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Cape Central football standout Kway'Chon Chisom looking forward to future with Southeast Missouri State
For Kway'Chon Chisom, Wednesday was a year in the making.
When Chisom celebrated a football future with Southeast Missouri State during a signing day ceremony on Wednesday afternoon at Cape Girardeau Central High School, he was following in the footsteps of SEMO freshman and childhood friend Al Young. Exactly a year earlier, Young had signed with the Redhawks with Chisom in the audience.
Since that moment, the two Central standouts had planned on playing together at the hometown college, Young said. It had always been a dream of theirs to play together at the next level.
Initially, Chisom wasn't 100 percent sure he was headed to SEMO, but in the end his relationship with Young and the program was too much for him to turn down.
Chisom is not officially a Redhawk yet, as he has to meet a few more academic requirements, but he's looking forward to teaming back up Young.
"I guess you could say it was a tough decision, but I mean, I really like SEMO," said Chisom, who will be a cornerback in college. "I really like the coaching staff, and they came first. They've been there since I was a sophomore, and they've just always been there, even when my freshman year, sophomore year my grades wasn't as good, and I was struggling in the class just because I didn't have my head on straight, they were still there. They didn't give up on me, and they believed in me."
Wednesday, Central cornerback Blake Harris also signed with Division II Southwest Baptist, and defensive lineman Sam Lemon signed with NAIA Missouri Baptist. Central coach Arlen Pixley said there might be more signings in the upcoming weeks; high school players have until August to sign a letter of intent with college programs, according to Pixley.
For Chisom, who wore a SEMO sweater Wednesday, he felt at home with the Redhawks. He's hung out in Young's dorm and constantly plays Madden against current Redhawks -- "I beat everybody in the dorm. Once I get the Patriots it's over," Chisom said with a smile. He's even met half the team, Young said half-jokingly.
The two started playing football together in the third or fourth grade, and there's only been two years since when they weren't on the same team, including this past season.
So Chisom decided to continue his football career and complete a dream the two have had since they were kids.
It was a big impact," Chisom said of Young's presence at Southeast. "I'm not going to lie, it was a big impact because we've been playing together since like fourth grade, so we just want to do a lot of things together and we've still got a lot of goals to accomplish. We've accomplished a lot of them, but everything in the past now so we've got to get things started at the collegiate level."
Young, who's a wide receiver, and Chisom have talked about joining forces at Southeast, and Young realized it would actually be happening during a conversation a couple weeks back.
"It really was official like two weeks ago," Young said. "We were just hanging out. We were up at my dorm, and we were just talking about football. And he was like, 'Man, I think I'm just going to come here.'" And he was like 'I've been working hard in class,' this and that. And I was like, 'All right, just do it. Don't do it because I'm here. Do it because you want to.'"
Chisom, who also played quarterback the past couple of seasons, said he hopes to have his academic ducks in a row and be able to take part in football-related activities with SEMO in the 2017-18 spring semester. That means he will miss the fall season.
"Chisom with his coverage set, his coverage ability and his knowledge of the football game, he's got a opportunity there with (Southeast) Coach Tuke (Tom Matukewicz) and that program at Southeast," Pixley said. "We're glad to have him a part of that. He knows what he has to do from here on out to make things work for him, and he's going to do so."
When Chisom becomes eligible, he looks forward to battles with Young in practice. They faced off occasionally at Central -- "He's the best receiver I've guarded," Chisom said -- and now those two will be playing cornerback and wide receiver exclusively, setting up duels more often.
Chisom would be the third straight Carr Trophy winner to play at Southeast -- following in the footsteps of Young and former Jackson quarterback Dante Vandeven. While Vandeven won't be on the team next year after transferring, Young and Chisom look forward to forming a dynamic duo in the seasons ahead.
"We talk about getting the team back together, get SEMO rolling and me guarding him at practice," Chisom said. "We talk about it all the time."