By DARON ANDERSON
For the Kent Reporter
When offered the chance to spend his last few months as a Kentridge High School senior attending Oregon State University and playing for the Beavers’ football team, Caleb Smith did not hesitate.
“I wanted to make the most out of my opportunity and get a step up on my education and from (the team’s) incoming freshmen,” Smith said.
Last fall, Smith began an online program that allowed him to finish his high school credits in time for spring football training. In March, Smith moved to Corvallis and began training as a tight end for OSU.
“It’s all starting to come together and I’m feeling pretty good,” said Smith, 18, who stands 6-foot-6 and weighs 259 pounds. “Everybody in the Oregon State community has welcomed me in a great way.”
Jay Locey, assistant head coach at OSU, has worked with the team’s tight ends for four years.
“Caleb is doing a great job in his initial term at Oregon State,” he wrote in an email. “He is balancing academics and football, being very focused in both. He is learning our schemes quickly and we are optimistic in regards to what he brings to that position as an athlete receiving and blocking.”
With team practices, training and meetings taking up more than 20 hours per week, Smith said his schedule is rigorous. This quarter, Smith is enrolled in writing, sociology and math courses. He said having eight hours of mandatory study hall for football has helped him adjust to a more demanding academic schedule.
“I am not used to being busy all the time, but I am starting to get a grip,” he said.
While Smith said he would jump at the opportunity to play professional football, he plans to receive a degree in new-media communications and pursue a career in sports broadcasting.
Marty Osborn, Kentridge’s head football coach, said Smith matured, both physically and mentally, during his time in high school. Smith showed strong leadership skills as a quarterback his first two years and as one of the team captains this year, he said.
“He did a real good job, he always performed well, was well spoken and was one of our hardest workers,” Osborn said.
Among other awards, while at Kentridge Smith was voted Most Inspirational Player of the Year in 2011 and was also the 2011 4A South Puget Sound League’s Utility Player of the Year.
Osborn hopes Smith will be successful in college.
“My hopes for him would be to make it through college with good behavior. … have a very good college career with the hopeful chance of having a shot at a professional football career,” he said.
As for memorable senior activities like graduation and prom, Smith said he is not worried and plans to attend both.
Daron Anderson is a student in the University of Washington Department of Communication News Laboratory.
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