The odds of touchdown a Power Five soccer scholarship are fairly low — particularly for a participant who sat out 4 years earlier than returning to the game as a senior.
Morgan Park’s Shontrail Key is the exception to the rule.
The 6-7, 268-pound defensive lineman took one other step on his uncommon journey Wednesday when he signed a letter of intent with Arizona.
Key is the very best profile native recruit for the second of school soccer’s two signing days. Most of the realm’s blue chippers made it official in December, however Key wanted extra time after ending his soccer layoff simply months in the past.
He performed youth soccer for the Cardinals, primarily based at Harlan High School, and the Bridgeport Hurricanes, however stop after seventh grade.
“I was getting hurt a lot and I was getting kind of good at basketball,” Key mentioned. “So I wasn’t really messing with football at the time.”
That generated a variety of shock.
“People always asked me if I play football,” he mentioned.
But his focus was on hoops. He spent a 12 months at Leo earlier than transferring to Kenwood. Halfway by means of his junior season, Key transferred once more to Morgan Park.
He was nonetheless a basketball participant, however pondering of getting again to soccer. Morgan Park basketball coach Nick Irvin helped nudge the method alongside.
“He played open gym and he was rough and physical,” Irvin mentioned. “I went to CJ (Morgan Park football coach Chris James) and I told him (Key) might be good at football because he was tough.”
James is eternally grateful for that heads up.
“I think that was really unselfish of Nick,” James mentioned. “You can always use a 6-7 guy.”
Once Key was again into soccer, he was all in. He gave up taking part in AAU basketball to situation for soccer and take a crash course within the sport.
“He literally didn’t know how to celebrate,” James mentioned. “Learning the stance, what’s my technique, what front are we playing — it was a steep learning curve but he got it.”
It helped that Morgan Park has two line of defense coaches who performed in Division I: Demetrius Cooper (Michigan State) and Jareem Fleming (Eastern Illinois).
But Key didn’t know precisely when he was going to have the ability to play, together with his eligibility nonetheless being processed after the switch from Kenwood. He came upon simply hours earlier than Morgan Park’s season opener in opposition to Sandburg that he’d be taking part in that night time.
When he acquired the excellent news from James, Key mentioned, “I was so excited, It was crazy, I was nervous. I was locked in the whole day.”
Key’s inventory rose shortly. He’s a three-star prospect, rated 32nd amongst Illinois seniors in 247Sports activities.com composite rankings.
He picked up presents from Illinois and Southern Illinois, however Arizona felt like the suitable match.
“The coaching staff, they were real genuine to my family,” Key mentioned. “They’ve been recruiting me since October … They’ve been showing a lot of love to me.”
The Arizona coaches like Key sufficient to ascertain him taking part in as a real freshman, a outstanding outlook for somebody who has all of 12 video games of highschool expertise.
But that wouldn’t shock James, who is aware of simply how far his star pupil has are available such a short while.
“I thought he could be a D-I prospect,” James mentioned. “I didn’t know he could possibly be this excessive.
“The sky is the restrict for his potential.”