Keyen Green, a former Lady Vol basketball player from Pennsylvania, and Kingston Harris, a former Vol football player from Florida, established a relationship at Tennessee, have become real estate partners and now make their home in Knoxville.
Both completed their real estate coursework while also enrolled in classes at Tennessee last fall and officially became Realtors in 2023. It was a shared interest in real estate investing that led the couple to join Keller Williams.
“We were introduced to a few Realtors along the way that said why don’t you guys just get your license and then you can learn the business and have a leg up in investing,” Green said.
Green took a circuitous path to Tennessee, and it was the disruption of the pandemic that brought the couple together. She played three seasons at Liberty University, graduated with a bachelor’s degree in business administration, began work on a master’s degree and decided to transfer at the end of the 2019-20 season.
While Green was in college in Virginia, her family relocated from Philadelphia to Orlando and when college campuses across the country cleared out in the spring of 2020 because of the pandemic, she went home to Florida. Harris had completed two seasons for the Vols and also had to go home to Orlando as dorms closed and classes went online at Tennessee.
He saw a social media post that Green had committed to the Lady Vols that mentioned a connection to Orlando, so he reached out to her via social media.
Keyen Green (Tennessee Athletics)
“I decided to try to get to know her before we all had to go back to school,” Harris said. “When we got to school, I was able to introduce her to the campus and the rest is history.”
Green completed her master’s degree in agricultural leadership, education and communications at UT in 2021, started work on a doctorate in leadership studies and will finish that degree in May 2024. Her career on the court was truncated by two ACL injuries that limited her to four games in 2020-21 and 19 games in 2021-22 when she got an extra year. Despite those setbacks, coach Kellie Harper called Green one of the best leaders she had ever had on a team.
Harris graduated from UT in December 2022 with a degree in communication studies. He played three seasons and then medically retired from football in 2022 because of severely arthritic knees at the age of 22.
Harris graduated in 2018 from IMG Academy, a boarding school in Bradenton, Florida, for athletics and education, and then took a redshirt year as a college freshman. He envisioned his future as a football player. Green could have pursued a professional basketball career overseas, but major injuries short-circuited that path.
Kingston Harris (Tennessee Athletics)
“That gave me an extra year in Tennessee to be able to figure out what I wanted,” Green said. “With both of our backgrounds, me transferring schools, Kingston coming from a huge international boarding school and high school, all of those networks and all of those contacts lend to our business. Regardless of where we saw it going when we entered college thinking what our futures were going to be as athletes, it all came together to work out for our good in the end.”
Since Green has now completed all of her PhD classes, the final step is her dissertation that will delve into the underrepresentation of Black women in athletics administration, particularly in executive positions at Power 5 universities.
Keyen Green
“Getting a PhD in educational leadership can lend so much to the education that I’m wanting to give back to the athletic community by way of real estate,” Green said. “In order to run a business, in order to be an entrepreneur, you have to have the characteristics of a leader.”
Harris, who recalled his mother taking him on Parade of Home tours in Florida as a kid, and Green hope to use their connections with athletics in their new career.
While new head coaches get the headlines, entire staffs from assistants to administrators need help with relocation and home hunting. Some parents of athletes also find an investment property to use when in town or to house their child. In the era of NIL with some athletes having six- and seven-figure value while in college, Green and Harris also want to teach them about the value of owning vs. renting.
Keyen Green and Kingston Harris
Green scaled back her involvement with the Lady Vol Boost HER Club when she added Realtor to her resume and also worked part-time at the academic Thornton Center on campus, but she still helps out at events when needed. Harris became a fixture at Boost HER Club events, especially with setup and execution, and joked that he’s “more of the muscles.”
Kingston Harris
The two have been in real estate for less than six months and have been showing houses, holding open houses and working on a first transaction. Green can be reached at 215-272-6474 or keyen@kw.com, while Harris can be reached at 407-432-1474 or kingstonharris@kw.com. Both also are on Instagram here and here.
“It’s worked just like our relationship has worked,” Green said. “You have to be intentional about building a business, and we have to have plans about what we’re trying to do and where we’re trying to go. I feel like that’s the same for our relationship. With Kingston being here the last five years and me being here going on three, it basically is home at this point.”
SOFTBALL: “Kamp Kiki” sold out so fast that a second camp had to be added. Outfielder and All-American center fielder Kiki Milloy will host a softball camp on July 29, and 200 spots in the morning session were taken in one day.
Milloy, who will joined by several teammates, has added an afternoon session from 1:30-5:30 p.m., and registration is available here.
“We knew there would be interest because of the success and popularity of the softball team, but even we were surprised at 200 signups in 24 hours,” said Terri Holder, founder of the Lady Vol Boost HER Club. “Kiki quickly agreed to a second camp and about 40 spots are left so don’t wait.”
Milloy will be joined by teammates Zaidi Puni, Karlyn Pickens, McKenna “Boo” Gibson, Rylie West, Katie Taylor and Ryleigh White. The summer skills softball camp is open to girls ages 6-14 and will be held at Christian Academy of Knoxville. Cost is $125 per camper and includes a poster for autographs.
A specially designed T-shirt that matches what the players will wear also is available for preorder for $25 here.
The Lady Vol Boost HER Club, which assists Tennessee female athletes with NIL opportunities, coordinated the off-season camp as an another way for players to both have income opportunities and reach young fans. Softball is a scholarship-limited sport with a maximum of 12 – a mix of full-ride and partial scholarships for 24 players – so the funds the players can earn at camps and other events is much appreciated.
“I just want to say thank you so much for selling out the first session of ‘Camp Kiki,’ ” Milloy said via video on social media. “We still have some spots left in our session so make sure you jump on that before it sells out. Go Lady Vols.”
Maria M. Cornelius has been writing about the Lady Vols since 1998 for various publications. In 2016, she published her first book, “The Final Season: The Perseverance of Pat Summitt,” through The University of Tennessee Press.