‘It felt like I should be there with them.’ What sealed the deal for UK QB commit?
The most iconic moment — so far — of Kaiya Sheron’s football career is something that’s still cool for him to reflect upon about four months after it happened.
After leading most of the game, Somerset High School lost a 28-17 lead over Mayfield and trailed 31-28 with 28 seconds to play. A pass-interference penalty in the end zone against the Cardinals allowed Somerset to play one final, untimed down.
Sheron, a 6-foot-4 junior quarterback, threw the game-winning pass to make the Briar Jumpers a state champion for the first time in program history.
“Every time that I see it, I can’t believe that it happened,” Sheron said in a phone interview with the Herald-Leader on Tuesday.
The demeanor and delivery that Sheron showed on that drive are what his future college coaches at the University of Kentucky hope he’s able to replicate once he arrives in Lexington next year. He committed to UK on Tuesday night, shut down his recruitment and will “probably” enroll next January.
Sheron was on campus for Kentucky’s first spring practice prior to the Southeastern Conference’s cancellation of spring activities and the NCAA’s ban on in-person recruiting through April 15, both measures installed to combat the spread of COVID-19. It was during that fortuitous visit that UK was cemented as the place he wants to spend his collegiate career.
“It always felt like home but the last time, I don’t know, it just felt different,” Sheron said. “It felt like I should be there with them.”
Why Kentucky?
In addition to getting to observe practice, Sheron got to meet with several coaches individually and sit in the room while quarterbacks coach and co-offensive coordinator Darin Hinshaw met with his position group. Hinshaw, his primary recruiter, had already made a good impression on Sheron up to that point, and he left blown away by how he handled everyone in the room — from spring starter Sawyer Smith to Beau Allen, greenest guy in the room.
“Every time I talked to him, it didn’t feel like I was being recruited,” Sheron said. “It felt like he was actually talking to me, just normal.”
Sheron recalled his first interaction with Hinshaw, which happened during a summer camp at UK last year. He praised Sheron but was quick to offer constructive criticism as well.
“I’m a perfectionist, so I obviously want to throw a good ball every time,” Sheron said. “Any time I didn’t I would get frustrated and he’s like, ‘You can’t do that.’ I don’t get like that on the football field, but in camps and stuff I like to show off and do my best. Whenever I don’t I get frustrated, and he’s like, ‘Don’t do that, keep your head up.’ So I fixed it. He helped me with that.”
The pandemic hasn’t slowed Sheron, who has weights at home and usually lifts in the morning. There’s a net to throw footballs into in his yard, too, and it’s gotten plenty of work during this period of statewide isolation: when schools were encouraged to close their doors through mid-April by order of Gov. Andy Beshear, the Somerset Independent School District sent students home with three weeks of course work. Sheron, the owner of a 3.9 GPA, completed it in four days to afford himself more time to focus on football and just relax.
Having won a state championship and thrown for about 5,000 career yards before his senior season, Sheron was destined to be in the 2020 Mr. Football conversation. His commitment to UK probably makes him the front-runner for that award.
Being a two-sport athlete isn’t a bad thing to have on one’s résumé, either: Sheron averaged 9.0 points and a team-high 7.8 rebounds this season for Somerset’s basketball team, which won the 47th District title and reached the 12th Region semifinals.
Sheron spent parts of his childhood in Ohio and Oldham County before arriving in Somerset. He did not grow up as a UK fan, or of any college football team in particular, but he’s all-in on the Wildcats now.
“Kentucky is a great basketball state, but also the fans in football are awesome,” Sheron said. “There’s always a big crowd and they’re always supportive no matter what the season’s looking like or anything like that. To be a part of that is awesome.”
