Well it is All-State season, as we like to call it around the magazine. This is the time of year when high school pollsters, and some coaches, crown the very best Friday-nighters in the commonwealth for the immediately past season.
We have called this prospect ubiquitous. It fits him well. It describes his play aptly.
Ubiquitous is defined as being “found everywhere.” QBs attempting to complete passes downfield on this player will tell you he turned up all over the field. Ball carriers would make the same claim. He’s turning up on quite a few All-State lists these days.
Teams are in the midst of crowning All-Staters from all over Kentucky and from all six (6) of Kentucky’s classifications. We aren’t even close to finished; heck, we are just getting started.
According to the commonwealth’s football coaches, there was only one (1) All-Stater on the first team from Class 1A. He played for Russellville High. His name…Chevis Elliott.
It wasn’t an unfamiliar name to the coaches. He made the third team as a junior on the same list. Elliott was one of 14-seniors who led the ’21 Panthers to a 12-2 mark and berth in the title game.
A third-level guy who plays in close proximity to Elliott, Anthony “Rooster” Woodard, could well have claimed a second slot on the same team. Rooster’s omission may well have been a glaring snub.
The coaches aren’t alone in believing Elliott to be among the commonwealth’s premier DBs. Elliott had already been named first-team All-State by Kentucky Sports Radio (KSR). KSR released its second ever team shortly before the coaches.
Distinctions like these should be earned on the field. The 5-9, 170-pound DB definitely earned his honor under the lights.
This season, Elliott logged 9 interceptions and returned them for 130 yards and a touchdown. Elliot registered 82-total hits, caused a fumble and recovered one, and rushed 65 times for 471 (over 7 yards per carry) for 4 touchdowns while catching 5 passes for 42 yards and 2 touchdowns on offense. While not too sure, we believe Elliott tied with Kristopher Hughes (3A, Union County) for the top interceptions mark (9) in Kentucky in any classification.
Benton’s praise for his diminutive DB couldn’t have been any more forceful. Benton told the Courier-Journal “Chevis Elliott is the epitome of what it means to be a teammate who is all in. Amazing work ethic, hunger, film study and ability to lead.”
Benton continued, “Chevis is someone who sees the entire field and in a blink of an eye can get anywhere…[and] make a play. Open-field tackling, ability to make the big hits, big-play ability and intuitiveness have all led [Elliott] to leading the state in interceptions this year.”
Elliott is a “Super Senior.” That is a new term of art in today’s post-pandemic world.
Like so many others who took advantage of SB-128, it isn’t like Elliot mailed it in a year ago. In ’20, Elliott led the Panthers with 6-picks, recorded 83-tackles in fewer games, caused three fumbles, recovering one of them for a “scoop and score.”
Like his dad before him (Chris Elliott), Chevis is a basketball star in addition to perhaps the commonwealth’s very best corner. We don’t know from which parent Chevis will claim this characteristic was inherited but the younger Elliott is an honor student (3.2 GPA) and a person of tremendously high character according to what R-Club representative, Greg Owens, went on record as saying in ’20 about the 3rd Panther in the program’s 87-year history to be named All-State twice, joining former linemen Tommy Wilkins and David Britt.
As for college choices, it looks like Campbellsville has been all over this guy attempting to lure him to its campus and the Mid-South Conference. We would be surprised if some other NAIA powers, like Georgetown and Lindsey Wilson, didn’t try to get their respective hats in the ring.
Either way, this is a wonderful young man who has amply demonstrated his value to a team on a high school gridiron. Will Chevis Elliott dot the rosters of the remaining All-State teams yet to be announced? Will Elliott provide a college roster a similar value as what he provided in Russellville restoring the Panther’s roar?
We wouldn’t bet against it.
This is Coach HB Lyon, reporting for KPGFootball, and we’re JUST CALLING IT LIKE WE SEE IT!
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