Palmyra’s Kwinten Ives gives Matt Rhule’s Nebraska team a running back with multi-sport athleticism

Throughout his time at Palmyra High, three-sport athlete Kwinten Ives has gone beyond just earning varsity letters. A senior, Ives has been a top performer for the school’s football, basketball, and track and field teams.

“I always knew I was going to play multiple sports,” Ives said. “I don’t like playing one sport and having a whole rest of the year offseason. I never liked that.”

While it’s football that Ives considers to be his No. 1 sport as he signed to play running back with Nebraska, his athleticism has resulted in earning the school record in the long jump and scoring 1,000 points in basketball.

“Kwinten loves to compete, and I hoped different, but I always knew he was a football player that played basketball,” Palmyra basketball coach Mike McCarron said. “His love has always been football, but basketball is a close second. I always said if he put the time in on the basketball court that he put in on the football field, he would be just as successful in basketball.”

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While Ives is a running back at heart, the 6-foot-3 forward also led his team in points and rebounds.

There was even a time in middle school where Ives’ focus began to sway more towards basketball before he realized football was what he wanted to play in college. At Palmyra, Ives rushed for more than 3,000 yards and 42 touchdowns over his junior and senior seasons.

Ives’ talent caught the eye of then-UConn running backs coach E.J. Barthel, who had worked at Temple and the Carolina Panthers for head coach Matt Rhule.

“[Barthel] coached last year at UConn, he recruited Kwinten, offered him, Kwinten had gone up twice,” Palmyra football coach Jack Geisel said. “Then Coach Rhule got the job at Nebraska, I didn’t really think anything of it and then I’m driving into school, it’s about 6:30 and I’m getting these text messages and I can see they were from E.J. ‘Between you and I, I’m leaving, I’m going to be at Nebraska… and I’m taking Kwinten with me.’”

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Even with a football scholarship secured, considering the role Ives knew he had to fulfill on the basketball team, he didn’t consider skipping his senior season. He focused on how it could help his athleticism and give him an edge heading into college.

“I feel like football helps with basketball, basketball helps with track, track helps with basketball, track helps with football, I feel like all those sports correlate and help each other in some type of way,” Ives said. “Basketball with explosiveness cause you’re jumping a lot and then football, with basketball cuts, you make a cut in football the same way you make a cut in basketball. Track with top speed for football.”

Said Geisel: “He’s been a great kid from Day 1 and to see him work and see him get this success and have this opportunity is just awesome. If there’s anyone that deserves it, he does. And I’m sure he can go out to Nebraska and compete on their basketball team.”