In the span of a few weeks Keenan Kuntz will go from the fastest man in the state of Washington to the bottom rung of the Washington Husky football ladder.
A University of Washington Football commit, Kuntz last Saturday ran a 10.44 seconds in the 4A State Championship 100 meter final to claim the state title.
His path to the crown was never easy and never clear as his fortitude was tested on an annual basis his first three years of high school at Spokane’s Mead High School. He was challenged by injury, the pandemic shutdown, and his good old-fashion will-power to resist a guilty pleasure.
“Early morning workouts and not cheating the grind was definitely worth a state title,” he said were all integral to achieving that spot atop the podium—but so was some good old fashioned will-power.
“Giving up cookie crumbles was a hard sacrifice this last month,” he laughed. “Crumbl is the best food ever.”
It was all worth the sacrifice as last weekend he blew away a rather tightly packed 2nd though 7th place finishers in the final.
How the cookie crumbled the past few years helped him appreciate what he’d accomplished.
“I didn’t put my goal in writing because it was always a family goal-challenge,” he recalled of his path to the state championship. ”Both my parents have state titles.”
The road was rocky, to say the least and with a lot of things being beyond his control.
“Covid and an injury stripped me of my chances the first 3 years of high school,” he said. “I only had one more chance to keep titles to a family affair.”
He invested his time and the family invested a small fortune in the
As a football player, because of the listed issues he was running well-below the radar. Rated as a 3-star athlete by 247 Sports, he has scholarship offers from Eastern Washington, and Pittsburg. But when he was offered a walk-on opportunity by Washington he committed. And let’s be clear on this one point: in the Kuntz household “committed” means C-O-M-M-I-T-T-E-D.
Keenan committed his mindset and his state champion mom and dad committed their financial resources in their Spokane house to a state-of-the-art workout facility that would make Washington strength and conditioning coordinator Ron McKeefery envious.
“My parents treated my training, nutrition and goals like a business,” he said. “They created a gym in our house, they provided me access to endless therapy to rehab my injury.”
But it didn’t stop there.
“Just like a school track team, we have every piece of track equipment known to man,” he chuckled.
But a track state championship was just one part of their collective goal so funds were also allocated to a football apparatus.
“They even bought a Jugs machine (an automatic passing machine) for catching when my dad’s arm gave out and I had no one to throw to me,” he said.
So, finally, there he stood atop the podium at Mount Tahoma Stadium in Tacoma, Washington with a sense of family pride. The culmination in his final act as a high school athlete was that he’d take home the gold.
”I felt such relief staying free from injury throughout the season, pride representing the same school as where my mom won her titles,” he said.
Those injuries that had kept the state crown at a distance has also kept scouting services at arm’s length. ESPN, Rivals, and On3 didn’t even bother to rate him.
“There was also a weight lifted from knowing I was football fast to proving I was the one to beat on the track,” he said.
His time is .22 seconds faster than John Ross 10.66 in high school. Between fellow new-comer Taeshaun Lyons the Huskies will have one of their fastest receiving since even before the “Legion of Zoom” which included Ross, Jaydon Mickens (11.07), and Marvin Hall (10.75)
According to former UW receiver Wilbur Hooks, Washington’s fastest receiver fleet was in the Jim Lambright-era.
”I was 4th fastest on the team on the early years,” Hooks recalled. “We had some really fast guys though in the early years. JaWarren Hooker, Roc Alexander, Jelanni Harrison and Paul Arnold.”
Lyons’ 10.93 and Kuntz’s 10.44 would fit in with either Hooks’ or Ross’ era. Then throw in Keith Reynolds’ 11.07 and it’s another receiving corps that can pop the top off of most any defense.
But the fastest of them all is a walk-on? Come on!
Keenan relied heavily upon his parents and their been-there, done that advice:
—Stay close to those that believe in you.
—Silence the noise in your head and from others about limitations.
—If the work requires a 2-hour practice put in 4.
—No one may see it but everyone will wonder how it happened when you make it.
Though it all, he’s proven to be one tough cookie.
Tomorrow RealDawg.com will continue our profile of Keenan with part two.
