Kansas City Chiefs center Creed Humphrey was back in his hometown of Shawnee this week, sharing his athletic knowledge with the younger generation.
Humphrey was the featured guest at the Shawnee Summer Pride Clinic, July 11-14, held at Jim Thorpe Stadium. When he got the call asking for his help, Humphrey told the approximately 120 Shawnee-area athletes at the clinic, he was excited to return to Shawnee High School.
“, this whole city has helped me out a ton, so I’m really happy to come back and … give back whatever I can,” he said on the first day. “Ready to have a good day here. Get out there a little bit, see everybody work. Man, I’m really excited about it. So let’s have a great day.”
New Shawnee Athletic Director Dax Leone said he has known Humphrey for a few years and grew up with Humphrey’s parents in Shawnee.
“They are great people. Creed is the definition of our brand we are trying to cultivate here with our athletes,” said Leone. “Creed is here for support. He wants these kids to be successful and create a work ethic that will last past the athletic field.”
Humphrey said, “work ethic is the biggest thing” for him.
“I wasn’t always the most physically gifted person, just naturally,” he said. “So, I worked really hard to get to where I was, and that’s made a huge difference for me. Just learned work ethic, and getting the confidence from my work ethic has been huge for me.”
According to www. chiefs.com, the 23-yearold starting center wrestled from the age of four. He has played football from Little League on up. He said his high school coach, Chris Brown, helped him to find summer football camps, as well.
For athletes, Humphrey said it is “very important” to work on skills during the summer.
“If you’re not working on it, year-round … you can kind of get lost and just kind of not get into the full space you want to be, so I mean, being able to work on it anytime you can is huge,” he said.
The third-ranked center in the U.S. during high school, Humphrey said his coaches helped him get into the University of Oklahoma, and he considers that his best moment in his football career.
“Getting that call from OU, telling me that I got an offer from there,” he said. “that was a dream school for me. I grew up an OU fan my whole life. So, getting that call was just surreal for me.”
While at OU, he played in 39 games in his three-year career and was an All-American and Big 12 Offensive Lineman of the Year in 2019 and 2020.
Humphrey was the 63rd overall pick in the 2021 NFL Draft when he got the call from the Kansas City Chiefs. He said Coach Reid has made his job easier.
“I expected to go in and be able to make an impact. They set me up really well,” he said. “I ended up in a perfect spot for me. We got a really good offensive line around me, too. So it makes my job a lot easier. So, I mean, Coach Reid up there, he does so much for the offensive linemen.”
With football as his full-time job, Humphrey commented that he is practicing from 7 am to 8 or 9 pm every day, “which I enjoy,” he said.
He added that Kansas City has the same “small city feel” as Oklahoma City, and the “fans up there are awesome,” no matter if the team is winning or losing.
When asked about the Super Bowl, Humphrey said, “We got close last year, but we’ll get it this year.”
Humphrey advises athletes, “any time you’re working, make sure you’re giving full effort in anything you’re doing, whether it’s, on the field, in the classroom, anything you’re doing, just always give full effort.”
“Treat yourself like you’re a professional right now, and then, it makes it so much easier whenever you’re transitioning to anything else in life.”
This is the first year the Summer Pride Clinic has been held since 2019, and Leone said, “We wanted to bring it back this week and create a positive atmosphere for our athletes.”
With the extreme heat, Leone said they provided “plenty of cold water and had a hydration system set up for them.”
“They do a pretty good job of taking care of themselves in this heat in general. But it is definitely a concern with this dangerous heat.”
Leone plans to hold the free clinic for seventh through 12thgrade students from June into July next year, and he hopes to continue having featured guests like Humphrey or other former Shawnee athletes, if possible.
“Having Creed (here) today shows our athletes and the community we are really looking into the future,” said Leone. “Our brand is important! Our kids are important! We just want to create a culture that Shawnee can be proud of. Today was a good start.”
