Kadyn Proctor Excited to Kick Off Senior Season

Gavin Williams was headed into his junior season at Southeast Polk High School when he got an interview request.

It came from an 8th-grade student at the school.

“He wanted to know what it was like playing varsity football, and what my experience had been like so far,” said Williams, now a sophomore and Iowa’s No. 1 running back.

That inquisitive 8th grader?

“That request was from me,” said Kadyn Proctor, now a senior, the nation’s top-rated offensive tackle in this class and an Iowa commit.

Proctor had sat in the stands on Friday nights, watched Williams and his Rams teammates play and tried to picture himself in the field. When his class had to interview someone for an English project, Proctor knew right away who his subject would be and made his request.

Junior high principal Mike Dailey, who played linebacker at Iowa for Hayden Fry, took Proctor to the high school so he could interview Williams.

“I didn’t know (Williams) at that point,” Proctor said. “I was a little nervous. But as I started asking questions he made it comfortable for me. He answered them truthfully and just told me how he felt. I knew the questions I was going to ask. I had them written down.”

Proctor said he got a good grade on his paper, but can’t remember if it was an “A’ or not.

“That was a while back,” he said. “But we had a good interview.”

Writing that paper wasn’t difficult for Kadyn.

“It’s not hard to write about football,” he said.

One word from that interview stuck with the future Hawkeye.

“Work,” Kadyn said. “Just the work he put in on the field and in the weight room. He had some of the junior high records. We’d be lifting, I’d see his records and it kind of intrigued me.”

Proctor said he probably broke some of Gavin’s records in the weight room, but he can’t remember for sure.

“I started growing into my body in 9th grade,” said Proctor, now 6-8 and 335 pounds. “That’s when I started hitting it hard.”

Brad Zelenovich, a longtime assistant coach at Southeast Polk, left in 2013 to become head coach at Ankeny. He returned as the Rams’ head coach two years later. Proctor was hardly a secret.

“My older boy (Joe) is his age, so I had known him from youth football,” Zelenovich said. “People were talking. Growing up, he always played basketball with these guys. So we knew who he was. He’s been a freak, physically, since the 6th grade. You knew if he stayed healthy and developed, he'd be a pro. A Top Five pick.”

Proctor has always stood out.

“I’ve always been the biggest out of the group, but definitely not always the best,” Kadyn said. “I started getting recognized as that big guy in 7th or 8th grade.”

Proctor was a two-way starter on Southeast Polk’s sophomore football team as a 9th grader. That winter, with the pandemic right around the corner, Zelenovich had a meeting with Proctor and his family before a basketball game to discuss recruiting.

“This is about to get real,” the coach told them. “And it’s goIng to get real really fast.”

The coach said that between December and March, Proctor probably had six to eight offers even though he’d never played a snap of high school football.

“It didn’t make sense to me,” Kadyn said. “I never thought it would happen.”

More than 40 offers would eventually come Proctor’s way. In June of 2021, Kadyn had already visited Iowa and Iowa State. Pick any three schools, Zelenovich told him, and I’ll drive you there for a campus visit. Proctor picked Notre Dame, Ohio State and Alabama.

Proctor made an official visit to Arkansas State, the first school to recruit him, in early June of 2022. He also visited Alabama June 10 and Iowa June 24, but canceled his other scheduled visits and pledged his allegiance to the Hawkeyes.

“It wasn’t too hard for me to cancel my official visits, because I was set,” Proctor said. “My mom said, “You have the opportunity, why not take them?’ I didn’t want to go anywhere else. I was getting tired of them.”

If you think Proctor got big-headed over all the Power Five attention he received, think again.

After Southeast Polk beat Dowling of West Des Moines in the quarterfinals of last season’s playoffs on Nov. 5, Alabama wanted Proctor to come to Tuscaloosa the next day to see it play LSU under the lights.

Zelenovich approved the trip, and told Proctor he could miss a day or practice. Kadyn didn’t go. He considered that practice and the goal of a state championship more important to him.

Don’t expect to hear Proctor talk about his five-star resume any time soon, either.

“I never talk like that or think of myself as that,” he said. “Five-star? That’s not my name. I’m just a normal human being. I’m not superhuman. I’m no different than anyone else.”

Iowa City felt like a natural to Proctor, who has been compared to former Hawkeye Tristan Wirfs and wears the same number, 74.

“You can compare me to him,” Kadyn said. “But I want to make a name for myself.”

Proctor, who expects to be a left tackle at Iowa, becomes the second straight five-star prospect from Southeast Polk to pick the Hawkeyes. Defensive back Xavier Nwankpa did the same last season.

“Those two guys are like my little brothers,” Williams said.

Nwankpa said that Williams “was a big influence, but he definitely wanted me and Kadyn to make our own decision.”

Williams and Nwankpa are roommates, and Proctor has been a frequent visitor. Like Xavier, Kadyn will enroll at Iowa for the start of spring semester classes in 2023. That will allow him to take part in spring drills.

He’s disappointed he won’t get to play basketball one more year, or try and better his fifth-place finish in the shot put at state.

“But football is what I’m going to be doing for years to come, so that’s what I wanted to focus on,” he said.

And who knows? The interviewer might be blocking for the interviewee some day.