Los Angeles High School senior Ka’yon Richardson wants to leave his mark this season. He has helped the Romans to a 2-3 overall record.
“My senior year, I was like “This is my last chance to show out and ball out,”” Richardson said. “I want to make it a memory for myself to look back and say I did my stuff.”
Growing up, he was inspired by his older cousins to play football. Richardson played for the El Segundo Eagles but the COVID-19 pandemic cut his time there short. He started playing for the Romans as a sophomore and worked to earn playing time.
“I learned that it takes heart, just take your opportunities when you can, whenever coach puts you out there,” Richardson said. “I started at tight end but I still played as if I knew what I was doing, but I learned a lot.”
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As he teaches his teammates about football, he hopes that they understand the effort it takes to compete. As he competes, he grows concerned about his teammates getting injured because he wants to continue playing alongside them in the coming weeks.
“A lot of young people, they want to come out here, ball out too but it takes a lot to do that,” Richardson said. “You have to worry about a lot of things on the field.”
Richardson knows that being a student athlete means showing a high level of competence to both teachers and coaches.
“Just do your work and pay attention … make sure you do everything on time,” he said. “After that, just come to the field and ball out and show your coach that you could do what you need to do.”
One class that Richardson enjoyed was theatre; he mentioned that he enjoyed acting.
“I got to show myself that I have a certain voice for certain things,” he said. “I could be myself and I don’t have to worry about nobody judging because of that.”
Richardson has played several positions on offense and defense, wide receiver is the position he enjoys the most.
“My favorite part about being a wide receiver is being able to run the ball hard, especially looking out for the ball and showing that you could get open any time,” Richardson said.
In the future, Richardson aspires to learn engineering and become a welder like his father.
“I grew up around my dad always welding stuff and I asked him “could you show me how to weld?” and he was like “yeah,”” Richardson said. “I always love welding after that.”
