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Air Force QB Boyea Looking Forward to Second Chance this Spring
By Meri-Jo Borzilleri/The Gazette
Dec. 10, 1999
More than most, Keith Boyea can cheer these words in a few weeks: Happy New Year. He's not necessarily counting down the days to Dec. 31. Boyea can't wait for Air Force spring football. That's when he gets a second chance to make a first impression. It's also when his exile from varsity football ends. Can it be just eight months ago that Boyea vied for the starting quarterback job with Cale Bonds and Mike Thiessen? Seems a lifetime ago when fall practice began, and Boyea was listed third string. That was before he disappeared. Not literally. In the depth-chart sense. Boyea, a sophomore, was ruled ineligible for varsity football this season after getting caught with a fake I.D. in a Denver bar in May. On a typical football team at a typical university, this might prompt no worse than a wink and a smirk. Florida State's Peter Warrick gets charged with felony grand theft (later reduced to a misdemeanor) from his Dillard's personal discount day, and he's suspended a few games. On Jan.4, he'll be playing for the national championship. At the Air Force Academy, it's a different story. Boyea's transgression violated the academy's Honor Code, a code similar to that of the nation's two other service academies - military and naval - and adhered to as a tenet for cadet life. It's one of the first things cadets learn: You don't mess with the Honor Code. Air Force's Cadet Honor Code pledge reads "We will not lie, steal or cheat, nor tolerate among us anyone who does. Furthermore, I resolve to do my duty and live honorably, so help me God." The 5-foot-10, 185-pound Boyea raised eyebrows as a freshman when he led the team by rushing for 98 yards and a touchdown in one spring scrimmage. But football was the last thing on Boyea's mind as he waited, in handcuffs, for an academy supervisor to pick him up at 2a.m. last May. "It was horrible," he said. "I didn't have anyone to blame but myself. When I looked at it I just had to say, 'You're stupid.'" Boyea, from George West, Texas, spent the late summer and early fall pleading his case to avoid getting kicked out of the academy. Depending on the violation, Air Force allows underclassmen - freshmen and sophomores - a second chance. In mid-September, after an agonizing summer wait, Boyea got it. He was placed on probation until March. "I can look back on it now and kind of smile about it because of how scared I was," Boyea said. "It was probably the stupidest thing - no, it was the stupidest thing - I've ever done." "It was something he shouldn't have done," said coach Fisher DeBerry. "But he's a kid. They all make mistakes." Boyea is not the first cadet, or football player, to get in hot water with the Honor Code. But it likely ruined his chance to become a starting quarterback next season. This season, Bonds got hurt. Thiessen stepped in, established himself as the starter for next year. As for Boyea, who knows what might have been? "Keith might have been our quarterback," DeBerry said. "But you don't ever know. Those kind of things just have to prove (themselves) out as you go on. I think he has a lot of talent. But I'm not trying to put any pressure on him. He has to come back and earn it." Meanwhile, freshman Bryan Blew, the highly touted recruit from Oklahoma, was impressive enough to take Boyea's spot this season. He and Boyea, who will be a junior, will compete for the backup job in 2000. It's an important role. Air Force's trademark multiple option features a quarterback on the move. Getting hurt comes with the territory. Just ask Bonds and Blane Morgan. In fact, the last Air Force quarterback to last an entire season was Beau Morgan, Blane's older brother, in 1996. Boyea, with an earnest face and manner, is up for the challenge. He just wants to play in a game that counts. "Practicing is just not the same," he said. "For a guy like me and the rest of the guys on the team, we thrive on competition." That's what made this past season a mixed bag of emotions for Boyea: relief mingled with frustration. Probation meant Boyea could stay at the academy, where he majors in history and holds a 2.7 average. But he was banished from the varsity, where he had dressed for every game and played in one during his freshman year. In 1999, he could not practice with the varsity team. Could not travel with it. During home games, he couldn't even stand on the sidelines like a few lucky junior varsity players. He sat with the Cadet Wing in his military uniform. Boyea could play. Sort of. His demotion meant he quarterbacked the JV, getting the varsity defense ready for its next opponent each week. Humbling duty for someone accustomed to the spotlight. "My contribution to the team might have been smaller," he says. "But it's a role that someone has to do. It built a lot of character for me to sit in the stands and watch the varsity play." Not that Boyea lacked character to start. He had been the senior class president and member of the National Honor Society at George West High. He also lettered four years in football and basketball, and three in power lifting. Now, he's finishing his sentence. The terms of his probation require he complete special projects on his time, like the 25-page report he's writing, detailing a survey of the 4,000-member Cadet Wing. He has briefed squadrons a half-dozen times, telling them how he messed up and how not to. He has to stand up in front of the football team and tell them, too. Boyea must meet with six people in his chain of command on a regular basis. Write a daily journal. Update a calendar of his activities. All this in addition to his heavy regular workload. "It's not like I got off easy," he said. Lesson learned. Now Boyea's waiting for another chance. Spring renewal? Boyea simply wants to get back to where he was. "I just want to be in the mix," he said. "Push (Mike) to make him a better player in the spring, so we can win games."
After a season in exile, spring football will seem like a party. Call it Boyea's coming-out party. Part II.
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