THE FRONT ROW with MARK NELKE: Isaac and Canon McKeown continue the family legacy at Post Falls High
It’s a name often mispronounced.
But it’s also a name synonymous with Post Falls High School athletics — football, in particular.
McKeown.
But pronounced like the park in downtown Coeur d’Alene, McEuen.
Whatever.
Brothers Mike and Matt McKeown played at Post Falls in the 1990s. In 1995, Mike was a senior center on the last Post Falls team to win an outright league title — until the 2022 Trojans matched that feat.
Mike McKeown is in his 17th season as an assistant coach at his alma mater — currently, and mostly, on the offensive line, with a few years as a defensive line coach.
Mike and Matt, a 1999 high school grad, own an electric motor repair business in Hayden.
Mike’s two oldest sons, Michael, a wide receiver, and Cameron, a cornerback played for the Trojans a decade ago. Both went on to play at Whitworth. Cameron, a 2017 Post Falls High grad, is in the medical sales business in Phoenix. Michael, who graduated in 2014, was formerly offensive coordinator and is now in his first season as head coach at Freeman High in Rockford, Wash., where the Scotties are 8-1.
The latest McKeowns to come through the pipeline are cousins — seniors Isaac and Canon McKeown.
Isaac (6-foot, 200 pounds), son of Mike, is a three-year starter at quarterback.
Canon (6-0, 210), son of Matt, played on the defensive line last year, then moved to starting middle linebacker this year.
“It’s pretty cool; I definitely have a higher standard that my brothers set for me, so, kinda just living up to the name, I guess,” Isaac said.
“Watching them made me want to be the best football player I could be, and just try to carry the game on, and made me fall in love with the game, striving to be as much like them," Canon said. “It’s cool be be part of a group known for their athletics.”
"I definitely take a lot of pride in our name,” said Isaac, a Trojan ballboy growing up, “the way we represent ourselves, and how we should act all the time.”
"We’re a very, very competitive family,” Mike said. “It doesn’t matter if we’re playing cards or whatever. Me and my brother have coached these guys since they were little. My brother’s a really competitive person, and he brought a lot of that out of these guys. — not putting up with anybody’s crap, and just playing as hard as we can. That was a big thing that was instilled in them.”
Post Falls (7-3) travels to Rigby (8-1) on Friday in a quarterfinal game in the state 6A playoffs.
ONE OF them, Isaac McKeown, is literally the quarterback of the offense, directing a no-huddle, fast-paced offense
The other, Canon McKeown, is figuratively the quarterback of the defense.
Both are required to make a lot of pre-snap decisions, without help from coaches.
"Both these kids have a high football IQ,” Mike McKeown said of his son and nephew. “Canon’s running coach (Adam) Shamion’s college-level defense that he ran at Whitworth; he’s the brains behind it.
“And Isaac’s running a high-style offense that coach (Blaine) Bennett runs. Between the run game and the pass game, and the run pro(tection), RPOs and all the checks that Isaac has to deal with ...
“I call him a film geek,” Mike said of his son. “He’ll go spend the night at his older brother’s (Michael) house and they’ll stay up up til 2 in the morning watching film.
“Canon, they’re running a college style, 4-2 defense and we rely on him to make a lot of those checks,” Mike said. “There’s not a lot of people who can do that, I think.
“I don’t think they realize how high a football IQ they have.”
Isaac said making all those calls was more difficult as a sophomore, and early in his junior year.
“Coach Bennett has done a great job teaching me what coverage does what,” Isaac said. “If they’re blitzing this, I throw what. I’ve gotten used to it, since I’ve been doing it for three years. But my sophomore year was definitely a struggle."
When last year’s middle linebacker, Cooper Craig, graduated, Canon asked the coaches if he could move from defensive end, starting with the Border League camp in June.
“It was a little bit of a change, but I’ve gotten used to it pretty quick,” Canon said.
MIKE McKEOWN said he’d prefer not to coach on the same side of the ball that his kids were playing.
When Cameron played cornerback at Post Falls, Mike coached the offensive line. When Michael (or Junior, as he calls him) played receiver, Mike coached the defensive line.
It didn’t work out that way with Isaac at QB, but the two have eventually figured out how to go from coach and player to father and son.
“When we’re on the field, I see him as a coach," Isaac said. “But at the end of the day I know he’s my dad, and I love him.”
Canon has a 5-year-old brother, Silas, so we’re not seeing the last of the McKeowns on the football field, though it would be a while at the high school level. His sister Embree is a freshman volleyball player at Coeur d’Alene High.
Also, Isaac and Canon have relatives on the team as junior Kaden Anglin is cousin to both, and senior Trenton McLean is Canon's cousin.
Canon has worked at Mike and Matt’s business, and plans to pursue a career in a trade of some sort.
Isaac, who also plays basketball and throws the javelin, hopes to play QB in college, and is considering NAIA Carroll College in Helena, Mont., and NCAA Division III George Fox University in Newberg, Ore.
“I think a big piece is not so much our family name, but who we are as a family,” Mike McKeown said. “I think all of us have put God first in our lives. That’s a big piece for all of us. We know that wherever this game goes, wherever life takes us, I believe that God’s plan is God’s plan. We love the game of football; we love our family, and we love the Lord ... and that’s a very important piece for us that is easily pushed to the side by a lot of people.”
Mark Nelke is sports editor of The Press. He can be reached at 208-664-8176, Ext. 2019, or via email at mnelke@cdapress.com. Follow him on Twitter @CdAPressSports.
Courtesy photo Isaac, left, and his cousin Canon McKeown after a fifth grade Junior Tackle game.
Post Falls assistant coach Mike McKeown.