{"id":1617,"date":"2015-02-05T21:58:30","date_gmt":"2015-02-05T21:58:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/athletics\/?p=1617"},"modified":"2015-11-12T18:42:25","modified_gmt":"2015-11-12T18:42:25","slug":"john-kay-15-signs-with-university-of-maine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/athletics\/2015\/02\/05\/john-kay-15-signs-with-university-of-maine\/","title":{"rendered":"John Kay ’15 Signs with University of Maine"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Photo<\/a>
Photo by Paul Rutherford<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Ever since fifth grade, before he even knew whether he wanted to wrestle or play football in college, John Kay (Hingham, MA) has been a force on the field\u2014and a friendly, welcoming presence off it.<\/p>\n

On February 4, Mr. Kay committed to football by signing a National Letter of Intent with the University of Maine<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a phenomenal day for John and I\u2019m just so proud of him,\u201d said Matt Kay, his father, who was at the signing ceremony at the Williston Northampton School. \u201cFor John\u2014and maybe a little bit for me\u2014it\u2019s a dream, something he\u2019s worked for since 8th grade.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"Photo<\/a>
Photo by Paul Rutherford<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Since his son was small, Mr. Kay said he could remember John\u2019s ferocity on the field, describing him as \u201cinstinctively hunting running backs down like a predator.\u201d This year, even when the varsity football team was down by four touchdowns in a season finale bowl game against Lawrence Academy, John Kay fought through the line to block an extra point at the end of the first half.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo me that just sums him up,\u201d Mr. Kay later recalled. He later added via email that “the fact that they came back to take a 28-27 lead in the third quarter of that bowl game made it one of the most impressive games that I\u2019ve ever seen.\u201d<\/p>\n

The younger Kay said that he formed deep bonds with his teammates and Head Coach Mark Conroy over the course of the season and will look to forge similar ties at the University of Maine.<\/p>\n

\u201cI love the team and I love playing under Coach Conroy,\u201d Mr. Kay said. \u201cHe knows how to bring a team together.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Photo<\/a>
Photo by Paul Rutherford<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Mr. Kay, who was a state champion wrestler for Hingham High School, finished his season at Williston as Colonial League Player of the Year (lineman), NEPSAC Class B Defensive Player of the Year, with All New England prep and First Team All Colonial League honors. He will be joining the Division 1 FCS Maine Bears, which had a 5-6 record last year (4-4 in Colonial Athletic Association).<\/p>\n

Mr. Kay said he had chosen Maine for its coaching staff, campus, and team atmosphere, describing the Black Bears as an up-and-coming team with an emphasis on the defensive line.<\/p>\n

\u201cI definitely love the school. It\u2019s all about the defense. They call it the \u2018black hole,\u2019\u201d Mr. Kay said with a grin. \u201cThat was the extra factor that brought me to Maine, to be part of that black hole, part of that defense.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ever since fifth grade, before he even knew whether he wanted to wrestle or play football in college, John Kay (Hingham, MA) has been a force on the field\u2014and a friendly, welcoming presence off it. On February 4, Mr. Kay committed to football by signing a National Letter of Intent with the University of Maine. … Continue reading John Kay ’15 Signs with University of Maine<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"_s2mail":"yes","footnotes":""},"categories":[46,364],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1617","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-athletics-news","category-ncaa-commitments"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/athletics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1617"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/athletics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/athletics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/athletics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/athletics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1617"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/athletics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1617\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1622,"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/athletics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1617\/revisions\/1622"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/athletics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1617"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/athletics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1617"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/athletics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1617"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}