Monday, September 04, 2000

Kenner took passing lane out of 'Hoptown'

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UC quarterback used arm as his ticket away from poverty, trouble

QB Deontey Kenner in UC's new jersey, in front of the new Nippert Stadium turf. (Mike Simons photo) | ZOOM |

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        University of Cincinnati quarterback Deontey Kenner was raised by his grandmother — and her nine children — in a small two-bedroom home on Cottage Street in Hopkinsville, Ky., where his backyard was the Pennyrile Parkway and his swimming hole was the local quarry.

        “Whichever of the three sports I thought would be my ticket out of of Hoptown, that was the sport I was going to concentrate on,” he says. “It just happened to be football.”

        Sometime this year, the senior will probably break UC school records for total offense, passing yards, completions and attempts. He is one of 23 Division I quarterbacks to be nominated for this year's Johnny Unitas Golden Arm Award.

        “Someday I'll go back to Hoptown, but not until I have something to give back, even if it's only a good job that is a result of getting my degree. That way I can talk to kids,” Kenner says. “There was a lot of bad in Hoptown, but there was a lot of good, too. Without the good, I wouldn't be where I am today.”

By John Erardi
The Cincinnati Enquirer

        HOPKINSVILLE, Ky. — “Who wants to play quarterback?”

        Gary Satterfield, coach of the Hopkinsville Junior High School football team, needed somebody to take over the position after his starter, Wade Turner, decided he wanted to play running back.

Kenner outruns Ohio State defenders last season | ZOOM |

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        One arm shot up before all the others. A long, skinny arm attached to the lanky frame of Hoptown Junior High's tight end, Deontey Kenner, a seventh grader.

        “Coach Satterfield, I believe I can play quarterback,” Kenner said.

        For as long as he could remember, Deontey had loved throwing things, going

        back to the days when he was 6 or 7 living with his grandma, Ruby Kenner, on Cottage Street. When he didn't have a ball in his hands, he had a rock, and he especially loved skipping them on the lake at Blue Rock Quarry, where his uncles would take him without their mother knowing it.

        Deontey and his five uncles — Eric, Weasel, Michael, Rick and Reuben — slept together in two sets of bunkbeds in one of the two bedrooms at the Kenner home at 112 Cottage Street.

        Sometimes Deontey slept in a bed with one uncle. Sometimes he wedged between two uncles.

Kenner throws a TD pass in the upset over Wisconsin | ZOOM |

        The Kenner home was located in the middle of the African-American neighborhood known as “Dirt Avenue” in the east-central part of town. These were the last streets in Hoptown to be paved. Everybody shortened the name to “D.A.”

        Hopkinsville had always had a significant African-American population. This traces to the early 1800s, when slaves planted and harvested the dark, heavy, low-growing tobaccos that had been brought here from Virginia by the original settlers.

        The slave concentrations in Kentucky were highest in the areas with the most fertile land, especially the central Bluegrass and the southwestern Pennyroyal, where Hopkinsville is located. In 1860, only eight of Kentucky's 120 counties had 40 percent or more of their populations in slavery; one of those was Christian County, whose seat is Hopkinsville.

        Deontey's grandmother, Ruby, now 70, grew up in Pembroke, Ky., 10 miles from Hopkinsvlle. As a young girl, she remembers being told that her “folks,” her forebearers, had been here for generations.

        It was from this stock that Deontey Kenner descended.

        Most people in D.A., including Tara Toliver — at whose dinner table Deontey had eaten many a meal, and on whose front porch he had held many a conversation (she was deeply involved in several youth programs, and took many kids under her wings) — just figured Deontey would choose basketball.

        But there was something about playing quarterback that brought out his best.

        Before the season, his closest friend, Kenny Williamson, was thrown off the football team for mouthing off to an assistant coach. Kenny got into a big flap when he refused to leave unless he got his money back for a team photo for which he'd paid (the police had to be called). The coaches didn't even know if Deontey would stay on the team with his best friend gone.

        But people in D.A. knew this: Deontey had seen plenty of trouble, but he never got into it. In Hoptown, temptation abounds. Alcohol is in abundance (wet Christian County is located in the mostly dry Bible Belt) and so are drugs.

        Those around Deontey credit his grandmother, Ruby, a firm disciplinarian; his Aunt Elaine, with whom he had lived for two years while in high school; his Aunt Charlene, who did things like pay the $65 registration fee (and $25 late fee) so Deontey could play youth football, even though she really couldn't afford it; his coaches; his mother, Debra, and several “aunties” in the neighborhood, who were not kin but were strong presences who took an active interest in the community and were always chauffeuring kids to various functions.

        Deontey always gravitated to people like this. He calls himself an “only child,” which he is, but he was al ways around so many other kids — houses full of them, really — it hardly seems like he would consider himself an only child.

        And, yet, this was his identity. Maybe this is why he related so well to older people, caring people. He loved his mentors, loved the way they took an interest in him, counseled him, told him about holding his head high, doing things right, avoiding the wrong thing even though it might mean easy money or an easy way out.

        And confidence. They discussed with him often the importance of self-assurance.

        He'd need every bit of it.

        With three minutes to go in the first half of Hoptown High's season opener against archrival Christian County in 1992, Hoptown's starting QB, senior Terrell Mason, was knocked unconscious. Hoptown was trailing. The Hoptown staff had no choice but to turn to frosh Deontey.

        On Hoptown's first play from scrimmage in the second half, in front of 5,000 fans, coach Craig Clayton called a rollout pass, one of only three plays that Kenner knew. Clayton and quarterback coach John Faulk figured he'd throw a safe pass a few yards to Hoptown's sure-handed senior receiver in the flat.

        Instead, Kenner sprinted out right ... and chucked a 30-yard pass into the corner of the end zone. Touchdown!

        Hoptown won the game.

        As Deontey progressed through school, one thought kept occurring: Gotta get out of Hoptown. Too many bad things here to bring me down. Gotta go to college. Get my diploma. Gramma will kill me if I don't.

        Influenced by his grandmother, mother and aunts, and Coach Faulk, he was baptized at Mt. Olive Baptist Church as high school junior.

        Deontey called his grandmother “Mama.” He took her married name as his own. Deontey Kenner. He liked the sound of it. He'd lived with her and her family for only the first seven years — he'd stay with his real mother on weekends when she wasn't working — but he visited often, because Cottage Street was home. Ruby had since moved across the street into a three-bedroom home. It was still crowded.

        Deontey was 9 when he heard his grandmother say, “I sure would like a four-bedroom home someday.”

        As seventh grader, Kenner was playing varsity baseball; as a sophomore, he was all everything in basketball, but by his senior year, Deontey he knew his way out of Hoptown: Football.

        On a trip to Cincinnati, Faulk took Deontey and some other members of the traveling party to Jillian's restaurant in Covington. Deontey wasn't comfortable that valet parking cost $3.

        “Don't worry about it, Dee,” Faulk said. “I've got it.”

        When they got inside, the line was long. Faulk asked if they were sure they wanted to wait. “If we don't wait, can we get the $3 back?” Deontey asked.

        It had cost $2.75 per day for a kid to go swimming at the Hoptown pool. Deontey never had it — and neither did his uncles and aunts — and so, they swam at Blue Rock Quarry Lake for free, even though they weren't supposed to, and always got a “whupping” from their mom when they got home.

        On a recruiting trip, Deontey flew on an airplane, his first such trip. The UC coaches took him out to eat and told him to order anything he wanted. He ordered twice. Two different meals. Ate every ounce of both.

        As a UC frosh, he was a big factor in the Humanitarian Bowl in Boise, Idaho — he was 10-for-16 — and UC won the game. Deontey gave the ring and the watch from that game to Uncle Reuben, against whom he'd often nestled in those bunk beds on cold nights on Cottage Street.

        “You sure you want me to have these?” Reuben asked him. “I'm going to get to another bowl game,” Deontey told him.

        The Hoptown High coaching staff watched the Humanitarian Bowl on TV at Clayton's house. They flashed back to Deontey's first game for Hoptown, especially on the UC play when Deontey rifled a 14-yard pass into the end zone.

        Last year, when Deontey visited his grandma in Florida, he told her: “I'm going to get you that four-bedroom home.” Ruby was startled. She remembered saying only once in front of Deontey she wanted a four-bedroom home.

        Ruby will be watching on TV today in Hoptown when UC opens its season at Nippert Stadium against Army.

        Ruby's proud of Deontey's accomplishments as an athlete, but she's even prouder of his 3.5 grade-point average ... and the fact that he's going to graduate.

        Deontey's mother, Debra, will be at today's game. So will Aunt Elaine, Uncle Reuben, and “Uncle” John. Deontey's dad, Grafton Bailey of Hoptown, a frequent visitor to 112 Cottage Street when Deontey was growing up, may make it, too.

        Deontey's closest friend in Hoptown, Kenny Williamson, will be watching the game on TV in the Christian County Jail. He's been there since January, convicted of drug-possession. He's up for probation in October.

        One of the things he'd like to do when he gets out is see Deontey play his final regular season home game on Nov.18 against Southern Miss. Kenny has never seen Deontey play a college football game in person.

        “I can understand why Deontey hasn't come back to Hoptown in several years,” Kenny says. “Most of his family from Hoptown has moved to Florida. They've always stuck together, and that's good. I know Deontey will come back — probably after he gets his diploma. When he comes back, I want to have a good, steady job. I want him to be proud of me, like I'm proud of him.

        “He could've gone either way, you know.”

        Special thanks to: Ruby Kenner, Charlene Caswell, Debra McNeill, John Faulk, Craig Clayton, Tim Havrilek, Gary Satterfield, Tara Toliver, Reuben Kenner, Keisha Kirkman, Joe Wilson and Major Brad Boyd of the Christian County Jail.
       

       

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