Keelon Russell is latest football star to bolster Duncanville track’s state title hopes

DUNCANVILLE — Duncanville’s Keelon Russell has made a remarkable transformation from backup quarterback to one of the fastest-rising football recruits in the nation since the start of his sophomore season.

But after leading Duncanville to back-to-back Class 6A Division I state titles, the SMU pledge’s decision to run track for the first time in high school could lead to a season for the ages next fall.

It took an injury to Jameir Willis in Duncanville’s season opener in 2022 to thrust Russell into a starting role. Since then, Russell (6-3, 175) has led Duncanville to a 29-1 record, he has become a four-star recruit who is rated the ninth-best quarterback in the nation in the Class of 2025 by 247Sports, and he has been invited to the prestigious Elite 11 Finals and the All-American Bowl.

But after throwing for 3,483 yards and 38 touchdowns as a junior, expect to see a much improved — and much faster — Russell next season. He ran 62 times for 361 yards and six touchdowns in 2023, but he could truly become an elite dual-threat quarterback with the speed he has flashed this spring.

And he has joined a long line of Duncanville football players who have been among the best in the state and the nation on the track.

Russell is running track for the first time since middle school, and he is part of a 4x400-meter relay team that enters this week’s Class 6A Region II meet with the third-fastest time in the nation at 3:11.74, which is a new school record. Russell has been running splits of 48 seconds, and he has been doing that while dividing his time between football and track this spring.

“I wanted to perfect my form and get faster,” Russell said. “It’s going to help me a lot [in football], just being able to take off full speed. It’s not too exhausting [doing both].

“We’re planning on breaking that [time of 3:11]. Everybody is going to do their part hopefully and we’re going to go 3:09.”

That would put Duncanville in some exclusive company. Only 11 schools in national history have run 3:09.64 or faster, according to Track & Field News, and running 3:09 could put Duncanville in the top five in state history.

Duncanville doesn’t start spring football practice until next week, but Russell has been spending about an hour each day doing football workouts in the team’s athletic period. He then works out with one of the premier track programs in the United States — a squad that has a chance to win a team state title for the first time since 2000 after finishing as the state runner-up last year.

“He is a key to us possibly winning the state championship. We’ve got to have him on that 4x400. If we don’t, we’re not the same,” said Duncanville coach Clayton Brookins, who was an All-American in the 4x400 relay at TCU.

Russell, who rose 52 spots in the On3 national recruiting rankings to No. 81 this week, may also run on the 4x200 relay at regionals, at least in the preliminaries. Duncanville ranks No. 9 in the nation in that event.

Football players have been stars for Duncanville in track for a long time, and Adam Wooten is in the school’s Hall of Honor after helping Duncanville win its first football state title in 1998, winning state titles in track in the 200 and 4x100 relay in 2000 and then running at Texas A&M. Three-star defensive back Pierre Goree signed with SMU for football out of high school, won 6A state titles in the 100 meters and 4x100 relay as a senior in 2022 while generating talk of being a possible Olympian someday, and is now running track at Texas A&M.

Four-star running back and LSU football and track signee Caden Durham has won state titles in the 4x100 (2022) and 4x200 (2023), and he was The Dallas Morning News All-Area Offensive Player of the Year in football this season. This spring, Durham has the fifth-fastest wind-legal time in the nation in the 100 at 10.39, and he has teamed with fellow football players Ayson Theus and five-star LSU pledge Dakorien Moore to run 39.65 and 39.73 in the 4x100 relay — the second- and third-fastest times in national history.

Legendary Duncanville football coach Reginald Samples doesn’t mind sharing his athletes, especially after seeing how much track could help someone like Russell.

“Increasing his speed always helps,” Samples said. “It helps him as far as being more of a weapon on the field. People have to defend not just his throwing, but his running the ball.”

Moore was on Duncanville’s state championship 4x200 relay team last year, and he will be running on all three relays and competing in the long jump at the 6A Region II meet that is Friday and Saturday at Waco Midway. He has also spent his spring playing in a few national 7-on-7 football competitions, such as the OT7 event in Dallas that he and Russell took part in Saturday and Sunday after running in their area track meet Friday.

“He hasn’t missed any track meets to do any of that. Track is still the No. 1 priority at this time,” Brookins said of Moore. “I just have to cross my fingers and hope that he doesn’t get injured. If that were to happen, then we would be in some trouble, because he is a big key to us being in competition to bring the [team] state championship to Duncanville.”

Moore is the nation’s No. 1-ranked wide receiver in the Class of 2025, but he also ranks 22nd in the U.S. in the long jump with a season-best mark of 23 feet, 1.25 inches and has run 10.40 in the 100. He hasn’t decided if he will run track in college.

“It’s not really a plan, but I know with the ability that I have that I have the opportunity to do that, so I’m thinking about it,” Moore said. “Track has helped me tremendously. Track is what got me into football.”

The state track meet is May 2-4 in Austin, and once Russell and Moore are done with that, they will turn their attention to spring football, and it will also give them more time to think about their college football futures. Russell is still committed to SMU, and Moore is still committed to LSU, but both said they have other options they are still considering, as they have a combined 55 offers.

“I have an Oregon visit, and I might go to Texas this weekend,” Moore said.

With their speed, it’s easy to see why they are in high demand.

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