More quotes on Kenny Young

By Jason Kersey
jkersey@opubco.com

Because of space constraints, I couldn’t fit everything I wanted to into my story about Bishop McGuinness coach Kenny Young, which ran in today’s paper.

The first thing that I couldn’t fit in is the fact that Young coached in his 100th game last weekend, and I’m sure it was a special game. McGuinness came from behind to beat Grove, 29-28 and advance to the Class 4A finals. Young is 81-19 in his career. He has been coach at McGuinness since 2001.

Here are some quotes from the people I interviewed for the story — Young himself, Newkirk coach Barrett Shupe, who coached tight ends and defensive ends under Young at McGuinness in 2004 and current McGuinness quarterback Ryan Randolph.

Barrett Shupe

“He’s very thorough. He’s the hardest working coach I’ve ever been around.”

“That was a good year. I learned a lot about how to treat other coaches. I thought he did a great job of taking care of his coaches; he was very demanding, but he praises you for your efforts.”

“He’s bee around some good coaches. He’s got that inner drive where he doesn’t want to fail at anything, it doesn’t matter if it’s a game of solitaire on the computer; he wants to win.”

“The thing that I learned that has helped me was that you just keep working. You set a routine, follow it, and if you know what you’re doing is right, things will happen for you. He told me to keep my head up, and I think this year it paid off. It was tough for me at first, putting in all that effort and not being successful.”

“I remember one night, we played Carl Albert. We probably should have won that football game, and I remember on the bus I sat next to him. He looked at me and said, ‘Barrett, we’re gonna win some of these big games some day. You watch. We’re gonna win because we’re gonna keep working.’ I’ll always remember that night on the bus.”

“It never shook him. He kept on doing what he believed in. He’s got a system and he sticks with it. I really took that to heart this year; we found some things that we were good at, and I attribute all of that to him.”

“There were some long nights with coach Young, but they were worth it.”

“The kids have bought into his system.”

“I’m a better person and a better coach for having worked with him.”

Kenny Young, McGuinness coach

“The most influential coach on me was Todd Graham, because when Todd came to Carl Albert in 1994, he had a way of doing things that I was not familiar with. He brought a whole different level of preparation and work ethic to us there at Carl Albert. I was just so impressed with his overall knowledge of the game. He knew so much about every position on offense, defense and in the kicking game. It made me realize that there was so much more for me to learn. I got to work with him for 3 consecutive years, and that, I believe, elevated my level of expertise. I just saw the drive and determination. He had such detailed knowledge; it wasn’t just knowledge of every position, but detailed knowledge. I thought, if he can do that, I can do that. I knew that I had to better myself as a coach.”

(He coached under Todd Graham for one year at Carl Albert in 1994, and two years in Allen, Texas)

“We really are a blue collar team at McGuinness, and I’m a blue collar coach. I don’t claim to be the smartest guy out there, but I do know that we work as hard if not harder than any team around.”