Local teacher is Player 149 on new Netflix show 'Squid Game: The Challenge'

Justin Keyes collapsed into tears of relief as he crossed the finish line.

The Brownstown resident and former Erie Mason cross-country coach is an accomplished marathon and ultra-marathon athlete, but this was not your typical race.

Keyes, 42, competed in a large-scale version of the childhood playground game Red Light, Green Light with 455 other contestants as part of Netflix's new reality competition, "Squid Game: The Challenge."

The goal was simple: move forward on green light, stop on red light, and make it to the finish line before the time expired. Any movement at the wrong time would result in elimination.

It was the first of many elimination games in the competition based on the critically acclaimed series that debuted in 2021 and became the most-streamed show in Netflix's catalog. In the original show — a gripping and violent social commentary on wealth disparity — contestants who failed in the Squid Games were killed until only one remained.

Keyes was not putting his life on the line in the reimagined game show, but there still was a lot at stake. Players are competing to be the last one standing and walk away with $4.56 million, the largest prize in reality TV history.

Keyes, known as Player 149 in the game, was one of the 197 contestants who survived the torturous and exhilarating rigors of the first game. Netflix dropped the first five episodes of the series last week and will release the next four this Wednesday, Nov. 29. The final episode debuts Dec. 6.

"I've always loved anything with competition. That's what drew me to it," said Keyes. "I actually apply for a lot of these, like a little side hobby."

Keyes appeared on the game shows Price is Right in 2000 and Let's Ask America in 2015. He also has made it deep into the casting process for Big Brother, Press Your Luck, Card Sharks, Match Game, The Wall, Million Dollar Mile, and others.

But nothing has compared to this.

"It was an experience of a lifetime," said Keyes. "I really thought between my training for marathons and ultramarathons that it couldn't get any harder physically than that, but I learned that there are levels I can be pushed to that I didn't even know yet."

(Warning: spoilers ahead for the first five episodes of 'Squid Game: The Challenge.')

The Red Light, Green Light game was the perfect introduction to the type of challenges the contestants were facing, Keyes said. Although there were only 5 minutes on the clock, the actual time to complete the game took much longer. Some rumors online suggest it took as long as 6-9 hours, though Keyes said he could not confirm the exact length.

To guarantee competitive integrity, the game was paused on red light so that judges and motion detectors could carefully determined which of the 456 contestants were eliminated. Players needed to remain perfectly still during the arduous process.

"It was probably the hardest physical thing I've ever done," said Keyes. "A lot of people who made it through that said it really changed their perspective on what their body was capable of when you really put your mind to it. There were a lot of shaky moments, especially the last half where I thought I would be out and I would be a laughingstock back home."

Keyes did everything in his power to avoid that outcome and felt he was uniquely prepared for the show. As the physical education teacher at Garfield Elementary in Wyandotte, Keyes is no stranger to the types of backyard children's games the players were facing. He spent the weeks between his official casting in December 2022 and the start of filming the following month refining his skills.

In the first five episodes, the pool of contestants whittled down to 63 players through the elimination games Red Light, Green Light, Dalgona, and Battleship.

Dalgona, a popular game in South Korea where the original show is based, challenged players to carefully remove a cookie-cutter stamped shape from a brittle sugar-cane wafer without having it break. Keyes successfully extracted his triangle in the allotted time and was happy to have avoided the umbrella shape, which was the most difficult.

A collection of random tests also allowed contestants to eliminate opponents between games. Maneuvering the social politics was key to surviving those moments. The outspoken, brash, or most threatening competitors were the ones at risk.

That went against Keyes' nature.

"As a teacher, I'm used to presenting myself in front of people everyday and leading activities," he said. "I'm an active guy, a former college runner at Eastern (Michigan), I run everyday at 3:45 in the morning still. My idea was to go in, be the jokester, lead warmups to get everybody going, and I had ideas for a bunch of games that you can do without equipment.

"But, within a day, I realized I can't do that. As soon as people stuck out, they started getting targeted. I had to totally revert to somebody I'm not really comfortable being."

Keyes formed an alliance with other players to improve his chances. His group called themselves the Average Joes due to their rather ordinary lives compared to the social media influencers, professional athletes, fighter pilots, and fame seekers in the cast.

"It was tough to make quick connections because people left so quickly," said Keyes. "So my strategy was to find a small, core alliance and invest all my time with them and then branch out from there. ... We all had the same kind of vision for what we wanted to do."

While the editing process has given team little screen time so far, almost all have survived the early episodes, Keyes said. The remaining contestants in the game will be cut in half during Wednesday's first new episode as the players compete head-to-head in marbles with only the winners surviving.

Keyes cannot reveal what happens the rest of the way, but he has enjoyed watching the show along with his wife, Kelly, three daughters, and friends back home in Michigan.

"The emotions really ran high the whole time," said Keyes. "It was such an immersive experience. It wasn't life or death, but it was as close as you can get. It's everything to you at that point. It's every dream you've had about what you would do with the money, it's every dream you have of who you want to help with it, it's every dream you have of what it might mean for you and your family."

When he returned from filming, Keyes said that he was asked if his experiences in the game had scratched the itch of putting his wits and competitiveness to the test in reality TV.

"It didn't," he said. "It actually made it spread. Doing something like this actually made me more excited, more anxious, and more driven to do the next one."

— Contact reporter Ryan Loren at RLoren@monroenews.com.

This article originally appeared on The Monroe News: Local teacher is Player 149 on new Netflix show 'Squid Game: The Challenge'