Meet the newly formed Neumann-Goretti football duo packing a real one-two punch

Khari Reid and Kahmir Prescott have been busy being good at football, so they haven’t had time to think of witty nicknames just yet.

This week, the Neumann Goretti senior defensive backs, two of the best in the state — if not the country — were asked if they had considered a creative name for the team’s secondary. Both Reid, who is committed to Stanford, and Prescott, who is committed to Wisconsin, smiled at the possibility.

“As of right now,” said Reid, “nothing comes to mind, but now I will do some thinking about that.”

Prescott, who won Public League MVP at Northeast High last season, added: “We haven’t done anything like that, but that gives me an idea. I think I’ll bring it up to them.”

“No fly zone” and “hit squad” are just two monikers used by area teams in previous seasons.

If the Saints (1-1) come up with something soon, Lansdale Catholic (2-1) will likely find out during Saturday’s Catholic League opener at 6 p.m. at the South Philly Supersite.

After hearing how Reid and Prescott describe each other, “thunder” and “lightning” could be a possibility.

“He’s more like a safety that comes down and makes a lot of hits,” Prescott said.

“I think he reads the field best,” Reid said. “Before he makes any reactions, he makes sure the field is covered and then he makes his move.”

Perhaps a nickname within the sudden storm variety would suffice, considering Saints’ defensive coordinator Akeem Green tries to help Reid and Prescott descend upon defenses without warning.

“They’re both just really dynamic,” Neumann-Goretti head coach Albie Crosby said via phone. “We line them up in multiple positions so the first thing a team would have to do is identify them and figure out exactly what are they doing.”

Crosby and Green aren’t strangers to talented defensive backs. Green was one. Crosby has coached them.

Green, who played high school football at now-closed Bok Tech, starred in the defensive backfield at Delaware State, where he finished in 2008.

In his more than 20 years in coaching, Crosby has coached several studs in the secondary, including Isheem Young and Tykee Smith at Imhotep. Young is a senior defensive back at Ole Miss, while Smith is a two-time national champion DB at Georgia. Last year, Crosby coached Shawn Battle, who went to Boston College but is now in the transfer portal.

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Crosby sees some similarities between his current crop and those who came before them.

Perhaps more than anything, however, they all share a fiercely competitive spirit.

Reid and Prescott, he explained, have been highly-touted players since Little League football. That has meant that nearly every season since then, they have served as every opponent’s Super Bowl.

“They both welcome those challenges,” Crosby said.

On the surface, it may seem the duo disagrees on how best to handle those challenges.

Dig deeper, however, and you find they both just simplify the equation to arrive at the same solution: just go play ball.

“You can’t really prepare for that,” Prescott said, “you just have to play your game because no matter what, people are always going to test you all the time. You just gotta go play your game.”

Reid added: “I would say I’m mentally prepared for that because even though I’m going to Stanford, I never doubt the person in front of me because I know that player could have the same skill level that I do. They just might not have the exposure that I’ve had.”

Deeper still, both Reid and Prescott say they are motivated by similar people: a pair of single mothers for whom both are grateful.

When Reid committed to Stanford in June, he told the Inquirer how much he has been inspired by his mother, Kameca Brown.

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“She really inspires me because no matter what she goes through, she’s always making sure I’m OK,” Reid said in June. “I’ve seen her sick. I’ve seen her hurt. I’ve seen her down. But she always gets up. ... Even now, she does everything by herself because she’s an independent woman and I really look up to that.”

Prescott’s motivation also comes from his mom, Keisha Munson.

“The person who motivates me the most is my mom,” he said. “I feel like even when she didn’t have enough, she’d always make something happen for me anyway. So now I feel like I owe her the world.”