UConn's Reyes listened and learned to find success

NEWPORT, R.I. – Kendall Reyes had a plan.

When the Nashua High School North graduate first arrived at the University of Connecticut, he didn’t want to be one of those guys who does great things in high school and disappears once he made it into the big pond. So when Reyes got to Storrs, he did one thing – he listened.

After a few years of listening, he now enters the 2011 season, his fifth with the Huskies, as a two-year captain, his name on the preseason watch list for just about every college football award a lineman could hope to win.

And after testing the waters of the NFL draft last winter, Reyes, a defensive tackle, is well aware of what he still needs to work on if he’s going to make it at the next level. If all goes to plan, he could become the first football player from Nashua to be selected in the draft since Greg Landry was taken in the first round by the Detroit Lions – in 1968.

“I was really quiet when I first got here because I wanted to listen and I wanted to learn,” Reyes said. “We had great coaches and great players that were here. I tell the rest of the team, listen to the coaches. They’ve been around a long time and they know what they’re talking about. You listen to them because they’re here for you. When you do that, you’re going to have a great career.”

Reyes is writing the final chapter of a great one at UConn.

A year ago, Reyes was named to the All-Big East first team as he started all 13 games and helped lead the Huskies to a share of the Big East title and their first BCS bowl game. UConn went on to lose to Oklahoma in the Fiesta Bowl.

Heading into this season, Reyes was named to the watch list for the Outland Trophy, the Bronko Nagurski Trophy and the Rotary Lombardi Trophy along with being a preseason nominee for The Lott IMPACT Trophy, awarded to the nation’s top defensive player.

It’s all still hard to believe for a guy who didn’t exactly come from a football hotbed.

“I felt a little bit of pressure,” Reyes said of trying to succeed at the college level. “I didn’t want to be one of those who just made it and didn’t do anything with it. I was going to make the best out of my opportunity because a lot people from where I’m from don’t have this opportunity. I wanted to do everything I can so that people remember me, where I come from. I want people to know that I’m from New Hampshire.”

Despite all the time that goes into playing college football, Reyes kept up with both Nashua high school teams last season, and was even able to make a trip back to town for the North-South playoff game last November.

He stood quietly on the sidelines as he watched his alma mater take down the school he’d rooted for as a boy, watching games at Holman Stadium. It could have been a bittersweet game, but Reyes was too caught up in the moment and the atmosphere at Stellos Stadium that day.

“It was cool to see them and how far the teams have come,” he said. “The offense was real exciting. It was like a shootout. It was exciting to see that in my hometown. Football is back in Nashua and I love it.”

Both programs are back, as each has made the playoffs twice in the last three years. Reyes was a part of the foundation for one of those programs, and he’s hoping that he can continue to put Nashua football on the map.

“It’s cool to see where I came from and where I’m at now, and hopefully, where I’m going,” he said. “It gets better every day. I just try to stay humble and stay focused.”

UConn opens its season on Sept. 1, when it hosts Fordham at 8 p.m.