Newman, Akins bound for Western Oregon

By Emily Panter
Springfield Beacon

There’s been a lot of buzz around the country this past week. Wednesday, Feb. 6 was National Signing Day for many of the nation’s college-bound athletes, and Springfield got to be apart of the excitement.
Michael Akins and Travis Newman each signed a letter to play Division-II football in Western Oregon University (WOU) in Monmouth last Wednesday. It was a great accomplishment for the two best friends from Thurston. Having met in Kidsports during eighth grade it didn’t take the pair long to realize they wanted to go to college together.
“(We’ve wanted to) since freshman year at least,” Newman said.
The boys were recruited by a number of schools together, including Willamette, Lewis and Clark and Linfield. Akins was also recruited by the Colorado School of Mines, Cornell and Cal-Poly Pomona. Newman was also looked at by Portland State.
The boys settled on WOU after taking a campus visit.
“We took a visit and really liked it,” Akins said, citing the family environment and small town as factors.
Newman will be starting out his career with the Wolves as a running back, while Akins will hold a defensive back position.
Thurston coach Justin Starck is excited to see the boys advance to the next level. He said both boys are easy to coach and although they were already solid players at the beginning of their careers, have seen improvement.
“They’re both real good students and smart, smart players,” he said.
Both players are three-year lettermen, and Newman earned an honorable mention all-league as just a sophomore. This year both Newman and Akins earned first team honors on offense, and defensively Akins earned first team and Newman received second.
And although the boys are certainly excited about playing football at the next level, they are also keeping academics in mind. In fact, they received academic scholarships in additional to their one for football. Newman is a 3.86 GPA athlete and plans on majoring in general business, while Akins, a 4.0 student, is currently undecided.
“I wanted to major in engineering,” he said, “but they don’t offer that program.”
Western signed a total of 26 players on Signing Day, including another area student – Jameson Martin out of Marist High.
"This is our best class in terms of size and speed," head coach Arne Ferguson said. "Our focus this year was to get players that can contribute in one to two years. We feel like we got some kids that will be a great fit in this program, and we are lucky to have them."