Football: Former Western Branch QB Newsome moving forward at Hargrave Miltary

By DOUG DOUGHTY

The Roanoke Time

CHATHAM

Nobody at Hargrave Military Academy knew Kevin Newsome’s whereabouts.

For two hours, he couldn’t be found. Cadets were dispatched to the dormitory.

He wasn’t there.

He had broken a finger on his non-throwing hand, so maybe he was in the infirmary. But, nope, he wasn’t there, either. Finally, through the back door of Hargrave’s auxiliary gymnasium, in strolled Newsome.

Hargrave had just played two football games in four days, so there was no practice that day. With some rare free time , Newsome could have been anywhere – at least anywhere permitted by military-school guidelines.

Turns out, he was in a classroom, catching up on a math assignment.

Hargrave postgraduate coach Robert Prunty has seen players enter his program with a variety of needs – academics, discipline, maturity, exposure – but none of that applied to Newsome, who was a 3.7 student at Western Branch High in Chesapeake before he transferred to Hargrave.

In fact, Newsome isn’t even a postgraduate.

The 6-foot-3, 220-pound quarterback was a consensus choice as the state’s No. 1 or 2 prospect after last season. At this time a year ago, he could not have envisioned a scenario that did not include Western Branch.

“Last year, I pictured myself coming out on Senior Night, going to homecoming, maybe (as) the homecoming king,” said Newsome, who was president of his junior class at Western Branch. “But, sometimes, you’ve got to make sacrifices to get where you want to go in life.

“I believed that I would get more discipline. That doesn’t hurt anyone. I hoped to become more responsible, become a better football player and, most of all, become a better man.”

Newsome’s mother, Theresa, was familiar with the area around Hargrave. She is a Gretna High School graduate whose family is from Java, no more than a 10-minute drive from Chatham.

Newsome’s mom is a real estate agent, and his father, Kevin Sr., is a longshoreman.

“When the guys first told me about Hargrave, I was like, 'No, I wouldn’t want to go to a military school; this is my senior year,’ ” Newsome said. “But, then I prayed about it, and I wrote down the pros and the cons, and came to the conclusion that this was going to better my life.’

“Someday, I’ll look back and say: 'Man, I’m glad I did this.’ ”

As a football prospect, Newsome occasionally found it irritating when recruiting services put him in the “athlete” classification, not as a pure quarterback. Still, that didn’t limit his offers before an April commitment to the University of Michigan.

Newsome was attending Western Branch at the time, but it wasn’t long before both associations were history. By the time Newsome arrived at Hargrave in August, he had decommitted to the Wolverines.

“I was pretty firm with my (original) decision,” he said, “but I sat down with my family and did a little more research and decided, you’ve only got four years to play college football. You better pick the right one.

“Wherever I had committed, I probably would have reopened the recruiting just for the simple fact that I wanted to be sure. It’s not right to be checking out other options when you’re still committed.”

Newsome said he hasn’t ruled out Michigan, although the Wolverines subsequently took a commitment from quarterback Tate Forcier of California. Newsome also said he hasn’t met his goal of cutting his current list to 13. Virginia Tech is certain to make the next cut.

“I’d rather not talk about frontrunners right now,” he said, “but (Tech has) always been there. I went to camp there after my eighth-grade year, and they haven’t stopped recruiting me since.”

Tech’s decision not to redshirt sophomore quarterback Tyrod Taylor would put two years between Taylor and Newsome, three if Newsome were redshirted as a freshman.

“People think that I would be intimidated or scared to go to Virginia Tech because of Tyrod Taylor,” Newsome said, “but, in all honesty, I would love to play behind Tyrod Taylor and learn what he knows. Since I was a young quarterback, I’ve looked up to him in Hampton Roads, just like I looked up to Michael Vick and Ronald Curry and Allen Iverson.

“That’s one program where I would not mind sitting behind someone.”

Prunty had not had a marquee quarterback in his seven seasons at Hargrave, but this year he has two: Newsome and UNC recruit A.J. Blue, who has the reins while Newsome’s finger heals .

Blue still gets the “athlete” moniker that Newsome finally is relinquishing.

“Just because of what people think, don’t change yourself,” Newsome said. “If you run a 4.5 40, then use that ability to help your team win. If you can throw the ball 75 yards, then use that ability to help your team win.”

Does that mean Newsome can run a 4.5 and has 75-yard range?

“Well, I’ll say 70, just to be safe,” he said. “If you’re an intelligent player who knows the concepts and schemes of football, then use that also. Put all three together – the feet, the arm and the mind – and you’re a true quarterback.”

Prunty calls Newsome “the complete package and thinks he has benefited from playing against a Hargrave schedule that includes junior varsity teams from Navy, East Carolina, Marshall and Tennessee, but Newsome would never knock the schedule he faced in the Southeastern District.

“Still the hardest game I ever played was against Oscar Smith High School,” Newsome said.

Oscar Smith, nationally ranked this season, defeated Western Branch 48-6 earlier this month. The opportunity to play for longtime Western Branch coach Lew Johnston was one reason the Newsomes moved to the Western Branch zone, but Johnston retired after the 2006 season and was replaced by Scott Johnson.

Newsome did not have the same kind of rapport with the new staff that he had with the old one.

“That’s a good way of putting it,” Johnston said.

Newsome’s younger brother, Keevon, enrolled at Churchland High School in Portsmouth and is a promising tight end. The Newsomes, including Keevon, were scheduled to trek to State College, Pa., for the Michigan-Penn State game on Saturday. Penn State is one of the schools that is recruiting Newsome most heavily.

Other schools he mentioned were Virginia Tech, UNC, Tennessee, Boston College and Illinois.

Newsome concedes that his college choice could come down to a gut feeling, but he has been doing his research, checking rosters online and alerting himself to the quarterback situation at the schools he is considering.

“Certainly, rosters come into play,” he said. “There’s a difference between confidence and stupidity. You don’t want to go into a system where nine quarterbacks have been there for three years. You want to have a fair shot.”

One of the benefits of going to Hargrave is the school’s seclusion. Cadets are allowed to have cell phones, but they can’t be texting or e-mailing at will.

“It’s been a time of maturing,” said Newsome, who smiles and laughs easily. “I came here as a boy, and I feel I’ll be leaving here a man, a man who’s done 1,000 pushups.”