Senior Profile: Cevon Seymour

Freshman class president, football and lacrosse player, and loving brother, Cevon Seymour has fought to stay with his friends and community. A student that can handle wins as well as losses, and gives his all for the best of others.

“The community relationships are what make Kirkwood so unique,” Cevon said. “Even kids you don’t think will come back here end up coming back. Everybody really knows everybody.”

Community is something that matters to him. After going to Nipher Middle School from sixth to mid seventh grade, Cevon was first transferred to Langston, and then went over to Premier Charter School. The transfer occurred once his parents divorce was finalized and Cevon moved in with his father. Attending a city school could only be described by him in one word: awful. Despite his situation, he never lost heart and continued to come to Kirkwood as often as possible.

“I kept coming back to Kirkwood every Friday. Every weekend. And I ended up forming this relationship with my friend Adam Steinau,” Cevon said. “He let me stay at his house every weekend. At the end of eighth grade his family sat me down and asked if I wanted to stay with them.”

With an uncertainty of what high school he would attend, this offer came at the right time. Cevon, desperate to come back to Kirkwood, accepted Adam’s offer and has been staying with them ever since.

“It was really hard leaving my family, especially with the role that I played,” Cevon said. “I was the older brother, the biggest in my family when my older brother wasn’t around. Everybody kind of looked up to me, and I felt that with my absence, it left people to do things on their own.”

His lack of physical presence in the house is worth it to him. Cevon will be going to the University of Kansas this fall to pursue architecture. KU was recently named one of the top architectural schools of 2016 by magazines such as “Arch20” and “Architectural Record.”

“I didn’t always want to be an architect but recently found an interest,” Cevon said. “I went to China my freshman year just to see how different it was there opposed to here, and [I got] to see how others translate their thoughts into actual structures. I thought that was really cool.”

Adam Steinau, known to Cevon as a friend and a brother. The two have been inseparable even before Cevon began living with Adam. Best friends since middle school, Adam looks to Cevon as a role model as well as family.

“He’s really hard working,” Adam said. “Whenever he comes home he immediately starts doing homework. Even if he just got home from work.”

According to Cevon, he has spent his years at KHS growing through athletics.The bond between coach and athlete tends to be a strong one here at KHS. No coach knows Cevon better than assistant JV football coach, Cortland Griffin. Griffin has worked with Cevon for the last year and describes it nothing short of a positive experience.

“Cevon is not a self-centered person at all,” Griffin said. “In regards to football, he is always willing to do whatever it takes to help his teammates and make everyone happy.”

The varsity football team recently received their second state championship title, beating Blue Springs 31-14 on Faurot Field in Columbia, MO. According to Griffin, a victory like this takes a total team effort. Or as otherwise described by Griffin, you don’t win a state championship with selfishness.

“You have to have that element in there, and Cevon is the epitome of it,” Griffin said. “He always jumped in and said ‘How can I help us get better this week.’ That was his goal; to get the team better each and every week.”

Though the thought of going off to college is engaging, Cevon knows he will miss KHS. According to Cevon, he’s gonna miss seeing many of the faces he sees throughout the school hallways.

“Something that will never be replaced is some of my relationships,” Cevon said. The class of 2017 has had a really strong bond that you won’t find anywhere else.”