The focus of the bright lights and cheering fans on the footballfield are all the attention that Hornet wide receiver Kenan Smithneeds.

Playing alongside Fred Amey, maybe the best receiver inSacramento State history, Smith has gotten little press foreverything he’s done for the team in the last five years.

“Everybody wants to be in the paper and get their namerecognized,” Smith said.

“But when you’re playing with somebody that is thatgood, I don’t even think about it.”

When it comes to going to Smith in key situations, his coach andteammates don’t even think about it.

“He does what he has to do to get the job done,”quarterback and roommate Ryan Leadingham said. “Peopleunderestimate Kenan’s speed. I wish we could have gotten theball to him more down field.”

Smith has wishes too. He wishes Leadingham wouldn’t havesuffered a season ending injury in the Causeway Classic.

“I’m still helping him all the time, he can’teven put on his shirt,” Smith said.

“I think I kind of got gypped. He’s my roommate andmy friend and I wanted to experience my senior year withhim.”

Smith didn’t quit just because things didn’t go theway that he wanted them to. Growing up in San Jose his fatherArlando Smith imparted many lessons to Kenan including the value ofperseverance.

“Raising Kenan was a challenge,” Mr. Smith said.”He is very high spirited and thinks for himself.”

One day Arlando was beating his son in a game of basketball.Kenan got frustrated and wanted to quit but his dad wouldn’tlet him.

Eventually, Arlando let his son come back and win the game indramatic fashion to help his son understand that if he would havequit he would never have won anything.

Arlando also had his son begin playing piano when he was onlyfive-years-old.

“I just love the piano,” Kenan said. “Myparents made me practice 30 minutes to one hour everyday and Iwanted to quit so many times but my Dad wouldn’t letme.”

Music is a passion of the standout football player.

“I love music, I love dancing. I like everything fromJay-Z, to Nas, and I love slow stuff like Brian McKnight,”Kenan said. He also loves a number of pianists.

Kenan’s parents split up when he was 13-years-old and hisfather used this time to teach his son about life.

“That was the toughest time for all of us,” Arlandosaid. “He was extremely angry but in a way it was good forhim. It taught him that life is not always easy and bad thingshappen to good people.”

Football has been an escape for Kenan since his elementaryyears.

“At first I didn’t want him to play football, atleast not so young,” Arlando said, who is a huge baseballenthusiast.

“Today he plays with reckless abandon and goes at fullspeed and throws his body and caution to the wind. I took him tothe hospital more times then you know.”

Before college Kenan played his whole career at quarterback,trying to emulate his boyhood idol Randall Cunningham.

After winning league his sophomore year at Gunderson High in SanJose, Kenan started his junior year for varsity and set records forpassing yards and touchdowns in only his second game.

“People have always said Kenan is too small, too skinny toplay,” his dad said. “They can see his size but theycan’t see his heart.”

Kenan served on the Student Athlete Advisory Committee as theSac State representative to the Big Sky Conference and as the BigSky Conference representative on a National level.

The committees are designed to help get the student athletesvoice heard around the NCAA.

No. 7 hopes to continue his football career after graduation butsaid he also likes marketing and advertising.

But football is still his first love.

“I really want to play somewhere anywhere,” Kenansaid. “Not once did I ever want to quit football. Never. Ilove it that much.”