{"id":2817,"date":"2016-02-04T19:02:45","date_gmt":"2016-02-05T03:02:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.wou.edu\/westernjournal\/?p=2817"},"modified":"2016-02-04T19:02:45","modified_gmt":"2016-02-05T03:02:45","slug":"wolves-welcome-28-student-athletes-to-the-pack","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wolves-welcome-28-student-athletes-to-the-pack\/","title":{"rendered":"Wolves welcome 28 student-athletes to the Pack"},"content":{"rendered":"
By: Jamal Smith \r\nSports Editor<\/pre>\n
On Wednesday, Feb. 3, Western Oregon Universities\u2019 head football coach Arne Ferguson announced 28 high school football players signed their letters of intent to join the team in the fall.<\/p>\n
Out of the 28 new recruits, 16 are from Oregon and 5 are from Washington. The 2016 recruiting class also has highly touted high school players from Alaska, Arizona, California, Hawaii, and Idaho.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are very happy with the kids that have committed to Western Oregon,\u201d said Ferguson. \u201cOur coaches put in the time and did a really good job recruiting players that will give us an opportunity to compete against the best teams in Division-II.\u201d<\/p>\n
At the Wolves\u2019 National Signing Day event on Wednesday at Crush Wine Bar and Tasting Room, Ferguson talked about what traits and characteristics the coaching staff looks for in recruits.<\/p>\n
\u201cFirst of all, we look for a good student that\u2019s motivated and driven,\u201d said Ferguson. \u201cWestern Oregon does a good job recruiting student athletes who will work hard, learn, and get an education.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe second thing is that we are obligated to make sure that they will be successful in Division II football, and that\u2019s not easy,\u201d added Ferguson. \u201cWe want [the recruits] to be successful and we want them to be on the football field because we know that they all work very hard for the opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe last thing we look for is their leadership, being in a winning program and knowing the little things that matter in order to contribute to the team,\u201d said Ferguson.<\/p>\n
With the recent success of the program, Western Oregon has created a winning culture. \u201cWe have had ten winning seasons in a row and we have been second in about eight of those, so we are looking for those extra couple inches to push us over the edge,\u201d said Ferguson.<\/p>\n
The following is a list of the student-athletes who have committed to the program:<\/p>\n
 <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Name<\/td>\nPos.<\/td>\nHt.<\/td>\nWt.<\/td>\nHometown\/High School\/Previous School<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Malik Abdul-Haqq<\/a><\/td>\nDB\/WR<\/td>\n6-5<\/td>\n166<\/td>\nSeattle, Wash. \/ Cleveland<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Curtis Anderson<\/a><\/td>\nDB<\/td>\n6-2<\/td>\n180<\/td>\nKlamath Falls, Ore. \/ Mazama<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Nick Bartel<\/a><\/td>\nOL<\/td>\n6-5<\/td>\n295<\/td>\nFerndale, Wash. \/ Ferndale<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Taylor Bratton<\/a><\/td>\nRB<\/td>\n6-2<\/td>\n205<\/td>\nEugene, Ore. \/ Sheldon<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Tyree Carson<\/a><\/td>\nDB<\/td>\n5-11<\/td>\n175<\/td>\nLynnwood, Wash. \/ Meadowdale<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Cody Coppedge<\/a><\/td>\nWR<\/td>\n6-3<\/td>\n175<\/td>\nWest Linn, Ore. \/ West Linn<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Nick Duckworth<\/a><\/td>\nQB<\/td>\n6-6<\/td>\n230<\/td>\nScottsdale, Ariz. \/ Notre Dame Prep \/ Ventura \/ Phoenix College<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Tate Edmundson<\/a><\/td>\nDL<\/td>\n6-2<\/td>\n320<\/td>\nEugene, Ore. \/ Sheldon<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Cody Ekwall<\/a><\/td>\nTE<\/td>\n6-5<\/td>\n270<\/td>\nGrants Pass, Ore. \/ Grants Pass<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Caden Finkley<\/a><\/td>\nLB<\/td>\n6-1<\/td>\n245<\/td>\nBoise, Idaho \/ Bishop Kelly<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Hunter Hickok<\/a><\/td>\nLB\/FB<\/td>\n6-2<\/td>\n250<\/td>\nJuneau, Alaska \/ Juneau-Douglas<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Tamir Hill<\/a><\/td>\nDB<\/td>\n5-10<\/td>\n175<\/td>\nMeridian, Idaho \/ Rocky Mountain<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Wyatt Hutchinson<\/a><\/td>\nQB<\/td>\n6-0<\/td>\n175<\/td>\nClackamas, Ore. \/ Clackamas<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Markus John<\/a><\/td>\nDL<\/td>\n6-4<\/td>\n320<\/td>\nSalem, Ore. \/ West Salem<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Hudson Kennedy<\/a><\/td>\nOL<\/td>\n6-3<\/td>\n290<\/td>\nWest Linn, Ore. \/ West Linn \/ College of the Siskiyous<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Nathan Mahaffie<\/a><\/td>\nLB<\/td>\n6-3<\/td>\n215<\/td>\nEugene, Ore. \/ Sheldon<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Blaise Manabe<\/a><\/td>\nWR<\/td>\n5-9<\/td>\n175<\/td>\nHonolulu, Hawaii \/ Radford<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Twister McComas<\/a><\/td>\nDL<\/td>\n6-3<\/td>\n240<\/td>\nBanks, Ore \/ Banks<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Chandler Obermire<\/a><\/td>\nDL<\/td>\n6-2<\/td>\n228<\/td>\nEugene, Ore. \/ Sheldon<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Anthony Orlando<\/a><\/td>\nOL<\/td>\n6-4<\/td>\n270<\/td>\nSan Francisco, Calif. \/ Archbishop Riordan<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Tayvis Passos<\/a><\/td>\nOL<\/td>\n6-1<\/td>\n295<\/td>\nHonolulu, Hawaii \/ Radford<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Jakob Pruitt<\/a><\/td>\nOL<\/td>\n6-3<\/td>\n265<\/td>\nBeaverton, Ore. \/ Valley Catholic<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Michael Pruitt<\/a><\/td>\nDB<\/td>\n6-1<\/td>\n200<\/td>\nAshland, Ore. \/ Ashland<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Matthew Shouldis<\/a><\/td>\nLB<\/td>\n6-3<\/td>\n200<\/td>\nDayton, Ore. \/ Dayton<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Bobi Sims<\/a><\/td>\nWR<\/td>\n6-0<\/td>\n175<\/td>\nKent, Wash. \/ Federal Way<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Blake Walker<\/a><\/td>\nQB<\/td>\n6-3<\/td>\n170<\/td>\nHillsboro, Ore. \/ Liberty<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Harrison White<\/a><\/td>\nWR<\/td>\n6-1<\/td>\n167<\/td>\nLynnwood, Wash. \/ Meadowdale<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Evander Willingham<\/a><\/td>\nTE\/LB<\/td>\n6-4<\/td>\n225<\/td>\nRedmond, Ore. \/ Redmond<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
On Wednesday, Feb. 3, Western Oregon Universities\u2019 head football coach Arne Ferguson announced 28 high school football players signed their letters of intent to join the team in the fall.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":825,"featured_media":2854,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2817","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"modified_by":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2817","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/825"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2817"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2817\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2854"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2817"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2817"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2817"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}