Beyond the X: Arkeel Newsome chases national rushing yards record

Big numbers, declining enrollment, legitimate shot

How after six decades is this discussion even possible? Why now? Why in this tenacious, 6-square mile industrial city of 18,500 residents, 12 miles northwest of New Haven and the famed Yale Bowl?

Only a handful of high school players have rushed for as many as 10,000 yards in a career, an incomparable achievement in itself.  Among them, Michael Hart of Onondaga (Nedrow, N.Y.) made a credible run at Hall, finishing his prep career nine years ago with 11,045 yards. The national rushing champ of a year ago, University of Texas freshman Johnathan Gray of Aledo (Texas), finished with 10,908 and a national-record 205 career touchdowns.

In addition, senior Kelvin Taylor of Glades Day (Belle Glade, Fla.) enters the 2012 season with 7,702 yards from his freshman, sophomore and junior seasons. Taylor, the son of former NFL running back Fred Taylor and a Florida commit, is 3,530 yards away from reaching the record. Not impossible, either.

But no one this early has ever laid legitimate sights on Hall, who capped his own legendary prep career in 1953 by rushing for 4,045 yards and averaging 32.9 points per game over 12 games, both records he also holds from the early days of the Eisenhower administration.

Quite simply, the emergence of Newsome during his sophomore season at Ansonia has changed the national discussion.

"I've always thought (the breaking of the record) was possible," Hall told MaxPreps last summer.

As with any sport-defining record chase, events had to fall precisely in place for Newsome during his sophomore year in 2011, when he finished third in the country with 3,763 rushing yards. The same will have to happen again in both 2012 and 2013 for Hall's mark to come within striking distance for Newsome.

"On paper, if you project his pace, he has a great shot," MaxPreps National Football Editor Stephen Spiewak said.

"However, the reality of it is, a number of factors really need to break his way. He needs to stay injury-free, his team needs to remain committed to the run, and it needs to make deep playoff runs this year and next year. More than anything, he needs to be consistently dominant. If he has even a handful of games with fewer than 100 yards, it will be very tough to do."

Already some of the necessary elements have begun to align themselves.

Newsome gained an important head start as a freshman, rushing for 810 yards in 2010. That gives him 4,574 heading into his junior year, which begins Sept. 14. He would need to average "only" 3,330 yards his final two seasons to break the record, nearly 450 yards fewer than he compiled a sophomore.

Though Ansonia has a base regular-season schedule of just 10 games, the potential to play 14 in each of the next two years is within reason, just as it was last season. The conference it competes in, the Naugatuck Valley League, holds an annual championship game. The CIAC state tournament consists of three rounds for all finalists in four classes. The potential to play enough games for Newsome is real, especially with the Chargers having dropped to the state's small-school category due to declining enrollment.

Ansonia is not averse to the ground-and-pound game, either. Far from it. Coach Tom Brockett's Chargers have produced Connecticut's leading rusher in three of the last five seasons, including the state's all-time career record holder, Alex Thomas, who capped a two-time All-Ivy League career at Yale last fall.

Have ball, will run...and run and run and run.

"Coach Brockett's been running the heck out of the ball for a number of years now," said Thomas, whose own state career mark of 8,279 yards is in dire jeopardy with Newsome on the move.

"And that's not going to change as long as they have Arkeel (pronounced Ar-KELL, after the singer and songwriter R. Kelly). If things go right, he'll be getting a lot more touches over the next two seasons. It should be fun to watch."

Here's another way to look at it: Newsome averaged 269 yards per game last season. If Ansonia plays the maximum number of games over the next two years and Newsome continues that same average, he would not only break Hall's record but annihilate it, by nearly 900 yards. That would give him added breathing room as well in case of minor injuries or playoff setbacks.

But there's a potential downside, too, not to mention a host of unknowns.

For one thing, Ansonia lost its entire starting offensive line to graduation. That line helped produce 6,074 yards of total offense last season, when the Chargers became the first team in Connecticut history to go 14-0, winning their 17th state title since 1976.

In addition, Ansonia has already lost its starting quarterback, senior Tyler Lester, to a broken leg. Lester, whose father, Rich, was a quarterback at Ansonia in the early 1990s, suffered the injury during a summer football camp, though he may return at some point.

Then to top all recent twists of adversity, Ansonia's home grass field was vandalized during the summer. The Chargers may have to play their first "home" game on the road while the Jarvis Stadium turf is taking root.

That's a lot to overcome, particularly when you're considering the pursuit of a coveted 60-year-old rushing record.

On the other hand, it's not as though Brockett and Ansonia haven't had to restock the offensive line before. Offensive line coach Leonard "Butch" Marazzi has become a master at it. Whether or not Hall's national record is challenged may rest as squarely on Marazzi's shoulders as on Newsome's.

"I try not to think about that (record) stuff," said Brockett, who has been the head coach at Ansonia since 2006, and served as its offensive coordinator before that. "To duplicate what (Newsome) accomplished last year again this season, you can't really expect that out of a kid. It's not fair. And we're talking two more years? I realize it's a big media thing and a lot of people are interested or would be interested if he made a run, but there are just too many factors involved to sit here and say 'Oh sure, he can do it, he has a shot.' That's not something we can really think about as we prepare for the season.

"At the same time," Brockett added, "I guess anything is possible. It'd be a heck of a thing."