One thing Somerset quarterback Kaiya Sheron immediately liked about Kentucky quarterback coach Darin Hinshaw was his honesty — even if it might not have been exactly what he wanted to hear.
The 6-3, 200 pound junior verbally committed to Kentucky last week
and said Hinshaw and the UK coaches had already told him what he
needed to work on.
"Just my consistency throwing the ball and my body language," Sheron
said.
Body language?
"Yes. I like to be a perfectionist and if something goes wrong, I
want to make it better myself and sometimes my good body language
kind of escapes me. I have to work on that. I have to learn to keep
it to myself and just play the next play. Coach Hinshaw told me
nobody can be perfect every play," Sheron said. "He's always offering
me constructive criticism and I like being pushed that way."
Last season Sheron completed 178 of 260 passes for 3,218 yards and
28 scores in 15 games in 2019 with just five interceptions and also
ran 114 times for 959 yards and eight scores. The Briar Jumpers
finished 14-1 and won the Class AA state title on a 20-yard touchdown
throw by Sheron on the game's final play.
He threw for 1,846 yards and 13 scores in 2018 and rushed for 505
yards and seven touchdowns. He was also a starter on the basketball
team and averaged 9.0 points and a team-high 7.8 rebounds per game
to help his team finish 26-6 and reach the 12th Region Tournament
semifinals.
Somerset blew an 11-point lead in the 2019 state title game against
Mayfield before rallying to win its first state title in 113 years.
"That is a long time to wait and I think everybody was ready for it.
I always knew we were going to win but didn't think it would be like
that. It was surreal to win like that. It was awesome," he said. "My
best friends are in the senior class. I have played with them since
sixth grade. For that to be their last memory of Somerset football
was awesome. I was out of my mind honestly when we won."
Sheron considers himself a "thrower first" but likes to run to keep
defenses honest. His calmness in the pocket allows him to spot
secondary receivers even under pressure before he does have to run.
Somerset coach Robbie Lucas says at times his quarterback likes to
believe he's a fullback trying to run over would-be tacklers.
"I don't like to run out of bounds. That's not football," Sheron
said. "I would like to be a defensive lineman like my dad was but he
won't let me."
He envisions his style as closer to Green Bay quarterback Aaron
Rodgers than anyone else.
"He can evade pressure and still throw. I think I can do that," he
said.
Yet when he was younger h is favorite player was former Pittsburgh
Steelers safety Troy Polamalu, a Hall of Famer.
"I grew up a defensive guy. I like to hit guys," Sheron said.
Maybe that's why he started a pre-school morning workout program
when he was in seventh grade that he still does.
"I wouldn't say it was real voluntary in seventh grade because my
dad made me do it but now it is," he said. "My dad has pushed me but
also has been the biggest influence on my career. We work out
together every morning. I try to throw every morning before school
and then again after school. Me and him just bonded over football."
Hinshaw wants Sheron now to bond with potential other future
Wildcats much like Lexington Catholic quarterback Beau Allen did last
year after his commitment to UK.
Two of UK's other biggest in-state targets in the 2021 recruiting
class are Frederick Douglas receiver Dekel Crowdus and offensive
lineman Jager Burton. Crowdus has set May 10 for his decision date.
"Absolutely I am going to be talking to both of them along with
others," Sheron said. "But I know both of them and a big-time
receiver and big-time offensive lineman obviously are pretty
important guys for me."
Juzang was not afraid
During his annual season-ending press conference last week, Kentucky
coach John Calipari said one important thing about freshman Johnny
Juzang.
"The one thing that I'm going to tell you about Johnny, he was not
afraid. Never was that an issue," Calipari said.
Of course, he also followed that with some perspective he's shared
before about first-year players who didn't play as big a role their
first year as they might have hoped.
"In this game that you play, most of it is conquering yourself first
before you worry about conquering anybody else. This was all new to
him. He had never played at this pace. He had never fought like he
had to fight. He had never had to be in a position defensively where
you must guard," Calipari said.
"If they're going at you every play, you personally, you cannot be
in that game. And so, he as the season went on, each week that went
by he learned and got better and better. But he was a freshman, and
I'm going to say this: He played behind some pretty good players.
That doesn't make him any less a player. But he played behind some
good guys."
Those guys were SEC Player of the Year Immanuel Quickley, likely NBA
draft lottery pick Tyrese Maxey and Ashton Hagans, one of the
nation's best defensive players. Juzang played in 28 of UK's 31 games
and averaged 2.9 points, 1.9 rebounds and 12.3 minutes per game. He
shot 37 percent overall and 32.6 percent from 3-point range.
Three days after Calipari talked about Juzang's progress the
freshman surprised the coach by putting his name into the transfer
portal and apparently will follow the same path that three other west
coast players — Kyle Wiltjer, Marcus Lee and Jemarl Baker — did when
they transferred. Many thought Juzang was possibly homesick but his
father did not make it sound that way in an interview with Kyle
Tucker of The Athletic.
"He's got skills he wants to hone and showcase. You kind of have to
look at Johnny's minutes last year. Most of them were the result of
either foul trouble or someone being injured or unavailable. If
Johnny is in a situation where he's not looking over his shoulder and
knows he's going to play, I think he's always going to do well,"
Maxie Juzang said.
"But any player on a shorter leash, where they're afraid to make one
or two mistakes or miss one or two shots, it's tough to be successful
in that environment. He did really well when his minutes got better,
but I don't think his minutes were necessarily the result of him
being the No. 1 guy or No. 1 choice."
Shorter leash? Not sure how his father thought he should be playing
more than Maxey, Quickley and Hagans but apparently he did. Yet Maxie
Juzang also called Calipari a "great coach, great people person,
great motivator and communicator" and said he had no doubt Calipari
wanted the best for his son.
"That's a relationship that is going to be great for years to come.
I wouldn't be surprised if Johnny is calling Cal five years from
now," Maxie Juzang told Tucker.
It's just that he won't be playing for Calipari because he was not
the "No. 1 guy" at Kentucky or else he was not quite as fearless as
Calipari thought.
Brown believes Calipari is misunderstood
Former LSU coach Dale Brown thinks Kentucky's John Calipari is the
"most misunderstood coach" in America.
"I really think he is a good guy. He loves people and loves those
kids who play for him," Brown said. "And he does so many good things
that people do not know about."
Brown remembered the 2012 Final Four in New Orleans — when UK won
the national championship — when he had a chance to tell Calipari
about "old-time coaches who did not have a nickel to their name" who
the NCAA made buy Final Four tickets. Even then, the seats were at
the top of the Superdome.
"John said, ‘Dale find out their names and I want to pay their way
to come and if our team is in it (the Final Four), they will have
really good seats. If we are not in it, I will give them my tickets.'
And you know what? He did it," Brown said.
Chapman shares story
Last week ESPN had a feature on former UK basketball star Rex
Chapman and his rise to a social media star after his life crashed
due to his opioid addiction when his 12-year NBA career ended.
Chapman shared his story with ESPN's Ryan McGee, including the low
points after he was arrested for shoplifting. He revealed how at one
time he was actually living in his car because he had no money and
how long his addiction had been going on before he bottomed out.
"I think there are a lot of people who kind of gave up on him,"
McGee said. "He has, to his credit, for five years been clean and
managed to beat the addiction.
"Something he was very adamant about from the start was that he
hoped people would come away with a sense of hope. He is now the
advocate for the fight against opioid addiction. He developed his
painkiller addiction out west but we all know Kentucky is ground zero
for opioids.
"He asked me several times if doing this would help people. He
talked about all those who have suffered. It's amazing as low as he
got that he is not only okay but is back helping others. We all have
someone who has been impacted by drugs and his story hopefully helped
a lot of people."
McGee said Chapman was the "worst kind of pioneer" because when he
originally asked for help with addiction it was such a new thing no
one was certain how to help him.
"He not only was one of the very first ones to ask for help, but
certainly one of the first high profile people to need help," McGee
said.
McGee hopes even older, die-hard UK fans learned more about Chapman
than they knew before.
"He lost touch with people back home. He hit bottom," McGee said. "I
think caught a lot of folks off guard and just makes you love him
even more. He was a NBA star, hit bottom, rebuilt his life and now
does all he can to help others. It's really an inspiring story."
Coronavirus will have lasting implications on sports
Kentucky High School Athletic Association commissioner Julian
Tackett believes the current coronavirus will have long lasting
implications for sports, including some ways that many are not
projecting yet.
"The worst part for us is that the carrier group is a lot of the age
group we deal (high school athletes). Will they learn better habits?
The older generation is changing habits but will the younger
generation?" Tackett said. "There will definitely be more precautions
in place when things do return to what we now think of as normal."
One could be cash no longer be accepted for admission to high school
athletic events.
"We may not want to expose people to cash. We may go to only online
transactions," Tackett said. "I think you are going to see little
things like that. People don't always have cash any way and we have
learned that cash is very dirty."
Tackett noted that Scott County High School quit taking cash this
year and he expects others to follow suit which could produce some
benefits for schools.
"It eliminates security issues for something like a Friday night
football game that has a lot of cash involved in gate receipts,"
Tackett said. "You will also have automated record keeping. There may
no longer have to be like 38 forms to fill out. That might be a bit
of an adjustment for some (school) districts but it can easily be done."
Quote of the Week: "We actually talk about that for sure. I talk to
him every day about where we might go and maybe going together,"
Frederick Douglas four-star receiver Dekel Crowdus on possibly
playing in college with four-star teammate Jager Burton, an offensive
lineman.
Quote of the Week 2: "My training partners and I have been doing
workouts together via FaceTime. And for cardio, I either go for a run
or use the stairwell in my building," former UK track star Sydney
McLaughlin, who was expected to make the U.S. Olympic team, on what
she's doing to maintain her fitness.
Quote of the Week 3: "I would say from teams that we play, I would
say that's the team that I was most excited to watch. I think what
they bring to college basketball when they come into your building,
it's the Yankees or the Lakers. They have that," Arkansas coach Eric
Musselman on Kentucky basketball.
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