No sign of wear: North quarterback completely healthy entering senior season

If not for the scar, Trenton Kelley might have forgotten that he’s now playing football without a spleen.

That’s how much the Columbus North quarterback has put behind him a serious injury that threatened his life, let alone his chances of ever playing again.

But eight months after a ruptured spleen led to its removal, Kelley is physically right back where he was prior to the injury.

“I feel 100 percent now,” Kelley said. “I’m even stronger than I was before, and my weight is all back. I’m completely healthy and ready to go.”

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Big season cut short

The 6-foot-5, 200-pound Kelley made himself into a Division I prospect during a productive junior season, his first as a starter.

Kelley completed 154 of 244 passes for 2,233 yards and a school record-tying 25 touchdowns and carried 44 times for 170 yards and four scores in earning Class 6A Junior All-State honors. His passing yardage ranks second in school history for a single season.

That record may have fallen if Kelley had not been injured on the opening drive of the Bull Dogs’ sectional championship game Nov. 3 at Center Grove. He remembers being hit a few times on that drive, which ended in an interception — a rarity for Kelley.

Tests at Community South Hospital revealed the ruptured spleen, and Kelley was transferred to Methodist Hospital in Indianapolis. A couple hours later, doctors performed a two-hour surgery to stop the bleeding in the arteries to his spleen.

Four days later, on Nov. 7, the spleen was removed.

Regaining his strength

Kelley was cleared for contact eight weeks after the injury. He began playing in North varsity basketball games in January and immediately was inserted in the starting lineup.

“Being able to play basketball was huge for him because he’s been back in that competitive arena, and the injury is behind him,” North football coach Tim Bless said.

In the meantime, Kelley returned to doing more and more lifts in the weight room. By the end of the spring, he had increased his maximum to 200 pounds on the bench press, 280 for the squat and 225 for the power clean. Those numbers were slightly better than before the injury.

Kelley’s time of 4.76 seconds in 40-yard dash this summer is just a shade slower than the 4.71 he ran prior to the injury.

“I got all healthy in basketball season, and then it was just full go from there,” Kelley said. “I’ve tried to really focus on more core strength. I think having that surgery and getting an organ removed definitely hurt my core strength, so I’ve really been putting a focus on that this summer. It’s really helping me. I feel completely fine.”

The recruiting game

Kelley is one of the state’s top quarterback prospects. He is one of 25 players from around the state pictured on the cover of the 2018 Indiana Football Digest, which will be unveiled at Friday night’s North-South All-Star Classic at North Central High School in Indianapolis.

Last month, Kelley picked up his first scholarship offer from Eastern Illinois. Kelley had visited the Football Championship Subdivision (formerly Division I-AA) school on June 16 and plans to go back there this month for a camp.

Kelley went to a camp at Illinois State last weekend. He spent the past week — moratorium week — doing an East Coast swing with his parents to visit Ivy League schools Penn, Princeton and Yale and attend a camp at Penn.

The owner of a 3.95 GPA, Kelley plans to study engineering or business in college.

“It’s definitely a long process and sometimes stressful,” Kelley said. “But I would like to be able to have my college decision made before the season so I can just relax and play. But if I’m not set on anywhere 100 percent yet, I’ll just wait it out through the season.”

New connections

The way Bless sees it, Kelley is the least of his worries going into the 2018 season. Connecting with new receivers, though, could be a challenge.

North lost its top two receivers in Jaylen Flemmons (Ball State) and Tristan Bailey (Illinois State) to Division I schools. Two other receivers who gained experience last fall are coming off injuries: incoming senior D’Andre Scruggs (ACL) and incoming sophomore Preston Terrell (hamstring).

For most of the summer scrimmages so far, Kelley has been throwing to a group that includes converted quarterback Hunter Huser, converted cornerback Langston Lunsford and returning tight end Mitchel Collier.

“Right now, we’re just getting him used to a new cast of characters around him and the receiving corps and getting them on the same page,” Bless said. “It’s a process, and we’re making strides every week. I just think he hasn’t been unleashing as much because he doesn’t have those guys that he had the rapport and the relationship with. But that’s what summer is for.”

Complete confidence

Offensive coordinator Jason Perry said there are two people in the North program who know what all 11 offensive players should be doing on every play. He is one, and Kelley is the other.

Because of that and because of Kelley’s experience, Perry has given him the green light to change protection schemes or change the direction of a play.

“Trenton is such a bright kid,” Perry said. “It’s pretty impressive. There will be times when I’ll signal something in incorrectly from the sideline. I’ll get the protection in the wrong direction, and I see him straightening things out. So he has a great grasp of what we’re doing.”

Perry said Kelly was a little bit handcuffed last year in what he allowed him to do. This year, Kelley is going to be able to do more things on his own. While he may not necessarily put them in a different play, he can adjust to a different variation of the same play. Perry said Kelley has the green light to do those things on the field when he sees closing linebackers or a defensive front that he doesn’t like. If he knows they’d be better off running the play the opposite direction, he can switch it.

And if Kelley drops back to pass, and the pocket collapses, he won’t be afraid to take off and run.

“We were really excited to see him have a good basketball season,” Perry said. “Sitting up in the stands watching him play basketball, I was excited to see him dive on the floor after loose balls and take hard fouls and come back and really show no residual effects from his injury last fall. He’s 100 percent ready to go.”

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Name: Trenton Kelley

School: Columbus North

Year: Will be a senior

Sports: Football, basketball

Key football stats: Completed 154 for 244 passes for 2,233 yards and 25 touchdowns and carried 44 times for 170 yards and four scores as a junior

Family: Parents Dennis and Shelly; siblings Gregory, Serena and Mitchell

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