By Roscoe Nance
South Carolina State sprinter Demek Kemp is back and better than ever.
Kemp, a senior from Monroe, Ga., has emerged as one of the MEAC’s top track and field performers after recovering from a torn patella tendon that sidelined him for the entire 2017 outdoor season. He won the 60 meters at the 2018 MEAC Indoor Championship in January, and he was named to the NCAA All-American team after capturing the bronze medal at the NCAA Indoor Championship.
Kemp is continuing his exploits in the outdoor season. He set a school record for the 100 meters while winning the USC Open, hosted by the University of South of Carolina, with a time of 10.15 seconds. Kemp finished one-hundredth of a second ahead of Ncincilili Titi, the Gamecocks heralded sprinter who came in at 10.16.
“I didn’t anticipate this,’’ Kemp said. “I just wanted to get back on the track and do good this season. These are bigger achievements than I would have ever dreamed of.’’
Kemp figures to add to his already impressive resume once postseason action begins with the MEAC Championships followed by the NCAA East Regionals. That’s something Bulldogs coach Tim Langford hadn’t anticipated when the school year began.
In fact Langford didn’t expect to get much, if anything from Kemp when the Bulldogs began training last fall. Doctors told him it was unlikely Kemp would compete during the indoor season, and they said his availability for the outdoor campaign was up in the air.
“I wasn’t counting on him, not that we didn’t need him,’’ Langford said, “but because of what I was told.’’
Kemp confounded Langford – and his doctors – with his recovery.
“He was doing stuff so far ahead schedule, the doctors were scratching their heads,’’ Langford said.
Kemp had an auspicious start to his comeback by tying his indoor school-record 60-meter time of 6.65 while winning VMI’s Keydet Invitational in his first meet since being injured. The following week he set meet and school records for the 60 meters with a time of 6.63 at East Tennessee State’s Buccaneer Invitational.
The high point of Kemp’s comeback came at the NCAA Indoor Championship in College Station, Texas, when he clocked a school record 6.55 for a third-place finish. It was the third time this season had lowered his school record.
“He really came better than before,’’ said Langford. “I believe when he got injured, he rehabbed his whole body. Sometimes in the process of strengthening a body part that’s injured, you try to strengthen everything just in case you have to compensate. He did a total rehab, mind, body, everything. He refocused. He has focused his energy on what he has to do.’’
Kemp tore the patella tendon in his right knee while competing in the long jump at the 2017 MEAC Indoor Championships. The injury occurred on his final jump.
“I came off the board, and I heard it snap,’’ he said. “I pretty much knew it was bad.’’
Bad, to Kemp’s initial thinking, was a dislocated knee. His first thought was he could pop back into place. But when he tried to move his leg and nothing happened, he knew the injury was really bad. But he says he never thought of his injury as being disastrous or career-threatening. While the doctors had their prognosis for his return to competition, he had a different idea.
“It wasn’t disheartening,’’ he said. “I didn’t have my head down. It was more like motivation to comeback. The rehab process, I wouldn’t say it was easy. But it wasn’t that hard. I had to go to the training room and do a whole bunch of exercises. The part people say was amazing was I didn’t show any pain when I was bending my knee to get the flexibility and range of motion back into it. I never thought I wouldn’t compete again. I had a lot of prayers behind me and belief that I could get back.’’
While rehabbing, Kemp set six goals that he wanted to achieve when he returned to competition, and he wrote them down. His goals were: (1) Break the school records for 60, 100 and 200 meters; (2) win the MEAC championship; (3) make NCAA All-American; (4) rank in the top three in the NCAA in the 60, 100 and 200 meters; (5) have one of the top 20 times in the world for the 60 meters, and (6) be considered for the Bowerman Award, collegiate track and field’s equivalent of the Heisman Trophy.
Those were lofty goals, considering the uncertainty about Kemp’s future when he set them. He has achieved three of them. He holds the school records for the 60, 100 and 200; he won the MEAC Indoor Championship, and he was named to the NCAA All-American team on the strength of his bronze medal finish at the NCAA Indoor Championship. He is still working on the other three.
“I just hold myself to a higher standard,’’ he said. “That’s one of the things instilled in me by my parents -- hard work and don’t settle for being average. My dad said he didn’t care if I had been a ditch digger, be the best ditch digger that ever did it.’’
Langford says Kemp’s parents, Tim and Cynthia Kemp, passed on more to their son than a strong work ethic and a burning desire to succeed. He says their genes are big part Kemp’s success. His father was a Hall of Fame track and field athlete at South Carolina State, whose specialty was the 800 meters, and a Hall of Fame high school coach in Monroe, Ga., who is now an administrator; his mother was a high school gymnast.
“You have to be pretty explosive to be a gymnast,’’ Langford said. “Get a star track athlete and a short gymnast together, they make a sprint champion.’’
Kemp’s introduction to track and field came when his father entered him in an all-comers race when he was nine. He finished second.
“I wouldn’t say I fell in love with it,’’ he said. “But it was something about it that I liked, and I knew I could do something special.’’
Kemp went on to become the Georgia High School Association State 100 meter 4A Champion with a best time of 10.56. When it came time to choose a college he picked South Carolina State. He says he picked the Bulldogs because of their coach, the school offered his major, industrial engineering, and because it was where his dad went to school. He also says following in his dad’s footstep hasn’t been any pressure, nor did his father put pressure on him to run for South Carolina State.
“My dad wanted me to follow my own path,’’ Kemp said. “South Carolina State just happened to be the path I chose for me.’’
Langford says Kemp is only scratching the surface of his potential.
“He can go all the way,’’ Langford said. “He really could. He’s a kid who should be running professional. He still hasn’t gotten to his best. His ceiling is high, not just because of his physical attributes, but because of his work ethic. He works so much harder than everybody else. Also, he has some natural tools. He was built for training. He’s still learning some things. He’s on the other side of the learning curve. You know, ‘I got it, but I just got it.’’’
Langford says if Kemp can get his 100 time to less than 10 seconds, he’s a cinch to run professionally, and pro career wouldn’t be out of the question with a 10.0. Kemp’s best time in the 100 is 10.15, a school record.
“He’s well on his way,’’ Langford said. “It’s just a matter of time.’’
And work, Langford said, adding, “He’s putting things together.’’
Running a complete race and maintaining momentum from start to finish has been the focal point of Kemp’s training as he prepares for the postseason.
“I have to focus on the race and run my own race,’’ he said.
Kemp has been focusing on the 60 meters while preparing for the MEAC Championship, but he will also compete in the 100 and 200 meters and run legs on the 4x100 and 4x400 relay teams.
Kemp had extra motivation to do well in this year’s MEAC Championship after missing the 2017 event with the knee injury.
“It’s a lot of motivation,’’ he said. “My confidence level is high. I’m pretty sure I can go out there and compete against the great competition. Everybody in the conference is close’’
Kemp expects records to fall in his events, even though he isn’t predicting that they will fall to him.
“Everybody in the conference is close,’’ he said. “I know it’s going to be a close race. The record is going to go down. I’m not going to say who’s going to break it, but it should go down.’’