Jayden Keys' Decision Is Set For National Signing Day

During Jayden Keys' sophomore year at Katy Tompkins High School (TX), he sustained an ankle injury while playing football.

Keys worried about how the setback would impact his season. More importantly, he was concerned it would curtail his training for track.

It was then, back in 2021, that Keys decided to give up football, a sport he loved and had played since fourth grade. He didn't want to risk another injury. Keys knew he had a brighter future as a hurdler and long jumper. 

He was right. 

Keys is now MileSplit's No. 7 boys recruit in the Class of 2024 and a highly sought-after athlete. This fall, he took official visits to Iowa, Texas Tech, Georgia, Arizona State and Ohio State. He plans on announcing his college choice on Nov. 8, the first day recruits can sign their National Letter of Intents.

"I think I've handled the process real well," Keys said. "God gave me the ability to do this and the mentality to work hard. It was just a blessing I could go to these types of schools."

Few, if any, high schoolers are as versatile as Keys.

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National Signing Day, the first day for which track and field athletes can sign with NCAA programs, is Nov. 8. MileSplit will have full coverage of signings throughout the day. For more, check out our National Signing Day hub page. 

As a junior, he was U.S. No. 10 in the long jump (24-5.5), U.S. No. 9 in the 110m hurdles (13.62) and U.S. No. 12 in the 300m hurdles (36.83). Among boys in the Class of 2024, he was second nationally in both hurdles events and third in the long jump.

At the USATF National Junior Olympic Championships in July, he won the 110m hurdles (13.72) and long jump (24-1.5) in the 17-18 age category.

During his senior year, Keys is hoping to win both hurdles events and the long jump at the UIL Class 6A State Championships; he was third in each of those events as a junior.

Moreover, he will compete against the top high schoolers at Nike Indoor Nationals and Nike Outdoor Nationals. Keys was one of 40 athletes selected for the inaugural Nike Elite Program, which Nike launched in August in partnership with the National Scholastic Athletics Foundation and USA Track & Field.

Derek Ward, the head track coach at Katy Tompkins, said Keys could run in the mid-21 second range in the 200m and around 47 seconds for the 400m if he competed in those events.

"I think he could do pretty much anything he put his mind to," Ward said. "You have guys that come around like these maybe once or twice in your coaching career. It's been a blessing to be around him. Him being a great kid on top of that makes it all the better."

College coaches have told Keys they want him to compete in just the 110m hurdles and long jump and not the 400m hurdles. Keys is on board with that plan.

""It's a little different training regimen (between the 110m and 400m hurdles)," he said. "You're trying to mix mid-distance in with speed. They just said it would be a more efficient way to train and be better at two events than to be trying to do all three events and just be OK at them."

Since Keys began receiving serious recruiting interest from major colleges last year, he has relied upon the advice of his brother, Clayton, and sister, Lanaye, who have gone through the process.

Clayton is now a senior at the University of Nebraska, while Lanaye is a junior at Houston Christian University. They are both hurdlers and long jumpers.

"I had two people in my corner already that I could go to at any time and say, 'OK, what do you think about this? What should I look for in a school? What should I look for in a coach?,'" said Keys, whose father, Sean, was a hurdler at Liberty University and McNeese State in the 1990s. "I think that really helped me. I saw them go through it, so now that I went through, it wasn't as stressful."

Keys enjoyed the five college visits he took and attended few major college football games in-person, including Ohio State-Penn State, Arizona State-Colorado and Texas Tech-Oregon. Still, despite receiving so much attention and seeing the best the schools have to offer, Keys has remained grounded and introspective when evaluating his college options.

"When you're in a position like he is, you're getting a lot of people hitting you up all the time," Ward said. "He's done a really good job of staying level-headed and going through the process. He's really done a good job at looking at what's best for him."