As the McKeesport Tigers walked off the field following its double-overtime loss against Uniontown Lake (Ohio) at the Wolvarena to start the season, Kemon Spell was one of the last players to leave.
Waiting near the gate, he turned to his teammates who were feeling some of the emotions of a tough, hard-fought loss. He tapped them and told them to keep their head up.
“You can’t put your head down on one loss,” Spell said. “We still got 10 more games to go. We can still make it to wherever we got to go. We got work to do. We ain’t losing no more games.”
Spell is one of the top running backs not only in the WPIAL but in the country. He knows that he can make an impact on the field, but during his sophomore season, he wants to focus on becoming a leader that will be felt off the field as well.
“That type of leadership,” Spell said about his supportive and vocal style. “Last year, wasn’t trying to be a leader, so now I have to step up as a sophomore. You can’t put your head down with a loss. A loss is a loss, you can’t win them all. You got to bounce back for the next one. You put your head down and be messed up for the rest of the week.”
McKeesport head coach Matt Miller has seen Spell develop over the last year and has noticed this welcomed mentality.
“It talks a lot about him,” Miller said.
With a new season underway, Spell is working on bettering himself and his teammates and it all comes after a whirlwind of a month.
At the start of August, the 5-foot-10, 195-pounder decided to commit early to Penn State and James Franklin. Shortly thereafter, he was listed as the top running back in the Class of 2027 and the seventh-ranked player in the cycle by On3. A few weeks later, he was back on the field scoring touchdowns for the Tigers.
“It’s a lot. To be ranked No. 1 is very special to me. I imagined all of this growing up. Penn State, I loved the coaches, that’s where I wanted to be,” he said.
In his first game of his sophomore season, Spell backed up that pedigree he built a year ago and throughout the summer.
After a few touches early, Spell finally broke through with a bruising 55-yard touchdown run as he broke tackles, and stiff-armed a Uniontown Lake defender before entering the end zone.
“It’s always the end zone. I’m always looking for the touchdown. I can’t do it without my guys up front, though. I need my line to get me where I’m at right now. I want to thank them for getting me in the end zone,” Spell said.
Along with his first score, Spell would hit pay dirt two more times, one from two yards and another during the second overtime for four yards. He’s off to a strong start of the season with 84 yards and three touchdowns on nine carries.
“He’s dynamic. He gets the ball in his hands, you never know what can happen,” Miller said.
Spell is hoping to be a pivotal piece that helps McKeesport return to the WPIAL Class 4A championship game like last year, but with a different result. For Spell, he will be alongside senior running back Anthony Boyd who was a 1,300-plus yard rusher last fall.
“We can be amazing,” Spell said. “Top two duo in the WPIAL. He’s bigger, he hits harder. I’m faster, quicker. We have a one-two punch. We want to get outside, that’s me. We want to get up the middle, that’s him.”
