The Newton High School Football team had one of its best seasons of the last decade in 2020, and it paid off handsomely for four seniors on the Tiger football team.
Kobe Thompson and Ty’Shun Evans both signed with East Central Community College. Damarius Logan signed with Southwestern Assemblies of God University (SAGU), and Lawrence Morris signed with Vermillion Community College.
Newton head coach Zack Grady said these four players are setting an example for the program.
“We just want to show that if you put in the work, all the dreams and goals can be accomplished,” Grady said. “For the young guys, they see that these guys put in the work, and it worked for them. So that helps to continue to motivate those guys to do the right thing, and that helps build this program.”
Morris is headed to Ely, Minn., to play both college football and baseball while offering him an opportunity to study sports medicine. On the gridiron, Morris will have an opportunity to compete as either a quarterback or athlete on the team while he could play any position in the field except catcher for baseball.
He always thought he would get the opportunity to play college sports
“I’ve always had the dream. I just had to put the work in to get up there,” Morris said. “When Coach Grady came here, he told me he’d have me signing a scholarship one day, and today is that day.”
Logan is reuniting with former Newton head coach Ryan Smith, who is now the head coach at SAGU. Logan said he had offers from JUCOs, such as Hinds and Jones College, along with another four-year college in Minnesota. But he felt like SAGU is a “little closer to home” to play for a four-year school, and it also helped he had the relationship with Smith.
“I fit there more than any other college,” Logan said. “I know he will treat me more like family.”
Sports medicine is Logan’s major of choice. Getting a chance to college football is a dream come true.
“It’s really a blessing because I dreamed about this when I was younger,” Logan said. “I’m actually playing college ball. I’m one step closer to being a professional athlete.”
Thompson and Evans are staying close to home for their first two years of college sports at ECCC. He had offers from Defiance College, Stockton College and Elizabeth City State University, but he wanted to be a part of an ECCC program that has been improving over the last few years.
“I started to see that a lot of good guys were getting a lot of interest from them, and I feel like that would be best bet because we’d have a pretty good squad this year,” Thompson said. “Plus, it would be close to home. My mama and daddy would get to see me at least every home game.”
Thompson said his high school career has been a bit of an up and down journey, but he was glad to see the program have success in his final season.
“It was a real good feeling that we actually made it this year,” Thompson said. “I knew this year, we were going to be something special when we stepped out on the field.
Thompson said some “trash talk” played into keeping the team together through the offseason, but they were able to make their own success this season.”
“At the end of the day, we knew where we stood with each other and we knew we could build each other up to get to where we needed to be,” Thompson said. “It took a lot of leaders stepping up and taking charge of their roles, showing them what to do and how to do it, how to stay together when we got down and get back up. Everybody just banded together.”
Staying close to home, especially close to his parents, was important for Evans when signing with East Central.
“I wasn’t really trying to go too far,” Evans said. “They have a great coaching staff, and they will be able to help me like coach Grady did. They have great academics. I feel like it would be home for me.”
Grady made a huge impact on Evans.
“He feels like my pops,” Evans said. “He’s just like my father. He just tells me to do whatever. He’s a great man.”
Evans said he plans to study welding at ECCC.
