Powers Yearn for Big Samohi Star : Top Schools Want Kevin Kelly; He Wants CIF Grid Title

Kevin Kelly, 6-3, 255-pound senior guard for Santa Monica High School, laced up his new high-top black football shoes and put on his dark blue helmet, unscarred by grid battle. He wore shoulder pads, shorts, and a blue and gold “SAMOHI FOOTBALL” practice jersey. Behind his gold-barred face mask, Kelly frowned. “OK, I’m ready,” he said.

Unfortunately for Kelly, it wasn’t a game or practice, it was just another photo session, one of the many he has endured and is sure to endure as his young football career progresses. Kelly is one of the best offensive linemen in the Southland, perhaps the best on the Westside.

He has been mentioned in virtually every preseason magazine as an all-star prospect, and colleges have been courting him since his sophomore year, including Penn State, Notre Dame, Nebraska, UCLA and USC. But right now Kelly wants to get the pictures over, get the season started and let the colleges wait.

A few days before fall practice Kelly sat underneath palm trees on the Santa Monica campus wearing Bermuda shorts and a T-shirt, looking like he was on his way to the beach. But his mind was on the football field as he grew excited talking about his last year of high school ball. “I’m real anxious to get the season started,” Kelly said, lifting himself from his seat, as if he would run on the field right then.

Kelly spent the summer working with weights and running with teammate Dan Wagner. Kelly didn’t work a summer job, choosing to spend his free time preparing for football in the weight room and in the dining room.

“I don’t need money,” Kelly said. “I just worked out and my mom fed me.”

Dinner at the Kelly residence in Malibu must be a special occasion, because Kevin’s mother, Cindy, said Kevin has always been bigger than his classmates.

“He always had to play a year ahead of himself (in Pee-Wee football) because he got too big too fast,” said Mrs. Kelly. The first sport Kelly played was soccer when he was 4, but football became his passion when he was 7. By the time he entered Malibu Park Junior High, he was too big for junior football leagues. Kelly was faced with the gloomy prospect of not playing football until he was a sophomore in high school since his junior high had no tackle football team, and Santa Monica was a three-year high school, beginning in the 10th grade.

Kelly solved the problem by taking advantage of a special program in which ninth-grade junior high students were allowed to play on the sophomore team at Santa Monica. The only thing ninth-grade about Kelly was his age. Already 6-3 and 230 pounds, Kelly started both ways on the sophomore team at defensive tackle and offensive guard. Apparently, Kelly thought he was still in Pee-Wee football and was just being bumped up a year. He also wrestled heavyweight for the Viking varsity.

When Kelly entered Santa Monica, he immediately became a starter for Tebb Kusserow’s Vikings and was selected all--Ocean League as a sophomore, attracting the attention of college scouts and others as a 15-year-old.

Dick Lascola, who runs the Scouting Evaluation Assn., a prep scouting service that colleges subscribe to as a source of recruiting information, said Kelly has “good lateral-type movement and good size. If everything works in place, he’ll be a top recruit.”

“Kevin gets off the ball real quickly and makes solid initial contact,” said Dan Wagner, who plays right guard on the other side of the center.

Kusserow is more impressed by Kelly’s non-physical characteristics. “There are many young people walking around with physical gifts,” said Kusserow. “But the thing that separates Kevin is that he has a tremendous desire to excel that goes beyond his physical qualities. Kevin is a leader, but also a part of the team.”

Offensive linemen rarely receive as much attention as Kelly. His mother said it’s hard to pick them out when they play. “You have to paint their shoes purple to know who they are.” Nobody had to paint Kelly’s shoes for him to be noticed, but blocking for all-CIF running back Glyn Milburn, now at Oklahoma, helped. “It was fun blocking for Glyn, especially since he wasn’t big-headed or anything, “ Kelly said.

“Glyn had a tremendous amount of confidence in Kevin and the whole offensive line,” Kusserow said. Kelly mentioned his teammates on the offensive line and credits them with much of his success. In addition to Wagner, junior Eric Banducci, senior John Zigler and senior Steve Blyn join Kelly on the Viking offensive line, all starters last year.

Kelly was the most decorated in the bunch. Last fall he was the only underclassman to make the all-CIF Southern Section first team. He was also chosen first team Southern Conference, first team Ocean League, first team Times Westside and first team Santa Monica Evening News.

Prep observers want to know Kevin’s post-Santa Monica plans. This summer he took a trip with his parents around the country to see Nebraska, Penn State, Notre Dame and Michigan, and though he was impressed with the tradition at Notre Dame, he is going to wait until after the season to make recruiting trips and make a choice. Kelly is also interested in West Coast schools.

“I just wanted to see what the schools were like,” Kelly said. “I’m also interested in USC and UCLA.”

But Kelly’s main interest is getting on the field and helping Santa Monica win the league and CIF championships. Last year the Vikings were defeated by Hawthorne in league and by Santa Ana in the first round of the playoffs, and Kelly is willing to work hard to achieve the team’s goals.

“Coach Kusserow said if we don’t win CIF, we’ll have the satisfaction of knowing we worked hard enough to win it,” Kelly said. “That is our goal--to win CIF.”

In college, Kelly will finally be normally sized, in comparison to the behemoths he’ll be playing with at wherever. Let USC, Nebraska and Notre Dame wait--let’s see what happens at Santa Monica High.