By Robert Winston
The Player Engagement team couldn’t be more thrilled to welcome Keenan Burton as one of the newest members of the PREP 100 coaching staff. An accomplished athlete, with a desire to help others, Keenan’s impactful efforts towards student-athletes has not only been beneficial to the youthful players, but has also maximized his own potential as a leader.
Keenan’s youthful exuberance has created a high-energy environment that is extremely relatable to these student-athletes. Still a young pup, himself, Keenan truly understands the part of their lives in which the student-athletes are currently going through, and thus, has enabled him to become an effective coach and mentor. Throughout his playing days he has been able to accumulate so much knowledge that would normally not be able to be taught in a classroom, but his passion for guiding these young athletes coupled with his experience has allowed him to do so. The Player Engagement team is extremely impressed with Keenan’s success on the field, but combine that with his achievements off of it and we have a great recipe for reaching our goals of developing the characters of these young individuals.
Keenan’s extremely happy to be a part of the Player Engagement team and we’re excited to have him, but more importantly, we’re excited to see what he can do.
1. Give us a little bit of you history... Where did you grow up? What did you do as a kid? What were your aspirations other than being a professional football player?
KB) I grew up in Louisville Ky. My life was filled will sports, I played football basketball baseball ran track. I did it all as a kid. Just a way my dad kept me out of trouble. I always said that I’d be a scientist or a lawyer.
2. What college did you attend and why? What did you study?
KB) I went to the University of Kentucky. I didn’t have any other offers. I also wanted to stay close to home so my father could watch me play. I studied agricultural Communications leadership and development
3. What have you been doing as a new career after your NFL experience?
KB) Been doing work with Legacy wealth management also doing some Network Marketing with a company called Zija. I also mentor at risk youth. I plan on furthering my education at some point.
4.What is your proudest non-football related accomplishment?
KB) Understanding what it meant to truly give my life to God and have a relationship with The Lord. Its cliché but I thought I gave my life to God at 12. I had no clue what it meant or what I was doing. It wasn’t until I had major adversity in my life, I truly understood what a relationship with God really was and how important it was.
5. What has been the most rewarding aspect of working with the NFL Player Engagement Department and the PREP 100 Series?
KB) The kids are the most rewarding part. Seeing the growth throughout the day and seeing the hunger that they have to want to be successful.
Another rewarding aspect has been the coaches. Being able to be around some really good group of men has been great. Ive learned so much from a lot of the guys involved.