Smart and patient, fast and humble
Newsome, who some suspect gets his blazing sprinter's speed from his Jamaican heritage, scored 22 of his 58 touchdowns last season on runs of 50 or more yards.
Photo by Jim Stout
Ansonia also produces humble players.
Newsome, who some suspect gets his sprinter's speed from his Jamaican heritage, is a soft-spoken yet engaging teenager. He smiles easily, mixes without fanfare among his teammates and is as quick to compliment his blockers as he is to run away from opponents with his 4.4-second 40-yard dash speed.
"They (the blockers) do the work," he said. "I just run and try to follow their lead."
Following last season's Thanksgiving Day contest against NVL rival Naugatuck, Newsome was named the game's most valuable player. He turned around and gave his trophy to his fullback, Dennis Danley.
In addition to rushing for 3,763 yards as a sophomore, Newsome registered 144 receiving yards, scored 62 touchdowns and 388 total points. He even threw a 27-yard scoring pass, and wound up with a 12.02 yards-per-carry average.
Contrary to the suggestion of some, Newsome was generally limited to three quarters of play or less due to the number one-sided games. In two games last season, he complied fewer than 10 carries as Ansonia rolled through its NVL regular-season schedule.
Newsome stands before history in Ansonia.
Photo by Jim Stout
Perhaps his most impressive number, though, was one that didn't appear in the standard stat category. Only longtime Ansonia football historian Ed Morse kept this one. Of Newsome's 58 rushing touchdowns in 2011, 22 came on runs of 50 or more yards.
"We have great kids in general, and Arkeel is one of the best both on and off the field," Brockett said. "He's a special, special player on the field, obviously. It's great to have the speed that he has and be flashy and have all of those long runs, but sometimes we're going to get bottled up a little, like we did in the state championship game last season (against Ledyard) and that's where he's shown he can be smart and patient and take what's there and get his five or six yards. That's just as important to us in the grand scheme of things."
Newsome is the first to admit he's still a bit on the small side, and isn't necessarily taken all that seriously due to playing in a modest football state.
So he went out this summer and found a big football state to play in: Florida.
"Coach Brockett and my uncle (Matthew Roscoe) helped get me to camps at Florida, Florida State and Miami," said Newsome, who can bench press 250 pounds. "I've always been a Florida Gators fan, so that was fun. I felt I did OK with the competition that was there, maybe a little better than I was expecting from myself. All you can do is try and see what's out there and try to get better."
So far the only major college programs he's heard from are the University of Connecticut and Massachusetts. While that's not exactly a landslide of interest, it's a lot at the moment for a junior-to-be who's as small as Newsome and who plays at a school as small as Ansonia.
"He's a Division I player, no question in my mind," said Thomas, who played at Yale at 5-foot-9, 195 pounds for much of his career. "He's already put on a lot of muscle since last season and if his legs get stronger, he could be as much of a power back as a speed back."
Newsome lists Deion Sanders and Herschel Walker among the running backs he's admired while growing up. He said he also watched with great interest the senior season of Aledo's Johnathan Gray in 2011 as both players were pursuing MaxPreps' mythical national rushing title.
"He had a great high school career," Newsome said. "It was pretty cool to follow Johnathan like that on MaxPreps."
