Dunn Deal: Istrouma’s Versatile Standout Kyree Paul Gives Coach Visions of Former Florida State, NFL Running Back

by: William Weathers // GeauxPreps.com Contributor

With his team trailing by three touchdowns and playing without its injured starting quarterback for part of the second half, Istrouma head coach Sid Edwards opted for a change of pace option on offense. 

Enter junior Kyree Paul, who in his first season of high school football, had helped the Indians back to respectability with his highlight-reel performances at running back and kick returner. 

In the aftermath of a 57-14 road loss to two-time eventual Division II state select champion St. Thomas More, Edwards saw more than a 43-point setback. 

He found an integral piece of his 2024 season, a player so essential that Paul took him back three decades to his coaching at Catholic High of Baton Rouge. It was during that time that Edwards, the school’s freshman coach, had Warrick Dunn enter the program a year after first meeting the up-and-coming phenom at Prescott Middle School.

Dunn went on to become an option quarterback for Catholic and showed the football world his immense talents which took him to Florida State and to a 12-year career in the NFL with Tampa Bay and Atlanta. 

Edwards heard the whispers from outside the playing field during his coaching career that he would coach the next Warrick Dunn, but nothing compared to the original version. 

Until now.

While the 5-foot-10, 190-pound Dunn was blessed with a rare blend of balance, vision, and instincts, the 5-10, 175-pound Paul gave Edwards flashbacks with the way he ran Istrouma’s offense in last year’s state regional at St. Thomas More. 

“When Kyree went to quarterback, that’s what brought me back (to Dunn),” said Edwards, whose team is 2-0 overall and 1-0 in District 6-4A play going into Friday’s game against St. Michael the Archangel at Olympia Stadium. “Unless (Cincinnati Bengals QB) Joe Burrow transferred here, it was in my mind Kyree would be back there playing quarterback. I can’t count the number of times I was told this guy’s the next Warrick Dunn, and there were some great ones. But no one I felt compared to him. Warrick was one of one until now and I stand on that.”

Paul was a key part in Istrouma’s return to relevance in Edwards’ first season at Istrouma. With 1,365 yards and 14 touchdowns from his running back position, Paul was a weapon for the Indians from anywhere on the field that also included three receiving touchdowns and six returns of either kickoffs or punts, earning him a spot on the Class 4A All-State first team at return specialist. 

Moreover, Paul, a cornerback, returned a pair of interceptions for touchdowns.

“I wasn’t expecting it to go like this in one year, I couldn’t believe it,” Paul said of his first season. “That was crazy. From never having played high school football or middle school, I was surprised. I was happy that I did that. Being all-state was my biggest accomplishment so far.”

Finding Football after Giving Up on Hoops Dream

Paul said he was a running back and cornerback in the third grade, sprinkled in with some other youth league football opportunities. By the time he was in middle school, he was an established basketball player, a trajectory that continued into high school.

“I wanted to be a basketball player,” he said. 

Istrouma was closed for five years when the school reopened in 2019 and produced a team that went 6-3 and won a Class 4A state playoff game in ’20. The Indians followed with records of 5-5 and 4-6, the latter of which didn’t include a trip to the state playoffs.

Edwards, a successful coach with a pair of state championships on his resume from now-defunct Redemptorist High, was in the market for a coaching job after his departure from Central High when Istrouma hired him in March of 2023.

Edwards went to oversee one of his new team’s first weight workouts, spotting Paul going through plyometric drills with rather ease – handling a series of six boxes in approximately five seconds. 

He wondered who the kid was and later learned of a football history that didn’t include either middle school or high school football.

“I thought he was a good-looking kid, but we were just jumping over boxes,” Edwards said. “The kids were instructed to jump on and off the boxes. When he cleared every box so fast, I said, ‘Jesus’. The kids really hadn’t been working out, so I asked him if he worked out on his own. I wondered was he born like that? There were rumors of him working in a sandpit down the road at Howell Park.”

Paul expressed his displeasure about football until Edwards’ arrival. He knew of his past success at Redemptorist, but other than his workouts in the city park’s sandpit for resistance training, was a novice football player. 

He admitted striking a chord with Edwards, one that was strong enough to convince him to move forward with his newest venture. Having a father figure in his life also played a big role.

“I can’t explain how much coach Sid means to me, he means everything,” Paul said. “He’s like my pops. My dad is in jail. I’ve never really had that in my whole life since I was born.”

Without any prior knowledge of Paul’s background, Edwards asked what position he wanted to play and that was cornerback.

In his first game against Capitol, Paul returned an interception 30 yards for a touchdown. He then moved to punt return where he scored a touchdown and also brought back a kickoff for another score. 

Istrouma improved to 2-0 the following week with a decisive 33-13 triumph over Belaire to begin district play, led by Paul with three more touchdowns on defense and two on special teams. The Indians remained perfect the next with a 40-0 shutout of Broadmoor, another league victory.

“Before that, I just thought I was a regular player,” Paul said. “It was just natural when I got the ball. I was never trained in anything in how to play football. I never lifted weights. I got in the sand and ran around and did speed drills.”

Based on Paul’s touch-to-touchdown rate, Edwards saw potential for his team’s offense and immediately lobbied his defensive coordinator to get his budding star some action at running back.

“None of it was on offense,” Edwards said of Paul’s explosive plays. “My DC wanted to barter for him to play wide receiver. I said running back, but he was worried about the number of carries and the wear on him. We put him back there and he was just excellent. The St. Thomas More game is when it clicked in my head that he may be the best guy next year.”

Paul played a pivotal role in keeping Istrouma within arm’s length of eventual District 6-4A champion Plaquemine. His debut at running back included 22 carries for 189 yards with a touchdown rushing and one receiving. 

The flair of Dunn began showing up on a regular basis with Paul’s ability to run with terrific vision and instinct and at times, surprising power. 

Paul made opponents look silly with his change of direction in the hole, able to backpedal and escape the first and second defenders. He’s capable of bouncing plays outside, reaching the sideline, and impulsively knifing his way between would-be tacklers for long-range gains or touchdowns.

In a back-and-forth game the Indians lost 49-34 to St. Michael, Paul made two players miss after taking a handoff. He reversed his path, regaining his balance by putting his right hand on the ground, proceeding to find room downfield where he got past a defender and cut back against another for a 63-yard pickup.

With Istrouma making its first postseason appearance in three years, Paul scored on touchdown runs of 15 and 12 yards and set up another score with a sleight-of-hand move away from two defenders converging on him after the snap. He got to the outside and cut back to his left for a 40-yard gain into Northside’s territory in a 38-16 first-round victory. 

“Kyree’s not really big, but he’s compact and strong,” Edwards said. “He can power run. That’s what makes a difference. It’s the electricity. What we’re prepared for is that every team we play will be on him. They think he’s all we’ve got and that’s false. He’s very important. He’s the guy, but we also have some kids that are sitting out, and we’ll get them in a few weeks, and that will open it up even more for Kyree.”

Bright Future at Istrouma and Beyond

The same guy who didn’t play middle school or high school football for two years has now positioned himself to play beyond high school.

“Sometimes I still can’t believe it,” Paul said. “I look at the best high school players and they’ve been playing for this number of years. I’ve just played one year of football, and I’ve got some scholarships to play at the next level. It amazes me sometimes. I’m just happy that I’ve got the opportunity to do that now. It’s a blessing.”

Louisiana Tech is among six schools to have offered Paul a scholarship and would like for him to play safety. Hometown Southern has also offered along with Alcorn State, Arkansas State, Grambling State, and Lamar where some of those schools envision him being a slot wide receiver.

His future may still be undecided, but it’s certainly bright.

Istrouma improved its record to 2-0 for the second straight season in part to another dynamic performance from Paul in last week’s 38-6 triumph over McKinley.

By the end of the first half, and with the Indians in control, Paul had already accumulated 171 yards rushing and two touchdowns – including scores of 76 and 63 yards from the quarterback position.

“He was under center and in the shotgun,” Edwards said. “He was running our offense, handing it off, and threw it some.”

Paul was also a thrill-a-moment in punt formation. When a high snap threatened to result in a negative play, he turned the mishap into a back-breaking 76-yard touchdown run and added a 15-yard score as a running back to cap a 9-carry, 190-yard effort to go with his 47 yards of passing.

It’s all part of the mindset that Paul, a first-team All-District 6-4A selection on offense, defense, and special teams in ’23, wants to maintain, combining his efforts with an ambitious team and striving for greater heights.

“We want to win district, that’s what we’re trying to do as a team,” said Paul, who expects to exclusively play defense on third down this year. “We’ve got it made up in our mind that we want to win district.

“It (all-state selection) really motivated me,” Paul said. “A lot of people said not to go to Istrouma because it wasn’t a good school. I showed that you can do this anywhere you go. You can do it. It motivated me to show my teammates that it’s possible.”