Cheney High star Keenan Williams thrilled to be staying home with EWU

Keenan Williams and Eastern Washington University go back further than he can remember – literally.

His parents moved to Cheney when he was 3; when he was 7, the 2004 Eagles football team gave him a signed game ball.

Now the Eagles are giving him a scholarship. Williams, a top prospect who drew interest from around the nation, decided that the grass was greener close to home – even if the grass is red turf, which the 6-foot-3, 262-pound defensive end figures to roam for several years.

“I love it here. It’s a good town and I have a great life here, obviously,” said Williams, nodding toward his proud parents, Bryan and Lynell.

After drawing interest by his junior year from Washington, Colorado, Boise State, Arizona, Harvard and most of the Big Sky Conference schools, Williams settled nine months ago on Eastern.

A confirmed homebody – “I’m thinking about getting a dorm room, but we’ll see” – Williams already has charted the future. After four or five years at Eastern, he plans to earn a business degree. With the money he saves on housing by living at home, he would have a nest egg toward paying for a law degree at Gonzaga.

Williams has a 3.45 grade-point average at Cheney High School, where he also just tied the school bench-press record.

“Really, 360 pounds?” a fellow student asked breathlessly as Williams wandered into the weight room last week. “Are you going to break it today?”

Not yet. Williams had a basketball game later that day. The record would have to wait.

In the meantime, Williams, still 17, is enjoying his final high school months in Cheney, where he was a two-time All-Great Northern League selection at defensive end and tight end. A physical specimen, Williams was dunking a basketball in the eighth grade, playing varsity football as a freshman and was a sprinter on the Cheney track team.

And though he’s been recruited for defense, he hopes EWU coach Beau Baldwin will give him a few snaps on offense.

“Maybe I can be a both-ways kind of guy,” said Williams, who said he likes the “physicality” of football.

“I like to hit people; impose my will – that’s why I love it,” Williams said.

Cheney was an unlikely destination for the Williamses until Lynell, who hails from Wyoming, earned a full academic scholarship from EWU in communication and computer science.

Meanwhile, Bryan gave up his job operating a monster truck called the Widowmaker, and settled into a career in welding and passion for raising a family. A high school player in West Virginia, he also serves as an assistant coach for the Blackhawks.

Growing up near the EWU campus – “He practically lived over there,” Bryan said – Keenan caught the action at the Seattle Seahawks summer camp. He hung around EWU fall camp, and was rewarded at age 11 when then-new coach Beau Baldwin told his entire team to shake hands with the young fan.

Six years later, Williams is still impressed with the coaches. “They made me feel at home, and the players seemed happy to be there.”

Clearly, so is Williams.