After an MVP season, Keyshawn Ashford still has something to prove.
The 5-foot-11, 180-pound running back out of Woodside Priory in Portola Valley flew across the country this week to play in the Blue-Grey All-American Bowl, which will be held Saturday at Raymond James Stadium, home of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
“I’ve never walked out on a NFL stadium before, so I’m probably going to be nervous at first,” Ashford said. “But then I’m just going to realize it’s a normal football field. And seeing myself on the jumbotron or seeing my family in the stands is probably going to make me really excited to play.”
His last trip to Florida took place over six years ago, when Ashford helped the M-A Vikings reach the 2011 Pop Warner National Championships at the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex in Disney World.
This time he will join the North squad for a game that will be broadcast live on ESPN3 at 4:30 p.m. PT.
“I’ve posted it on social media — my Snapchat, my Instagram,” Ashford said. “Everybody is excited for me. They’re like, ‘This is a huge opportunity.’ Most of the school knows already, so it’s a pretty big deal.”
Priory, which is comprised of fewer than 300 high school students, is a member of the 8-man Mission Trail Athletic League.
Ashford piled up 1,484 rushing yards and 38 touchdowns — which included three kickoff returns, a punt return and a pick-6 — as a senior during an 8-1 season that ended with a heartbreaking 68-66 overtime loss to rival Pinewood.
It was enough to draw the interest of a few NCAA Division I programs, but no solid offers, yet.
“It’s the whole 8-man stigma that I guess hurt him a little bit, but it is what it is,” said Stephen Ashford, his father and football coach at East Palo Alto Phoenix Academy. “We wouldn’t trade that for the world as far as the education he got just to get him prepared for college. We’ll take that trade any day.”
Keyshawn couldn’t agree more: “I know we get looked down upon because we play 8-man football, but the education I’m that getting as far as Priory is just second to none.”
With more than two months to prepare since his last game in a Priory uniform, Ashford spent countless hours training with his cousin Kenneth Walker III, a former UCLA wide receiver.
“He’s been teaching me a little stuff that I can do better as far as running routes and catching the ball or speed stuff,” Ashford said. “We’ve been working a lot on footwork and it’s helped me out a lot.”
He added: “It’s just been a lot of preparation and just a lot of waiting for the time to actually come. So I’m really ready to show them what I’ve got.”
Ashford is one of six players expected to split carries on the roster for the North, with the running backs coach none other than Ron Dayne, a member of the University of Wisconsin Athletic Hall of Fame who was taken No. 11 overall by the New York Giants in the 2000 NFL Draft.
“I feel like I compete against these guys when I go to camps, so it’s going to be no different,” Ashford said. “But I feel I’m going to put 8-man football kind of on the map, or that we can compete at the highest level.”
The three-day event includes three-hour practices on Thursday and Friday, which will be crucial time to get on the same page and learn the playbook.
“I think I’m really going to shine because of the amount of effort and sweat in the work I’ve put into training,” Ashford said. “I feel like when I get out there I’m really going to turn some heads — and turn some college coaches, too.”
Ashford is the only player representing the Peninsula in Tampa, while East Bay products Delano Ware of El Cerrito and Emany Johnson of Hercules will roam the secondary for the North.
“Just to show people that the Bay Area has a lot of hidden talent that college coaches need to start looking at,” Ashford said
One of those places is Portola Valley, where Ashford still can’t believe his time with the Panthers is over.
“It went by really fast,” he said. “I feel like I put everything, all my effort, all my love, into my teammates. My whole team is my best friend. My coaches, they taught me so much. I learned a whole bunch of life lessons from that whole football team.”
Now he’s looking for another group of teammates to embrace at the next level.
“This is a big showcase for me,” Ashford said. “I feel like I can show coaches I can play 11-man football, too.”
