Starting Lineup: Colleges not turning blind eye to Reading’s Keyshawn Efese
To recognize the top players in Berks football MikeDragoSports.com has selected the “Starting Lineup,” a preseason All-Berks team that includes the top linemen, backs, receivers, linebackers and specialists.
Players were selected based on past performance, expected performance this season and college potential. Two-way players were given special consideration. One player will be introduced each day, in random order (the players are not ranked).
This is the 10th installment in the series.
Keyshawn Efese, Reading High
| 6-5 | 290 | Senior | T/DE/DT |
BACKSTORY: Keyshawn Efese felt a deep connection with “The Blind Side,” a movie about the challenges Michael Oher faced on his path from poverty to the NFL.
Like Oher, Efese is a towering figure who plays left tackle – the blind side for right-handed quarterbacks – and faces daily struggles at home.
As Oher did, he’s overcoming them through his hard work in the weight room and his dominance on the football field.
Just a few years ago Efese was so out of shape he couldn’t sprint from one sideline to the other; now he’s a dominant lineman drawing Division I college offers and inching closer to his dream.
“I know I can take football somewhere,” says the Reading High senior, who’s motivated to make a better life for himself and his family.
The 6-5, 290-pound Efese became a force in the trenches last season, drawing all-league second-team honors at tackle and the interest of college coaches. He has pulled in eight scholarship offers since then, the latest from Villanova.
When he entered high school that was a remote possibility. He weighed 360 pounds, had little football background, and was not interested in the physical demands of the sport.
“He was this big lump,” recalls teammate Gabriel Laws.
Efese came out for football in 10th grade and soon realized it could be his meal ticket. Before he could start pushing away defensive linemen he first needed to push himself away from the dinner table. He cut down on the size of his meal portions, blocked candy, potato chips, and cookies from his snack list, and started hitting the gym.
Seventy-five pounds later the only pancakes Efese sees are the ones he delivers up on the field where he consistently flattens the smaller guys in his path.
“He’s stronger, more explosive (than last year),” says Reading High coach Troy Godinet. “He ran a 5.1 (40-yard dash) at (a) Temple (camp). He was doing nothing like that last summer. He’s put the work in, the energy in, the time in. I’m looking forward to what he can do.”
Efese has a seven-foot wingspan and a new nickname: “Bruiser.”
“He’s made tremendous progress,” said Laws admiringly. “He has grown tremendously (as a person). He’s very dominant in the run game. I love watching him pull.”
Earlier this summer Efese went to prospect camps at Boston College and Temple where he went one-on-one with guys his size who were competing for scholarships. Essentially, he said, he ate their lunch in those match-ups.
“When I step on the field, I just feel like I’m best player on the field, and I showed that,” he said. “I dominated most of those guys. I want to show people I’m dominant. I want to show them our football team is dominant; Reading High School, we’re coming up.”
Efese uses football as his release. All of the hardships he encounters in life become his fuel.
“When I get on the football field, everything comes out,” he said.
Efese is far from a finished product. There is much work to do but college coaches are betting they can shape this once unrecognizable talent into a big-time football player.
“He’s pretty raw,” Godinet said, “(but he has) the highest upside on our team. He’s grown tremendously within his bend, technique, and knowledge of the game.”
ROLE: Offensive tackle, defense end and tackle.
COLLEGE PROSPECTS: Has offers from Villanova, Howard, Monmouth, Stony Brook, Maine, Towson, and Bryant.
COACH’S TAKE: “Still developing but plays physical and with an edge. What he lacks in technique he makes up for with physical play. Does a great job covering people up in the run game and the pass game.”
| Xavier Beatty | Reading High | WR/S/CB/KR | Sr. |
| Aris Drake | Twin Valley | T/DT | Sr. |
| Keyshawn Efese | Reading High | T/DE/DT | Sr. |
| Chase Eisenhower | Wyomissing | FB/LB | Jr. |
| Justic Hardy | Wyomissing | HB/WR/CB/KR | Soph. |
| Reese Hohl | Gov. Mifflin | RB/WR/CB/KR | Sr. |
| Evan Johnson | Twin Valley | RB/DB/KR | Sr. |
| Evan Myers | Twin Valley | QB/DB | Sr. |
| Luke Spotts | Schuylkill Valley | TE/LB | Sr. |
| Logan Wegman | Exeter | T/DT | Sr. |
