Borah football needed only 24 hours to find a new coach. ‘We knew who we wanted’
Borah High didn’t have to look far for its next football coach. In fact, it didn’t have to leave the building.
A day after Jason Burton resigned as the Lions’ head coach, Borah hired defensive coordinator J.Q. Kenyon as his replacement.
“We knew who we wanted,” Borah Athletic Director Vince Mann said. “He’s been dedicated to this program. He’s a Borah kid and from a Borah family. … It’s right in the middle of spring workouts, and we didn’t want to miss a beat.”
Kenyon, 34, didn’t have much time to think as Borah moved to fill the position quickly. But he said he didn’t need it. In addition to playing at Borah, he grew up on the sidelines as his father, Quane Kenyon Jr., coached and taught at the school for 23 years.
“It’s always a dream to come back and coach at your alma mater,” Kenyon said. “I always just had that as one of my goals in my coaching career, being a head coach. And if it could be at Borah, it couldn’t get any better than that.”
Burton resigned Thursday after his wife, Kayla Burton, accepted a job as the principal at Carey, her alma mater. He will follow her to Blaine County.
“That’s a new adventure for her, and she wanted really bad to be an administrator,” said Burton, 35. “The last six years, she’s supported my dream job of being a head coach. And this is her dream job, so it’s time to support her.”
Aside from a 0-5 record last fall in a pandemic-shortened season, Kenyon inherits a program on the rise. Burton rebuilt Borah into a perennial contender, one that regularly upset the 5A SIC’s traditional pecking order.
Burton led the Lions to a 24-22 record in five seasons and their first playoff win in 23 years in 2018. He won a pair of 5A SIC coach of the year awards and led Borah into the state playoffs every year but last fall, including two trips to the state quarterfinals.
“I’d expect more of what you’ve seen over the last five years from Borah,” Kenyon said. “Obviously, I’m a defensive coach, so maybe we’ve got to get back more focused on turnovers.
“It seemed like that kind of got away from us last year with getting the season started as fast as we had to. It’s really focusing back on the fundamentals and the things that brought us success those years before.”
Kenyon is the third new head coach slated to take over a 5A SIC program this fall. He joins Sherm Blaser, who left Kuna to found Owyhee’s program. Jeff Schank, the Kavemen’s co-defensive coordinator, then replaced Blaser in Kuna.
“He’s an incredibly bright football mind,” Mann said of Kenyon. “He does a great job working with the students in the classroom and on the football field.
“His dad coached and played here. He coached and played here. Borah is definitely in his blood, and he has a passion for this school.”
This story was originally published April 23, 2021 at 3:40 PM.
