EAST LANSING, Mich. – Kellen Reed’s senior season at Holt as an athlete wasn’t really just one season – it was the whole year. He’s a three-timer for the Rams, playing fall wide receiver in football, winter guard in basketball and now running at the track in spring.
It’s difficult to play a sport at a high level, it’s even more unusual to be elite in three of them.
“Being a three-sport athlete was intense,” said Reed, who is 5ft 10 and weighs 157 pounds. “You never really have much time for a lot of things because sports just went back to back to back and even overlapped at times. But to be honest, I think three sports are great for my body because you always stay in shape.”
Reed had an outstanding football season, 36 passes for 858 yards and 14 touchdowns. His on-field performance last season was so impressive that he caught the attention of several college football programs, including Western Michigan. He signed for Grand Valley State in September 2021.
“He’s the best athlete I’ve ever seen,” said Chad Fulk, Holt Head football coach. “I’ve been here 27 years, I trained in college for three years, and he’s by far the best athlete I’ve ever encountered. He’s incredibly fast, he’ll stand flat footed and jump over one of those 30 gallon garbage cans and flip it over. It’s almost like he’s flying.”
His basketball coach, Benjamin Curtis, was also impressed by Reed’s athletic ability.
“He’s probably the most athletic boy I’ve coached over the years,” Curtis said. “I’ve coached quite a few athletes, but I think Kellen is in a league of his own at this point.”
While Curtis mentioned that he thought basketball was Reed’s third sport, he also thought Reed enjoyed basketball as much as he did the other two sports.
“I said to him, ‘You’re probably going to take a smaller role than you probably do in football and track and field,'” Curtis said. “And he’s like, ‘Coach, I just want to have fun. Being with my friends, having fun and immersing myself in people. So I said, ‘We can live with that.’”
Reed is now in racing season. He finished second in the 200-meter dash at the Saginaw Valley State Division I Indoor Invitational in March, just 0.06 seconds behind a school record set by Holt. At the 2022 Lincoln Indoor Classic, Reed placed first in the state in the 400-meter dash with a time of 49.32.
Playing three sports kept Reed on a tight schedule and non-stop commitment. However, it also allowed him to constantly use different muscle groups for different sports, which will serve him well in the long run when he tries to play two sports for the Lakers. Both his soccer and basketball coaches agreed that it was better for him to play multiple sports than to specialize in just one.
“I think it was easier than he thought it was,” Fulk said. “When you walk away from playing football every day and you have that structure of going to school and training and then going to another with no time off, the structure is pretty simple, but when they have the extra two weeks, that’s when it’s gets pretty hard. But as far as the mental part goes, I think he’s doing better than he thinks.”
Curtis mentioned that Reed has never suffered a serious injury because he keeps his body in shape all year round.
“I’ve known Kellen for four or five years, and I’ve never seen this kid with an injury,” he said. “I’ve never seen an ongoing injury he’s had because I think using these different muscle groups from these different sports has helped him stay active and healthy.”
Reed will join GVSU in the fall, an important transition for him but one he will be ready for.
“I think it will be ten times more difficult, but I’m preparing for it,” he said. “But I know I can’t really prepare for the unknown. But I’ll just be ready for it.”
Both of his coaches had advice for him as he not only made the leap from high school to college, but also twice from high school athletics to collegiate athletics.
“I think patience and perseverance will do him good and he will thrive,” Curtis said.
Fulk’s advice was straightforward.
“You have to really love the sport to play it in college,” he said.
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