After two visits Trevor Kardell knew KU was the place for him

Trevor Kardell was committed to play college baseball at Missouri. Everything was good and he was happy with his decision to play baseball at the next level.

Then the Kansas coaches started recruiting him for football.

That’s when things started to change. Kardell was coming off a good junior year and his film made the Kansas coaches take notice. At 6-foot-6, 230 pounds his athleticism caught the attention of tight ends coach and recruiting coordinator Jeff Hecklinski.

“Coach Hecklinski had a packet of the best tight ends in the country,” Kardell said. “He had me ranked as his top tight end, but he saw that I was committed to Mizzou. So, he kind of skipped over my name and went through all the other tight ends to see who would best fit the program.

“He said he went through 300 tight ends or something like that and he came back to my name. He said ‘this is the guy that fits our program perfectly.’ Even though he knew I was committed to Mizzou, he felt the need to just send a text just to see what happened.”

That text message would change Kardell’s college future.

When Hecklinski reached out to extend a junior day invitation Kardell was in the middle of a discussion with his father Kevin, if he was a better prospect in football or baseball. The timing of the text came at the perfect time. They were about to find out because they agreed to attend the first junior day on Feb. 9.

“In the beginning it was all baseball, but after this last football season, it just kind of changed the whole story a little bit,” Kardell said.

Kardell took the first junior day visit with his father and brother, Reece. They packed a lot into one day, meeting with the football coaches, watching the basketball game, and then meeting with Kansas baseball coach Ritch Price.

“The first thing the football coaches wanted to make sure was Coach Price was okay with me playing two sports,” Kardell said. “The football coaches were aware that I was committed for baseball. We went through the visit and they made sure we went down to the baseball field, met with Coach Price, went to the field and indoor locker room and everything.

“We personally talked to Coach Price about playing both. He was 100% okay with it, which was amazing for me because I was not expecting that.”

Kardell got the full tour of the football facilities, met with the position coaches, and Miles had his family in his office for a closed-door meeting. They got to see the new indoor football facility that was in the final stages before opening. After the tour and meetings there was one thing that caught Kardell’s attention more than anything.

“What really mesmerized me was the family-based culture of the KU football program,” Kardell said. “It really meant a lot that Coach Miles had me meet his wife and two of his kids. Coach Hecklinski had me meet his wife and two kids. So that was pretty cool to be able to talk to them. It was just really fun hanging out with their families.”

The visit gave the Kardelll’s something to think about. Something more than they thought they would have going into the visit.

“At the end of the day, my dad and I were blown away,” Kardell said. “It was like wow this is amazing. After that first junior day, I knew I wasn't going to even think about committing without speaking to my mom. The coaches wanted to make sure that we got my mother up on campus to show her what she was missing.”

The Kansas coaching staff put the full-court press on Kardell and now he had to do some recruiting of his own. He and his father were headed back home with the intention of convincing his mother, Jill, to make a return visit with them.

“The big thing about this was my mother,” Kardell said. “She is the key factor in this whole process. The first junior day I was interested to see what would happen. It all started off to just go up there (KU) and see what's up. It turned out we decided to go there, and it was an amazing, amazing visit.”

Kardell would find out how good of a recruiter he was when it came to convincing his mother to visit KU. In the beginning things started slow.

“My mom was very questionable, she did not think football was a good idea,” he said. “So, we came back and she was like ‘No, nope, not happening.’ We showed her the pictures of me in the KU jersey. We told her that she missed a lot and we didn’t expect it to be that good.”

After a little time passed Jill was on board to take the visit to KU. Kardell knew he couldn’t commit unless his mom personally saw what they did on the first visit.

There was a silver lining that would help factor in. Jill graduated from KU. And there was another big reason why she was important in the final decision.

“The coaching staff had to sellout for her because she was the number one priority in this whole situation,” Kardell said.

During the second visit with his mother and father, the Kansas coaches laid out their plan for Kardell. Once again it went back to the family atmosphere and selling them Trevor would be taken care of at Kansas.

“I think my mom was pretty excited to see how the University had changed,” Kardell said. “The KU football coaches and staff did an amazing job and showing her what they had to offer. At the end of the day my mom was stunned with what they had to offer.”

The three of them ended the day in Miles’ office where he reiterated the scholarship offer was on the table.

“At the end Coach Miles asked the question if I was ready to be a Jayhawk and I said, ‘You know, I am’ and we shook hands,” Kardell said. “All the coaching staff was sitting outside of his office. We walked out and everyone started cheering because Coach Miles was standing behind us with his arms up in the air so that was really cool.”

Kardell needed his mom to get behind his decision. She has more ties to KU than just going to college. When he was younger his mom battled breast cancer and she went to KU Med. Five years ago she beat it and has been cancer-free. He needed her to be behind his decision to play college football.

“I'm going to be following in my mom's footsteps attending KU,” he said. “The big thing was to make sure that my mom understood that KU is going to take the best care of me than any other school.

“That meant a lot to her because she had breast cancer and she had the KU Medical help and she was able to overcome that breast cancer which means lot a lot to me. She went through KU Med with her breast cancer, but she also attended KU.”

The two-sport standout from Lee’s Summit West is committed to Kansas and will play both sports for the Jayhawks. He had to make a difficult decision to switch his commitment from Missouri to Kansas. Before he announced his commitment, he spoke with the coaches at Missouri. Kardell said Fred Corral, Missouri’s pitching coach, was supportive of his decision.

“They were pretty disappointed and I completely understand,” Kardell said. “I want to thank Coach Corral for being supportive. No coach is going to be happy they are losing a recruit. I felt so much more comfortable at KU. I knew that this was going to be the place for me and my family to see me grow in college.”