Pitt commit Kenny Minchey of JPII knew football was his future, but he had to convince his parents first

Kenny Minchey's skills on the basketball court are undeniable. But basketball isn't why Minchey committed to Pittsburgh on April 30.

The four-star Pope John Paull II quarterback is a 6-foot-1, 206-pound senior who is ranked as the No. 15 quarterback in the country and No. 5 prospect in Tennessee for the Class of 2023, according to the 247Sports Composite. 

Basketball once went hand-in-hand with football for Minchey until he decided to dedicate himself to football. Now he's No. 6 on The Tennessean's Dandy Dozen, a collection of the top college football prospects for the Class of 2023 in the Nashville area as selected by the newspaper.

The only problem was he hadn't told his mother and father immediately about his decision to walk away from basketball.

"Kenny is a quiet kid," Tomeka Taylor Minchey said. "He is driven and committed, but he's also very humble. Maybe sometimes he's too quiet for me. Sometimes I want to shake him to get more emotion out of him."

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Kenny's mom, who goes by Taylor, and his father Kenneth Sr. weren't thrilled with the idea of Kenny foregoing basketball. As a freshman at Pope John Paul he played both.

"I loved both," Kenny said. "And I still love basketball. But I had to make a decision that was best for my future. I think football was what was in my future so I figured why delay the inevitable?"

Minchey's parents, who met as high school classmates at Stratford High and moved to Hendersonville when Kenny was a year old, weren't angry that their son wanted to pursue football, but were reluctant to let him leave behind teammates, coaches and a sport he benefited from.

"It wasn't a huge deal by any means," Kenneth Sr. said. "But we knew the kind of conditioning basketball provided and the kind of agility it provided that helped him in football.

"Plus we wanted him to be dedicated to his team."

Minchey's parents were justified in their skepticism. Kenny wasn't the football team's starter going into his sophomore year. But an injury to the starter five weeks into the 2020 season thrust Kenny into that role.

Minchey led the Knights to consecutive wins against Franklin and Montgomery Bell Academy. It was the program's first win against MBA since 2006.

"He's a coach's dream," said  coach Justin Geisinger, who resigned at JPII in March to take over at Franklin Road Academy. "He's how you'd like to see a kid earn a job, keep it and then thrive in it."

Minchey threw for 1,164 yards and 10 touchdowns as a sophomore, playing half the season. Last season, as the full-time starter, he completed 61% of his passes for 3,280 yards and 32 touchdowns and ran for three more TDs.

In the span of a year, he had 16 offers, including seven from Power Five programs at schools like Michigan State, Tennessee, Vanderbilt, Virginia Tech and West Virginia. 

"I just became obsessed with football," Kenny said. "I got a trainer and he and I worked on becoming a better quarterback every day. I didn't do much else during the summer between my sophomore and junior year. I don't go out. I don't party. Nothing."

Kenny was one of three Tennessee high school quarterbacks who were selected to compete in the 2022 Elite 11 Finals at the end of June in Los Angeles. 

The annual competition involves 20 of the nation's top high school quarterback prospects who qualify from the Elite 11 Regional tour. Following the Nashville event at Lipscomb Academy, Minchey joined Ravenwood's Chris Parson and Lausanne's Brock Glenn in California. Minchey and Parson both made the final Elite 11.

"Sometimes, as a parent you want to see more emotion from him," Taylor said. "But Kenny is the same good or bad. He has the same expression when he throws a touchdown as he does if he throws an interception."

And while their son's football career continues to climb, basketball is never far away.

"After the football season ended (last fall) we asked him if he wanted to give basketball one last shot," Kenneth Sr. said. "I didn't care if he wouldn't have played much but it was more of a camaraderie thing. But Kenny, unknown to us, got into a rec basketball league (in Hendersonville) with his buddies. Once we found out, we just told him have fun."