{"id":9883,"date":"2016-03-30T04:30:47","date_gmt":"2016-03-30T09:30:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/?p=9883"},"modified":"2016-03-28T16:19:14","modified_gmt":"2016-03-28T21:19:14","slug":"nsr-scout-keith-ferguson-comes-up-big-in-small-towns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/nsr-scout-keith-ferguson-comes-up-big-in-small-towns\/","title":{"rendered":"NSR scout Keith Ferguson comes up big in small towns"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Ferguson<\/a>
Keith Ferguson (left) poses with NSR football prospect Sam Turner.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Keith Ferguson<\/a>, who scouts for National Scouting Report near Lexington, Ky., knows he is lucky to have a deep appreciation for high school prospects who grow up in rural areas. In fact, scouting in small, rural towns is right in Ferguson’s\u00a0wheelhouse.<\/p>\n

Ferguson is a native of Kyle, South Dakota, a prairie town of 846 residents which sits\u00a0in the southwest corner of the state\u00a0alongside\u00a0the Nebraska border. The area is expansive and somewhat isolated. If you crave\u00a0the metropolitan life, keep driving. But growing up, Ferguson was\u00a0entirely comfortable with the setting. \u00a0Little did he know that this would eventually come into play for him upon joining NSR.<\/p>\n

The small college town (pop. 5,700) of\u00a0Chadron, Neb.<\/a>, is about two hours south of Kyle by way of the Big Foot Trail. The Ferguson family settled down there and Keith grew up a sports nut. University of Nebraska football\u00a0was his first love, of course.\u00a0 After high school, where Keith played football, he matriculated at Chadron State College<\/a>, an NCAA Division II school, where he graduated in 2007.<\/p>\n

After earning a degree in Comprehensive Recreation with a Coaching minor, Ferguson headed back to South Dakota finding a position which allowed him to teach and coach on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation<\/a> at, strangely enough,\u00a0a private Catholic school, Red Cloud Indian School<\/a>. \u00a0He was hired as the school’s head football coach. \u00a0His first team went 7-2 and won the first conference championship in school history. His next squad went 6-3 and also made the playoffs. \u00a0Several of his players earned college football scholarships. After moving to another school for three years, Ferguson decided to move his family near his mother’s home in Kentucky.<\/p>\n

Shortly after settling in Kentucky, Ferguson was intrigued by an online ad on Indeed.com which was targeting the Lexington area for NSR scouts.\u00a0 He applied and soon found himself sitting in the National Scouting Report home office outside Birmingham, Ala., for training.<\/p>\n

Since then, Ferguson has impressed NSR with his enthusiasm and energy which led him to hit the ground running.\u00a0 He loves to find prospects who are little-known.<\/p>\n

“Keith’s\u00a0attitude and energy were exactly what we needed (in that area),” said Larry Perrin, NSR’s director\u00a0 of football scouting. “Since he started, Keith has continued to keep a fantastic attitude and work with a phenomenal energy both in scouting and working for his athletes.\u00a0 He has found his passion and we are very proud to have him on our team.”<\/p>\n

Asked what he enjoys\u00a0most about scouting for NSR, Ferguson didn’t hesitate.<\/p>\n

“What I like most is\u00a0finding those diamonds in the rough, the kids from out of the way\u00a0locations that have big-time potential,” he said.<\/p>\n

\"Alex<\/a>
Alex Coburn (right) is one of Ferguson’s NSR soccer prospects.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

“Scouting, at first, was a whirlwind of excitement, and honestly I tried\u00a0casting too wide of a net over\u00a0football, soccer, fall baseball and softball. \u00a0The last few months, however, I’ve decided\u00a0to reel it in and really focus on football. \u00a0It’s my passion and my main\u00a0area of knowledge. \u00a0I feel comfortable talking\u00a0the\u00a0game with anyone from high school coaches, athletes, families and college coaches,” said Ferguson, who will continue to keep an eye out for quality prospects in\u00a0other sports as well.<\/p>\n

That focus has paid off in a big way, literally. \u00a0He recently\u00a0enrolled\u00a0Sam Turner<\/a>, a\u00a06-foot-9, 315-pound sophomore lineman from Chavies, Ky., which is in the mountains near Hazard, two hours from Ferguson’s home. \u00a0The Turner signing has turned heads around the college coaching community. \u00a0Turner already has received attention from a number of Ivy League and Patriot League programs.<\/p>\n

“I want high character kids first and foremost that are selfless, team-first athletes,” Ferguson said. “It’s great explaining to\u00a0families and athletes the importance of academics and having the\u00a0potential to help an athlete refocus if needed. \u00a0So for me, it’s high character,\u00a0team-first athletes who obviously have\u00a0the skill set to be successful at next\u00a0level.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Keith Ferguson, who scouts for National Scouting Report near Lexington, Ky., knows he is lucky to have a deep appreciation for high school prospects who grow up in rural areas. In fact, scouting in small, rural towns is right in Ferguson’s\u00a0wheelhouse. Ferguson is a native of Kyle, South Dakota, a prairie town of 846 residents … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3],"tags":[580,582,579,240,222,581,583],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9883"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/29"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9883"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9883\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9973,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9883\/revisions\/9973"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9883"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9883"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9883"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}