Penn State Sports Magazine
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1210671
P L A Y E R B I O S WHAT HE DID A three-year letterman at Maury High, Lambert-Smith helped transform the Commodores from a 4-7 team during his sophomore year to a 16- 0 team that won the VHSL Group 5A state championship last season. Overall, Maury went 32-9 during his three varsity seasons, and the state title was the school's ;rst in 80 years. Lam- bert-Smith put up some big numbers during his last two seasons. In 2018, he had 60 receptions for 1,030 yards and 11 touchdowns, and he followed that up by amassing more than 1,500 yards of total o=ense and 26 TDs as a senior. WHAT HE WON Lambert-Smith was Penn State's lone representative at the 2019 All-American Bowl. He earned All- State recognition the past two seasons and claimed All-Region and All-District honors three years in a row. Originally a three-star prospect, Lambert-Smith earned a four-star rating last summer and was in the Rivals250 for a while (at No. 246) before slipping out of the rankings in recent weeks. He was the ;?h-ranked player in Virginia and the 53rd-ranked re- ceiver nationally. WHERE HE VISITED Lambert-Smith began visiting in-state schools such as Virginia Tech during his sophomore year. By the spring of 2018, he saw a surge in scholarship o=ers from many of the na- tion's best programs, and he even took a handful of visits to Southern schools such as Clemson, South Carolina and Texas A&M. Penn State extended its o=er in May, but he didn't visit University Park until the following September for the game against Ohio State. That visit put the Nittany Lions in the mix, and by the time Lambert-Smith returned for his second visit in February 2019, it was clear that they were among his favorites. North Carolina and Georgia also received visits that spring, but the Tar Heels were the only other program to earn an o>cial visit. Lambert-Smith saw both schools o>cially that June, then waited until Oc- tober to announce that he would be join- ing the Lions. He didn't return to campus until January, when he enrolled for the start of the spring semester. QUOTABLE Maury head coach Dyrri Mc- Cain: "KeAndre is a special kid. His cra? at his position, personality, leadership and maturity have all grown tremen- dously since he was a freshman. His teammates love him like no other and say that he is the guy that they get their en- ergy from during workouts, practice and games. He has done a lot for himself, his family, his teammates, Maury High THINK FAST Lambert-Smith totaled more than 1,500 yards during Maury High's 2019 state championship season. Photo courtesy of Ri- vals.com Rivals.com KEANDRE LAMBERT-SMITH RIVALS ★★★★ | POS WR | HT 6-1 | WT 180 | HOME Norfolk, Va. | SCHOOL Maury