A former Kentucky wide receiver’s kids making their own marks as athletes
There’s a dispute in the Dennis household about who is the best basketball player.
“I’d say I’m better than him, but it depends on who you ask,” Kylee Dennis said, smiling.
“OK, no. That’s not true. That’s not true,” Trey Dennis argued when he learned of his younger sister’s assertion.
Backyard games of “21” notwithstanding, there’s no denying the children of Harold and Donna Dennis have become exceptional high school athletes.
Perhaps that’s not a shock given their dad displayed an astonishing level of determination and athleticism to become a wide receiver at the University of Kentucky despite the severe burns he suffered as a teen in the tragic Carrollton bus crash that killed 27 people in 1988.
“Ever since they were young, we knew they had some sort of athletic prowess, but you never really know whether it’s going to flourish or how they’re going to do — whether they are going to stick to it and whether they are going to be ambitious enough to work hard enough,” Harold Dennis said. “To date, they have. It’s been really great to see them both come into their own.”
Trey Dennis, a 5-foot-8 senior and Kylee Dennis, a 5-10 sophomore, both play basketball at Sayre.
Kylee has become one of the most prolific scoring guards in the state, averaging 24.7 points per game (ranking her sixth, overall) and helping lead the Spartans this year to one of their best seasons within its district in recent memory.
Trey Dennis also loves basketball and has started at point guard since his junior year, but some nudging from the Sayre football and basketball coaching staffs prompted him to give his dad’s sport a try as the Spartans embarked on their first varsity season in four decades.
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New favorite sport
Trey Dennis’ basketball career has been sidelined recently by an ankle injury, but he started at point guard for the five games Sayre played before the Spartans got hit with four weeks of COVID-19 cancellations due to isolation protocols for themselves and other teams.
“He’s a great kid, a super athlete and super quick,” Sayre boys’ coach Robert Goodman said. “He really kind of came into his own as a basketball player by the end of the year.”
Even so, Goodman encouraged Trey Dennis to go out for football.
“We said, ‘You need to go play. You’re fast. It’s a great game,’” Goodman said. “His whole focus was on basketball prior to that. He’s a great kid and I’m happy for the opportunity he’s got.”
His father said Trey didn’t really make his mind up about football until just before practice opened.
“Coach (Chad) Pennington kind of persuaded me, and I decided it was my last season, I might as well,” Trey said, almost dismissively.
Football very quickly became his new favorite sport.
Trey Dennis racked up 776 yards and 11 TD receptions in a COVID-19 shortened year in which the Spartans (8-1) did not lose a game in the regular season. He was named Herald-Leader First Team All-City alongside big-time college recruits Dane Key and Dekel Crowdus of Frederick Douglass and got an honorable mention All-State nod from the Courier-Journal.
“I couldn’t believe it honestly. It was crazy,” Trey Dennis said of his success.
In just one high school football season, he caught the attention of a number of NCAA Division III schools and Georgetown College of the NAIA. Then came a preferred walk-on offer from Kentucky. That was that.
“It felt great. I loved it,” Trey Dennis said of the offer, which he has accepted. “I think my teammates, my coaches and my family just helped me so much. I think it was great that I went out and played. It was a great opportunity.”
Making history
Even as a sophomore, Kylee Dennis has been drawing notice from college programs, including interest from Virginia Tech, Northern Kentucky, Eastern Kentucky and UT-Chattanooga.
“I just got my 1,000th point and I’m looking to get my next 1,000,” Kylee said. “I’m looking forward to getting better.”
In a 42nd District rivalry game against Henry Clay on Thursday, Kylee Dennis scored a game-high 26 points in helping lead the Spartans to a 43-38 win. Kylee does a lot of her damage getting steals and sprinting at the top of fast-break opportunities.
“She may be the best transition guard in the state,” bragged Coach Bart Bellairs, in his third season with the Spartans in a career that included coaching men’s basketball at the Virginia Military Institute from 1994 to 2003. “She needs to work on her defense, but she gets a lot of steals. That’s why she’s getting some Division I looks.”
As a freshman, Kylee helped Sayre to its first win in the 42nd District Tournament since 2003. As a sophomore, her team has three wins in the 42nd District’s regular season, one more than it’s achieved in a season dating at least to 1999 when the Kentucky High School Athletic Association’s online records stop.
“Ever since she was 7 or 8 years old, she’s been doing this — every sport, every team — she’s had a knack for the ball and a competitiveness,” Harold Dennis said. “She wants to win at everything. She’ll bite your head off.”
Sayre hasn’t been to a 42nd District finals or 11th Region Tournament since 2000.
“I’m hoping we get out of districts this year,” Kylee Dennis said. “I feel like we can beat every team in the district.”
Bellairs believes Kylee could be a candidate for Miss Basketball by the time she’s a senior, and he’s hoping some tall girls out there somewhere looking for a Sayre education and a chance to play with Dennis and the attention she brings will help that cause.
“We just need to get some bigs,” Bellairs said. “Three years ago, we didn’t have a girl that had played varsity and Scott County beat us by 60. Now, we’re not afraid of people.”
Family matters
Kylee Dennis acknowledges her one-on-one duels with her brother have made her a better basketball player and she’s “super proud” of his football career.
“I can’t wait to watch him play,” she said.
Harold Dennis doesn’t know if his son’s choice to play football at UK had anything to do with his legacy. He could have chosen to play at a smaller school and had success.
“When we talked about it, he really had ambitions to play bigger,” Dennis said. “He just always had a liking to UK and wanted to play on a bigger stage. We told him, ‘Hey, you want it, we’ll support you.’”
Harold Dennis admits he pushes his kids hard in everything. As a dad and former athlete, he believes in the value of sports for building character.
“You always kind of second-guess whether you’re too hard on them or too easy on them,” Harold Dennis said. “I pushed them. … But there comes a turning point where they start to come to you and say, ‘Dad, I want to go work out.’ Then you know it sunk in.”
