Keiser University‘s football roster lists wide receiver Dallas Desouza at 5-foot-9 and 160 pounds.
Asked if those figures were accurate, Desouza laughed.
“I’m really 5-8 and about 155,” he said.
The redshirt freshman from Cardinal Newman High is “not the biggest guy in the world,” wide receivers coach Chris Ortiz conceded, but he’s become one of the biggest playmakers for the undefeated Seahawks.
Desouza caught four passes for 81 yards in Keiser’s 34-23 victory over Southeastern on Nov. 8 to help clinch another Sun Conference championship for the Seahawks. He’s second on the team in receptions (43) and yardage (522) and tied for first in receiving touchdowns (5).
Keiser (9-0, 6-0 Sun Conference), ranked No. 2 in the NAIA, finishes the regular season against Warner (2-7, 2-4) on Nov. 15 in Lake Wales. After that, the Seahawks will begin a playoff run that they hope will end in the national championship game for the fourth consecutive season.
Desouza’s road to Keiser took some twists and turns. In high school, he thought of himself as more of a track and field athlete than a football player, earning all-county honors as a sprinter and hoping for a Division I scholarship.
“The recruiting process for him was very interesting,” said Ortiz, who’s also the Seahawks’ recruiting coordinator. “Heading into his senior year, we thought he was going to be either a Division I track guy or maybe an FCS football player. Come December, none of those things transpired.
“We had him in for an official visit in January, but the track aspirations were there, so we told him, ‘Hey, run the track season, and if a Division I school comes along, so be it, God bless you. If not, we’re still going to be here.’ “
Ortiz never stopped recruiting Desouza, even when he appeared to be a long shot.
“Coach Ortiz kept texting me trying to get me to come here,” Desouza recalled. “He just kept going and going and going and going. I thought, ‘Dang, they really want me to come here for football.’ Toward the end of my track season, I didn’t really pick up any offers (so) I texted coach Ortiz and said I think I’m ready to commit for football.”
Dallas Desouza wanted to play football, run track in college
Desouza did have one condition. “I asked him if it would be cool for me to be a dual sports athlete. He said sure, so now I’m here doing football and track.”
When Desouza joined the Seahawks in the fall of 2024, they were coming off a national championship season but also adjusting to a new coaching staff. Doug Socha, who had built the program from scratch, left for Division II Lenoir-Rhyne in North Carolina. Offensive coordinator Myles Russ was elevated to head coach.
Keiser had a group of veteran receivers, including senior Seth Rolle, a role model for Desouza at 5-7, 169.
The coaches decided Desouza would benefit from a redshirt season, although he did play in two games, catching one pass for five yards.
“We knew when he was a freshman how dynamic he was,” Ortiz said. “We saw it every day during practice. It just so happens that we had an older receiving corps at that time. … We had tremendous leadership in that room. Dallas had the luxury of seeing how guys operate and how guys work.”
Desouza took the lessons to heart. By the time fall practice began this year, he had built a rapport with veteran quarterback Shea Spencer. Now he forms part of what he calls a wide receiver “trifecta” with junior Elisha Edwards (44 catches, 627 yards, 5 TDs) and senior Maurico Porcha (26 catches, 458 yards, 4 TDs).
“When we have our one-on-one battles, we can’t be stopped,” Desouza said.
The same can be said of the Seahawks’ offense in general. It has achieved juggernaut status, averaging 288 passing yards and 204 rushing yards per game, and scoring more than 30 points in each game.
The road will get tougher in the playoffs, but Keiser will have home-field advantage in every round leading up to the championship game in Durham, N.C., as long as it defeats lowly Warner in the season finale. Although the Seahawks have played for the title the past three years, they’re continually reminded that they won it only in 2023.
“We’re definitely looking to win the natty,” Desouza said. “We don’t want to just be there, we want to go there and win it and come home with something.”
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This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Cardinal Newman graduate Dallas Desouza now starring for Keiser Seahawks
