Note: This story is featured in the 2026 edition of Dave Campbell's Texas Football's Summer Magazine, which you can order here.

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Summer workouts in Columbus, as is the norm across Texas high school football, are voluntary. Coaches will tell you that they’re “highly encouraged” or somesuch language, but there’s no enforcement mechanism in place. It’s called summer break for a reason.

But even if Cardinals coach Matt Schobel isn’t taking roll, he’s noticing who’s there. Of course, he couldn’t miss Keyon Hemphill-Woods if he tried.

“He’s never once missed a summer workout. Not one,” Schobel said. “From seventh grade on, unless he was at a camp somewhere, he’s always been there. It’s important to him.”

It’s a unique kind of work ethic that’s been the throughline for one of the state’s top offensive line prospects, who just happens to come from a town with a population just south of 3,700.

Schobel — now entering his eighth season as head coach of his alma mater and ninth on staff — first saw Hemphill-Woods as a fourth grader at a youth football camp. The youngster already had size, but the former Cincinnati Bengals and Philadelphia Eagles tight end saw something more.

“The first thing I noticed wasn’t just that he was the biggest kid out there, it was how athletic he was,” Schobel said. “The way he could bend, the way he could get in a stance. I remember thinking, ‘Wow, this kid’s different.’”

For Hemphill-Woods, football has been a lifelong love affair, but it wasn’t until his sophomore season in 2024 that he got his big shot, earning the starting left tackle spot.

“I knew our senior tackle was graduating, and he told me, ‘That’s gonna be you,’ Hemphill-Woods said. “So I was always trying to take notes from him and see what he would do. I knew if we wanted to go win state, I had to work, work, work.”

Hemphill-Woods said he was nervous for the first game as a starter, suffering through a sleepless Thursday night before the season opener. But by the third game, he was comfortable in the role.

Still, the work continued — so much so that he even called out his coach for taking his foot off the gas.

“There was a stretch where practices were really intense, and I felt like maybe I’d overdone it a little bit,” Schobel remembered. “He sensed that I’d let up, and he messaged me and said, ‘Coach, don’t do that.’ I thought that was really cool.”

The hard work paid off in a big way, as the Cardinals soared to the program’s first state championship, buoyed by Class 3A’s highest-scoring offense (and ninth-best all-time).

Hemphill-Woods stands 6-foot-3 and says he’s walking around at 290 pounds, a conscious decision to fill out his frame. Recruiters have noticed — a DCTF four-star prospect projected to play at guard at the next level, he committed to Texas in April, choosing the Longhorns over more than 20 offers.

Schobel knows talent from his NFL background, especially in the trenches. So when he says his tackle is special, you can believe him.

“He’s got that fast-twitch explosiveness that you just don’t see from big guys like that,” Schobel said. “He can bend, he can run, he’s got great feet, and his upside is tremendous.”

For now, Hemphill-Woods is focused on his senior season, and guiding the Cardinals back to the state championship stage he’s already led them to once. He’s come a long way from that fourth-grader at a youth camp, and that seventh-grader who never missed a summer workout, and even the sophomore who started on varsity for the first time. But now his team needs something different.

“I feel like it’s about trying to be a leader,” Hemphill-Woods said. “My teammates push me and I push them, and as a team we’re always trying to lift each other up.”