it was me and not him.’ He is a leader, a smart kid, always positive. He’s that athlete who doesn’t come around often. He’s a leader not only on the football field, but in the classroom and in the school.”
Lemming calls the 6-3, 247-pound defensive end “the nation’s premier pass rusher. He is relentless and at the high school level, it is almost impossible to block him.”
Kennard, who also was a part-time running back, tore the ACL in his right knee toward the end of a 21-20 victory over Hamilton Chandler in the third game of the season. He told MaxPreps, “I was running a sweep to the outside and the corner back hit me low, right on the outside of my knee. It was just how my body was positioned.
“I never had a serious injury and never had not gotten up no matter how hard I was hit or how hard I hit somebody else. I couldn’t get up, but I finally got up and walked off the field. That’s one thing I was proud of. I was thinking four weeks and I’d be back.”
However, following an MRI, Kennard received the worst-possible news at Monday’s practice. “It was pretty emotional – a shocker – and I wasn’t ready to hear that,” he readily admitted. “It was one of my saddest days.”
Tears flowed freely that day, according to coach Dan Hinds who noted, “Most of the guys cried with him.”
Added Devon’s brother, Derek, who is an assistant coach at Desert Vista, “He has a high threshold for pain and never had missed a game. He was our playmaker – the heart and soul of our team. It was devastating, but we have other players to step up.”
Coach Hinds has been criticized by some for using such a valuable defensive player on offense, but he had been doing it for three years. The personable Kennard absolved his coach completely when he related, “Actually, on the play that I got hurt, I told coach to put me in and I’d help finish it. I’m hard to tackle and I don’t know many coaches around the state who wouldn’t use that kind of athleticism on BOTH sides of the ball.”
Following successful surgery, the husky teenager “had to have my mom come and help me get out of bed. It was hard to get in and out of the shower. I’m already doing exercises (with the school trainer). I’m trying to get some of my range of motion back. I’ll start therapy in a few weeks. The roughest days are now, having to stay at home and rest.”
He’s still taking pain pills, but points out, “Day by day, I’m taking less and less. I have a very throbbing pain – just think of a light flashing on you constantly and it won’t stop. You just want it to go away.”
Devon can trace his love for football to his father, Derek Sr., and his brother, Derek Jr., who is nine years older. Derek Sr. played offensive line for 10 years in the NFL – winning a ring with the Dallas Cowboys’ 1996 Super Bowl champs – and three years in the USFL. Derek Jr. was a four-year starter on the defensive line for Nevada-Reno.
Despite the age gap, “We’ve always been close,” Derek Jr. says. “I looked out for him and pushed him. I beat up on him a little bit and taught him a lot. I had him around my buddies.” He says he knew his little brother was going to be a great player because “He always worked harder than anybody else. He was a student of the game, a technician.”
Kennard began playing Pop Warner football in fourth grade, but couldn’t play in fifth grade because he surpassed the weight restriction. That eventually pushed him into competition against players two years older than him when he was in sixth and seventh grade.
During these years, basketball also shared center stage because there was no restriction in that sport. “Basketball was a great love,” Kennard pointed out, “and it kept me in great shape. I could drive well and nobody could stop me. (He once scored 30 points as an eighth grader.)”
Asked why he always played defensive end, Kennard replied, “I just always was a bigger kid. It was what I was comfortable with, just where I was supposed to be, I guess. I think my dad and older brother had something to do with it. It always was fun to hit people. I had good quickness and that comes from basketball and how my feet have adjusted to guard quicker guys.”
His first season at Desert Vista, Kennard had a great year on the 8-1 freshman team with “8-10 sacks and a whole lot of tackles,” he estimated. Hinds, who had coached Derek and had Devon at his camps, said that the youngster probably could have played varsity, but he likes to keep the freshman class intact.
“He came up as a sophomore and tore them up,” Hinds quickly added. “He started at defensive end and some at running back about two-thirds into the season. When he did carry the ball, he made things happen. He can run people over. The first time he carried the ball against Mountain Pointe, he put a move on a guy, then ran another guy over.”
Derek Kennard became defensive line coach during Devon’s sophomore year and his philosophy – drill the quarterback before he can pass – started to become ingrained in his head. That was the start of Devon becoming the “sack master.” He had seven that year and also led the Thunder with 81 tackles, including 42 solos. He had a high of 13 tackles against Mesa Mountain View.
As Devon put it, “I was more mentally there. I hadn’t understood some things before. Ever since my brother has been there, we have had an awesome defensive line.”
Kennard’s father and brother both also impressed upon him that his junior year was going to be the key year for him to earn national honors and a high Division I college scholarship. He took that advice to heart, too, and had an awesome junior year. He set a state record with 24.5 sacks, which ranked No. 2 in the country. He was in on 111 tackles overall, 34 for losses. His high was 16 against Hamilton Chandler. He caused three fumbles and recovered a pair. In addition, he ran 63 times for 445 yards (7.06 average) and scored five touchdowns.
In his first game, he recorded 5.5 sacks against Gilbert. He would have had 7.5 except for a couple of mistakes.
One of his favorite sacks – against powerhouse Hamilton Chandler in the state playoffs – still stands out in everyone’s minds . “I totally hit the quarterback’s hand,” Kennard related. “I picked up the ball and ran (about 15 yards) for a touchdown. It put the game in the bag.” He also scored the winning touchdown in the fourth quarter against Red Mountain during Desert Vista’s march to Class 5A-Division I state runner-up honors.
Thanks to his great junior year, Kennard entered this fall with the nation’s No. 1 defensive ranking. “That’s amazing,” he said humbly. “It’s the greatest feeling in the world to have educated people say that I am – hands down – the No. 1 defensive player in America.”
Besides his impressive game statistics, the powerful Thunder star runs a superb 4.71 40-yard dash, bench presses 375 pounds and has a 33-inch vertical jump.
Before he was injured early this fall, Kennard “was having a great year,” according to coach Hinds. “He was living up to his billing.” Hinds noted that his star was leading in rushing, had scored five touchdowns and had 18 tackles (1.5 sacks) even though being double- and triple-teamed.
Opponents had begun to “scheme against” Kennard during the latter portion of his junior year. They ran plays away from him and the best he could do in several playoff games was to get a few pass deflections. However, this fall he exclaimed, “As far as people scheming against me, it was times-100. They tried to wall me off and never threw to my side. All the things they did were ridiculous. It was frustrating, but was giving other guys chances to make plays.”
So, Kennard continues his rehab and great work in the classroom where he carries a near-perfect 3.98 GPA. He belongs to the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, Community Counts where he mentors younger students and helps his father at football camps. His popularity is immense, having been voted homecoming king and prom prince as a junior.
His college future is secure, because his top five (Arizona State, Southern California, Texas, California and UCLA) all called immediately to stress that they still want him.
Even most of the interested colleges not among his top five have called with assurances. He’s still on crutches and has not yet made any official visits.
His football idols include Ray Lewis, Shawn Merriman and DeMarcus Ware, because “I love players who play with passion. Mostly, I just watch their effort. The NFL is my ultimate goal – that should be every kid’s ultimate goal who plays college football. I’m looking for a program that’s going to get me there academically and help boost me on the field.”
If anyone wants to get Kennard’s “goat,” he or she needs only to surprise him with a small bug or frog, for example. “I hate bugs,” Kennard quickly admitted. “They’re nasty. They crawl on you and get into stuff. The worst are cockroaches. I don’t see how any human being likes bugs.”
Bugs and small creatures aside, Kennard expects to return to the field in the spring. He says hopefully, “I should be able to fly again by the end of April.”