Extra Effort: Keyshaun Powell is 'the heartbeat' of SouthWest Edgecombe

You don’t see a lot of 250-pound relay runners who can qualify for regionals, but there aren’t a lot of people like SouthWest Edgecombe High School's Keyshaun Powell.

He is a big man and with an even bigger personality.

"When I first got here, you knew he was the heartbeat of the school," said SouthWest Edgecombe teacher and assistant football coach Chris Day. "When I got here, I pulled in the parking lot lost, didn't know where to go. Keyshaun actually poked his head out of the building, and he was the first person I met here. He showed me around the school building before I had even met anyone at the school."

As an athlete, Powell excels in football, basketball and track and field.

"The first time I met him, I asked him, 'What do you want to do? What are your aspirations?' He said, 'I want to play college football somewhere,'" said SouthWest Edgecombe football coach Carter Varnell.

Last February, Powell signed to play football next season at Louisburg College.

"Finally seeing that my hard work paid off, it was amazing to me. I cried up there on my signing day because it was like, 'Wow, I'm really doing it,'" Powell remembered.

Powell also has a 3.9 grade point average and is a National High School Coaches Association Academic All-American.

"We had a running joke with my class at the end of the semester that he was my substitute teacher," Day said. "When I couldn't figure out how to get people involved, he would start talking. He would take over, and it was just like watching someone who was coming for my job doing better than I am."

Powell is also SouthWest Edgecombe's student body president. During Covid, he made a big push to administration to return to in-person learning.

"I called principal, Dr. (Lauren) Lampron, and I was like, 'Hey, we've got to get back in school,'" Powell said.

"Because he knew that, not only himself, but his peers were struggling with virtual online learning, and he really led the charge in terms of getting us back early than some schools and school systems were able to do," said Varner.

"He's one of a kind," said Day. "I've never met anyone in my life like Keyshaun."