LIHUE — One of Kauai’s highly decorated student-athletes can add one more award to the trophy case.
Kauai High School graduate Taegan Keep received a certificate of recognition by the Kauai County Council on Wednesday morning at the Historic County Building.
“That was very cool how I got to go in and be with them this morning,” Keep said afterward. “I was very thankful that they asked me to come. It was nice to hear what they had to say.”
Keep is a two-time Hawaii High School Athletic Association state track and field gold medal-winner for girls discus and is a 2018 inductee to the HHSAA Hall of Honor.
Keep will continue on with track and field at Brigham Young University in Utah where she received a scholarship.
Keep’s parents, father Dale and mother Genevieve, were with her Wednesday.
“It’s a big deal for parents. Just being her father and knowing how hard she’s worked over the years, it’s been nice to see her hard work pay off,” Dale Keep said. “A lot of times, people thing because she’s big and tall (6 feet, 2 inches tall), that she accomplishes these things. But I think people don’t see how hard she worked at what she does and how determined she is.”
Keep added: “I liked to have my parents there. It’s not just me. It’s them, too. They’re the ones who raised me. They’re the ones who taught me everything. They helped me though absolutely everything.”
Keep met with the council and discussed her many accomplishments. Among the topics that were discussed were:
w “What got you interested in the sport?” asked Councilmember JoAnn Yukimura. Keep said a friend encouraged her to attend a track and field practice. She went despite having little to no knowledge of the sport and that she ended up “being OK at it.”
w Councilmember Arryl Kaneshiro inquired of her other accomplishments in basketball and volleyball. Keep was a four-year varsity girls basketball player and a two-year varsity girls volleyball player at Kauai High School.
w Councilmember Derek Kawakami asked if Keep will consider competing in other sports at BYU. Keep said her focus will be on track and field, but basketball is a possibility.
Keep, though she’s not one to talk about herself, appreciated the council’s gesture.
“It’s nice to hear that everything I’ve worked on, everything I’ve done, it’s being seen,” she said.
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Nick Celario, sports writer, can be reached at 245-0437 or ncelario@thegardenisland.com.
Maybe you can run for county councilwomen one day? Follow the guy on your left.