Long Beach Poly football, QB Shea Kuykendall eye playoffs with high hopes
LONG BEACH, Calif. (BVM) – The Long Beach Poly football team is rolling.
With five consecutive wins and 40-plus points scored in each of them, the Jackrabbits are heating up at the perfect time. Senior quarterback Shea Kuykendall is leading the charge and chalks the winning streak up to a competitive atmosphere at practice.
“We’re just trying to continue to get better, competing with ourselves at practice and trying to win every practice rep,” Kuykendall said. “That translates over to the game, quite honestly, and there’s just a want to get better every day.”
Long Beach Poly’s most recent win didn’t come without some adversity. The team found out days before its game at Jordan High School that it would be moved up to Thursday because of an ongoing referee shortage. Then as if the short week of preparation wasn’t enough, the Jackrabbits would be without their offensive coordinator, Rene Medina, who had a prior engagement.
With head coach Stephen Barbee calling plays, Kuykendall and company took care of business. The senior quarterback completed five of his six passes for 109 yards and three touchdowns in a dominant first half that gave Long Beach Poly a 35-0 lead at the break. Barbee opted to rest his starters for the running-clock second half.
Check out this @LBPoly_Football touchdown from Shea Kuykendall to Tyson Bordeaux in the win at Jordan tonight pic.twitter.com/LWoOOxjKTm
— The562.org (@562sports) October 22, 2021
The Jackrabbits had a similar outing the week before, routing Compton 42-0 for their fourth straight win as Kuykendall went 8-of-10 for 162 yards and three touchdowns to three different receivers. It’s the diversity of weapons that make this offense so lethal, and Kuykendall’s job much easier. Junior running back Devin Samples has racked up more than 800 rushing yards while four different receivers have at least 15 catches on the season.
Senior Tyson Bordeaux is who Kuykendall believes is “probably the easiest guy to throw to” with his 6-foot-5 frame. Mekyle Jackson “is always able to run past defenders like nothing” alongside Titus Bordeaux, Nick Kelly and USC commit Jason Robinson, each of whom Kuykendall calls great route-runners with elite speed.
As complimentary as Kuykendall is of his teammates, the three-star QB has put together quite the high school career himself.
The 6-foot-1 signal caller has amassed a 25-5 career record as the Jackrabbits’ starter with 62 passing touchdowns and 11 rushing scores. Despite his on-field success, high football IQ and high-end accuracy, Kuykendall has just three Division I football offers: Dayton, Valparaiso and William & Mary.
“I don’t like the term slept on; I feel like a lot of people say that when they’re just not working as hard,” Kuykendall said. “I know the circumstances with recruiting right now with Covid and everything so it’s hard for everyone right now. I’m just thankful for anything and everything I get.”
With the state playoffs right around the corner, there’s plenty of opportunity for Kuykendall and his Jackrabbit teammates to improve their college stock. In fact, the next few weeks might be the most important of all considering there’s one thing coaches at the next level value above all else: winning.
“Colleges want a winning quarterback and obviously the best way to get recruited for anyone on the team is to go win a state title and win playoff games,” Kuykendall said. “That’d be great for our team especially if we can go out and win a CIF title.”
Long Beach Poly (6-3) closes the regular season Friday night at Lakewood (3-6) before gearing up for the postseason. The Jackrabbits will likely enter the tournament as one of the hottest teams in CIF-SS with goals as lofty as they come.
“I see (us) winning it all, quite honestly,” Kuykendall said. “All it’s going to take is believing in ourselves and knowing that it’s us versus us every game at the end of the day. There’s no option to lose, it’s win or win. That starts with practice and the little things, getting everything right in practice so that when it’s game time, it’s just like practice but this time it’s against the other team.”
8 Game Highlights 🎯
* HS Career *
25-5 as a Starting QB
All 4 yrs @ THEE Long Beach Poly
62 Passing TDs
11 Rushing TDs
6'1.5 207 – 4.3 GPA
Strong, Accurate, Mobile#GodisGreat #LetTheFilmTalk @LBPoly_Football @Throw_2_Win @premiumsportsla @SDSports https://t.co/4y2klEEW7l pic.twitter.com/xmX3GmFwOY— Shea Kuykendall (@KuykendallShea) October 27, 2021
