Maybe you have heard about Kylor Kelley, the Oregon State center who leads the nation in blocked shots and set a school record with nine against Pepperdine last week.

Maybe you know something about the long and winding road he took to OSU, from tiny Gervais High School to Northwest Christian, an NAIA Division II school, to the junior college ranks at Lane Community College.

Whatever you know, it’s probably only part of the story. Sometimes it takes a village to raise a 7-footer, and in Kelley’s case, the things he is doing now would not have been possible without countless untold contributions along the way.

There was Luke Jackson, Kelley’s coach at NCU. There was Bruce Chavka, his coach at LCC. There was his mom, Shandel Howell, and Benjie Hedgecock, his AAU coach. There were the academic advisers who helped him get his grades in order, the dentists who gave him free care, the friends who didn’t give up on him.

There was Kelley himself, who had many chances to quit but chose to keep working toward his dream.

“It’s pretty amazing that somebody from little Gervais, Oregon, can reach the biggest heights of our sport because he believed in himself and stayed determined and didn’t give up through the hurdles he had to overcome,” Hedgecock said.

Kelley comes from a basketball family. His dad, Jeff Kelley, was a 6-9 center who played at Boise State and overseas, and his mom played at Utah State.

Kelley was 6 or 7 when he moved with his mom and brother from Utah to Oregon. He kept in touch with his father, but the family split left a scar.

Kelley had a support system with his mom and stepfather, but some things still went unattended. Simple things, like taking care of his teeth or turning in a paper on time, became a struggle for Kelley in high school.

Coming from Gervais, a Class 3A school at the time that did not make the state tournament Kelley’s senior year, it was an uphill battle to get the exposure and the experience necessary to play in the Pac-12. Playing for Hedgecock’s AAU team helped, but Kelley didn’t have the grades or the skills to play at a place like Oregon State.

“I was more of a C-plus, B-minus student, which really didn’t help me in the long run coming out of high school,” Kelley said. “It was easy to say, ‘I’ll do it later,’ but I never got back to it.”

Jackson, the former Oregon star and first-round NBA draft pick, watched Kelley play at an AAU tournament in Seattle and saw the potential in a 7-footer who could move so fluidly. He was determined to get Kelley at NCU, and Kelley figured Jackson was the perfect person to help his career take off.

“He said he would help me with whatever I needed,” Kelley said. “We’d work out twice a day, morning and night, even on weekends. He was helping me get to where I needed to be.”

Kelley needed a lot of help, and not just on the court. That became apparent one day when the Beacons were practicing and Kelley took a shot to the mouth. It’s not uncommon for basketball players to lose a tooth here and there, but this was different. Kelley had his mouth clamped shut and wouldn’t open it.

When he finally allowed a dentist to take a look, the problems were worse than anyone realized. There were infections and extractions, fillings and root canals – serious procedures that required Kelley to put his basketball career on hold.

“He had some really serious infections,” Hedgecock said. “He did not take care of his teeth growing up. It all came to fruition his first couple years in college.

“Eventually he just said, ‘Man, I’m going to have to get dentures.’ It’s true.”

Kelley ended up redshirting his first season at NCU to deal with medical issues related to his teeth. In the midst of those many procedures, he began to wonder if he had what it took to play college basketball.

“We had a lot of work done,” Kelley said. “It kind of drained me, mentally and physically. It really impacted me at NCU.”

Kelley struggled in the classroom, too, and became academically ineligible midway through his redshirt freshman season. Transferring to LCC was the last resort to get his grades in order and get his career back on track.

Oregon State coach Wayne Tinkle had been keeping tabs on Kelley, who’d performed well in open gyms with players from Oregon and Oregon State. The Beavers offered him a scholarship, but he had significant academic hurdles to clear before he could enroll at OSU.

“Once he couldn’t make grades at Northwest Christian and had to transfer back to Lane, the light bulb finally came on,” Hedgecock said. “He finally figured out, ‘If I don’t get these credits, I don’t get to play at OSU.’ He had a ton of credits to make up, and he did it.”

A stress fracture in his foot limited Kelley at LCC, but he was able to focus on his schoolwork and make up the credits he needed to earn his associate degree. With Drew Eubanks leaving early for the NBA and senior Gligorije Rakocevic going down with a foot injury, Kelley stepped into a 7-foot void at OSU.

Kelley has taken advantage, averaging 7.4 points, 6.7 rebounds and an NCAA-leading 4.1 blocked shots per game. His role could shrink with Rakocevic expected to return for Pac-12 play, but Kelley has established himself a defensive force.

“The physicality and the athleticism at this level, he hadn’t ever seen that when you look at high school, then NCU and Lane,” Tinkle said. “He’s now got a handful of games under his belt playing against that level of competition. We know he’s going to continue to make strides as he works on his body and gets bigger and stronger and more confident.”

Kelley has more dental work in his future, and the frequent tooth infections could be one reason he carries only 215 pounds on his 7-foot frame. The Beavers have encouraged him to swap sugary snacks for better nutrition, believing he’ll continue to blossom as he learns to take care of his body.

Kelley’s progress is gratifying for those who helped him along the way. He never became the player Jackson hoped at NCU, but the investment in his future wasn’t a waste.

“I’m just really happy for him, really excited for him,” said Jackson, who stepped down at NCU after last season. “I knew the potential was always there.”

It’s hard to say where Kelley would be without the people who stuck by him, but he definitely wouldn’t be in the Oregon State record book. That blocked-shot record belongs to him, and also to a whole bunch of people who helped him along the way.

Sometimes it really does take a village.