Ansonia's Arkeel Newsome
Feeling down about Connecticut’s performance against Don Bosco Prep in a scrimmage? No worries Nutmeggers. You got yourself a big dose of Connecticut hubris just by visiting MaxPreps this morning.
Former NewsTimes reporter Jim Stout, now the Eastern U.S. media manager of the wildly popular CBS Sports high school site, and videographer Adam Spencer spent the entire first week of practice down at the hallowed Ansonia fields. Their mission? A story and video profile of all-state tailback Arkeel Newsome for their Beyond the X series.
It’s pretty good stuff, especially since it seems like MaxPreps got Arkeel to come out of his shell a bit. To those of use who cover him Newsome came across shy and, therefore, a pretty tough interview as a sophomore. He seems more polished and confident this time around.
But the biggest reveal was MaxPreps suggesting that Newsome could one day break the 60-year old national rushing record held by Ken Hall of Sugar Land, Texas.
Hall ran for 11,232 yards between 1950-1953. (Yow).
Newsome has 4,574 yards in two seasons, including his all-time Connecticut single-season rushing record of 3,763 set last year.
Newsome has a looong way to go, 6,658 yards to be exact. But he’s at least on pace.
He would have to average 3,330 yards over the next two seasons to topple the record. That means staying injury free and Ansonia would almost certainly have to max out at 14 games (i.e. reach the state championship and play anybody but Naugatuck in an NVL championship). Then he might be within striking distance of toppling the greatest record in high school football history. Twenty-seven or 26 games over the next two years would be cutting it close.
Of course, this is all provided he puts up the insane numbers he did as a sophomore. We’re a long way off to realistically talk about this.
Check out MaxPreps’ story here and see what Ansonia and Arkeel think of all this record talk.
Stout also delves into Connecticut high school football’s latent inferiority complex when compared to the rest of the country, using Greenwich vs. Naples (Fla.) and Southington vs. Bergen Catholic as examples of how we haven’t embarrassed ourselves.
Thanks, Jim.
But the majority of the story talks about Newsome, the challenges he faces after losing almost his entire offensive line to graduation, and plenty of idyllic talk about Connecticut’s own Titletown.
Let us know what you think:
As an Ansonia fan, I don’t care about a national rushing record at all and I would actually prefer to see Newsome’s yardage total decrease this year.
Ansonia has the ability to throw the ball this year and they should do it more often. Newsome is a great player and he can still put up huge numbers on 16-18 carries per game. Ansonia has the ability for a legit passing game this year, and I hope they utilize it.
A fine point.
Just curious, how did Newsome and Ansonia do against ND yesterday? Anybody know?
I thought the starting QB was injured ?
@Fan ….he is out for the year and is being replaced by a sophmore who someone said he can toss the rock pretty good….
Wow,lose a starting QB and still have a good passing game and a potential Nation’s leading rusher…..
Great to see arkeel open up. It is such an acheivement to see a man that is 18 finally put sentences together as a junior. Can’t wait to see his interview going into his senior year. He’ll be 19, the possibilities are endless. Watching a man talk about his accomplishments against seniors he is 1 yr older than, juniors (his own class) that he is two yrs older than, and sophs he is 3 yrs older than is such a great feat. Im wondering if the maxpreps guy can interview my nephew that was playing freshman as a junior. He was tearing it up.
Stop wasting everyones time with the newsome talk.
Kid is going to break the records. But just like Dobbs. He will be sitting home come his 20th birthday and what would have been his freshman year.
McKnight- also recruited from waterbury.
Wow, NaugyDoggy, your life must be really at an all-time low when you are relegated to getting on a high school football blog and ripping the accomplishments, intelligence, and academics of teenagers.
Maybe the humuliation of being associated with the Naugatuck High School football program these days has brought out the bitterness.
I am very skeptical that NaugyDoggy is actually a Naugatuck fan. He is more likely the bitter fan of another NVL team. But these are the things we deal with in the age of the anonymous internet troll.
Very bitter yes.
@Rob, what’s the difference? I would think they (NVL)are all a little bitter at least till the States then we come together (I hope).
Personally, I feel that ansonia is not at all being challenged. Ariel ran wild last year, but who was there to stop him? No offense to the NVL but c’mon, that many yards is ridiculous. And to top it all off ansonia moved back down to class s. Arkeel is a good back, but if he played in the SCC or class L or LL he would be just that, a good back. Not 3500 some odd rushing yards for sure
Arkeel *
@ jens the nd/ansonia scrimmage was a 14-7 nd score. Arkeel had about 30 or 40 yards but the varsity only played for about 30 plays or so
Last time I checked, high school players were categorized by grades, not ages. If NaugyDoggy is such a purist about ages, he may want to consider ditching high school blogs and becoming a fan of AAU. Should Arkeel be penalized because he’s faster than his opponents too? Maybe make him wear 10 lb weights on each ankle?
@7 I just looked it up on yahoo…..Ansonia’s new Q.B is indeed another Waterbury product
JaiQuan Larenzo McKnight – Football – beRecruited
#16 Good detective work Paul. McKnight grew up in Waterbury and moved to Ansonia because he wanted to play for a good program. He now lives in Ansonia.
I would tell you the street he lives on, but I’m surea super sleuth like yourself can crack the case.
Take it easy there Rob….We all know you are up for landlord of the year honors….Ansonia fans had a glimpse last night of what life would look like with out the other waterbury transfer running for 300+
game….The result a ho hum 7-0 win over a grossly undersized and rebuilding Shelton squad who will be lucky to win 5 games this yr in the SCC….Yes,good folks on the board Mcknight is a player[very good one] and is only a Soph….Rob,I am glad he moved to ansonia to play football instead of getting that great education at Sacred Heart…
I was at the Shelton Scrimmage. Shelton looked ok. Ansonia threw the ball around effectively, more throwing than running, not usual for them. Arkeel did not play, not even suited up. Yes his play does make a difference, he is an exceptional back. McKnight can run well also, but looks like he is being throttled a bit. They only played 1 half with varsity, second half with JVs. So scrimmages are finally over, we can get to the real games.
Go Lavender! Go Blue! Go Chargers!
Paul, their also playing the first half of the season without their best athlete and QB. He would also have been the RB had Newsome gone to another school. They played without their two best players and still did ok. Ron has been right for taking you to task for your hate mail. What’s your deal anyway? One of these kids knock up your daughter or beat up your son?
Thank you bg.