Kendy Charles' Road to Duke Football

By David Shumate
GoDuke The Magazine
Reprinted with permission

DUKE UNIVERSITY - Duke University football writer David Shumate had a sit down conversation with Duke defensive end Kendy Charles recently as Charles, a graduate student transfer after a solid career at Liberty University and also an All State high school career at Orange Park High School, talked with Shumate about how his football career brought him to Duke.

David Shumate: I want to start, before we go way back in your past, with the decision to come to Duke, transferring over from Liberty. Take us through that process and how you landed here.

Kendy Charles: I was at Liberty for four years but for my last year — this is really my covid year — I decided that I wanted to explore different options to see what else was out there for me and play on the best defense that fit my playing style so I can reach my full potential. I felt like Coach Manny Diaz and Coach Patke’s defense, it just fit the way I want to play and the way I want to represent myself the most.
I had a great experience at Liberty, there’s no bad blood there, I still support them, still watch them to this day. But I just needed something new in the football aspect of things.

DS: I imagine one of the things you learned while you were at Liberty was how to win at a really high level. You guys had a very successful season a year ago (Conference USA champs, 13-1 record). What were some of your biggest takeaways, lessons you learned there?

KC: Yeah, being at Liberty we had a lot of great wins, beating Arkansas and BYU. We learned about the preparation it takes to win at a high level, like Coach Diaz preaches every day. Winning is simple, but not easy. Winning is definitely not easy at all. You’ve got to come every day with the right mindset and pay attention to details and prepare the right way to win. So being at Liberty really taught me how to prepare well and make sure you’re having good days of practice and stacking days to be in a position to win. Because, like I said earlier, winning is not easy.

DS: You know a lot about what it takes to work hard and how things are not always easy in life. I want to take you back and ask you to share what brought you to the United States and your family story.

KC: I was born in Haiti. I moved here when I was nine years old and really the reason we decided to come to the United States was my father and my mother, just to find better opportunities. In the U.S. if you do the right things and you go to school and you meet the right people, opportunities come. So coming to the U.S. was a blessing. My father was actually here four years earlier than us, so when he finally told us we would be able to come to the U.S. legally and be able to pursue a dream, it was amazing. I'm grateful to be here, honestly.

DS: I know you came over in 2011. You mentioned that your dad came over when you were five and you joined him four years later. Those intervening years where he was in the States and you were back home, I imagine that period of time was difficult. But now that you have perspective, what does that mean to you, thinking about the sacrifice that he made being away from you guys for those four years before you came over?

KC: Man, it means everything to me. I tell him all the time, Dad, I appreciate you, I love you for the things you did for this family. I also have to add though, my dad made those sacrifices to come to the U.S., but I feel like if I don't say this, I’ll regret it. Not seeing my dad during that time, I didn't realize the sacrifices he made for us to be in the USA right now. But what I did see was my mom, like when my dad left for those four years, she became a father and my mother at the same time.
So those sacrifices she made, to go out to the market and take care of us, cooking for us and still working two jobs and working in the street markets and farming and doing all those things. Those sacrifices my parents made are the reason why I work so hard and why I am the way I am — seeing that hard work and the sacrifices that my parents made.
When I think about my dad leaving Haiti to come to the U.S., we didn't necessarily have a horrible life in Haiti, but he decided that there might be something better out there for us. In some ways my decision to come here is similar, making the decision to come to Duke and leaving Liberty. I was having a good time there and I was pretty successful in that program, but I felt like there was something out there bigger for me.

DS: Just one more thing on that topic. I know you're very proud of your Haitian roots. What about your experience there has informed who you are as a person?

KC: Just seeing like the struggles people go through, because Haiti is the poorest country in the western hemisphere. Just seeing the people struggle and the way we were — kids are still happy with so little, it really shaped me into the person I am where I don't take anything for granted. Anything I get is a blessing. Like right now, the first few games, things haven't worked out the perfectly for me, so I constantly have to tell myself, look, you’re playing ball and even though you’re not producing the way you want to produce, you’re still playing ball at the highest level. Be grateful for what you have. It’s those small things taken from my Haitian culture that have really helped me in every area of my life. Honestly. It's a blessing to be here.

DS: I'm always curious how guys get into football. Tell me how you fell in love with the game when you first got started.

KC: Really, my first time ever playing football was in the eighth grade. It was just for one game. It was a jamboree game where we played like four different teams (laughing) and only for a quarter against each team. Really, why I started playing, it just seemed like all those kids who were playing football, they had all the friends in school. Being a kid when you're from a different country, especially a country like Haiti, is not necessarily attracting friends to you. I felt like I'm the type of guy, I like being around others, I like to have fun. So in the moment where I struggled with making friends, football was kind of the way to make friends and take it from there. Football gave me an opportunity to meet people in ways that other things didn't and open doors to rooms that you've never been in before. So that's really why I started playing, just for the camaraderie of things and just making friends.

DS: Speaking of making friends, getting to work alongside Aaron Hall and now mentoring some of the younger guys, what do you like about this defensive tackle room here?

KC: Hey, I love this defensive tackle room. I think we have a good mixture of everyone — different emotions, different characteristics. I feel like we all kind of balance each other out. It's a very balanced room. When one of us is down, the other one is there to pick us up. Aaron Hall, it's a blessing because he's been here for four years now so he understands what Duke is about. He helps me be a better leader and helped me get adjusted to things. I’d say the same thing about David Anderson, that kid brings me joys every day. There are of course others too, Terry Simmons, Desmond Aladuge, Preston Watson, Ryan Daly and Will Seiler — all those guys really make it fun to come to work every day and just have fun in playing ball, honestly.

DS: I know it's still early in the season and you guys have had some close games, fought through some adversity. What have you guys learned about yourselves so far?

KC: That we are a resilient football team. We have the “sewer” mentality. We know it takes more than one quarter or two quarters or three to win a football game. It takes four quarters and sometimes even overtime (laughing) to win a football game. Just learning those things, it's just realizing that we are a hard-working team and it's not by surprise that we go into the fourth quarter and win games. We put that work in over the summer, over the winter. This David Feeley (strength and conditioning) program is one of the best in the country, if not the best in the country. We work hard and it shows in the fourth quarter and when it's time to win the football game.