Arkoma two-way player Easton Smith hopes to open eyes in Oklahoma 8-man All-Star Game

In Oklahoma 8-man football, the fields are 11 yards narrower, the hash marks are adjusted and sometimes only 80 yards long from end zone to end zone.

Still, for Arkoma’s college football hopeful Easton Smith, there’s an open field at Northeastern Oklahoma A&M’s Red Robertson field this week, where the state’s 8-man all-star game takes place Saturday.

“We’re kind of hoping something from the all-star game stirs something up,” his mother Kelli said. “Maybe someone will see him."

Smith was a four-year letterman in football, basketball and baseball for the Mustangs and graduated this year with a 4.28 weighted GPA as 2022 class co-valedictorian. At wide receiver this fall, he had 40 receptions for 834 yards with 17 touchdowns while also making four interceptions on defense.

There is an amiable debate about the roots of Easton's  athletic talent: Kelli was an all-state softball player at Roland before playing collegiately at Carl Albert; his father, Trex, played football and basketball at Arkoma.

However, there was no argument about the importance of academics in the household for a student who already has earned 25 college credit hours from Carl Albert while taking part in Arkoma’s concurrent classes program.

“I’ve always been the guy that wants to have straight A’s and have good grades to show,” Easton said. “I never wanted to have a B. That was scary for me.”

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Like others, he grew up playing in the yard and played football as a youth at the Evans Boys and Girls Club in Fort Smith and in Pocola’s youth league. As a youth, he played running back because of his quick feet; he was a decent size, although Trex said that the competition grew faster than his son did.

As a freshman, Easton was about 5-foot-5, with Mustangs defensive coordinator Mark Weatherton saying he may have weighed only 110 pounds. A quarterback his first three seasons out of necessity, he was the primary signal caller as a junior, before being moved to wide receiver.

With a late growth spurt, protein and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, Easton sprouted to 6-2 and 170 pounds, excelling for the Mustangs as they made the playoffs for the third consecutive season. While the 8-man structure can lean toward the offense, especially with some teams only able to play one-high safety or none, the faster-paced play can also see a quicker pass rush and the modified field can also affect stats.

For Arkoma, mercy rule results also cut down Easton’s numbers. And in 8-man, the risk of leaving key players in longer can be high for a program that typically only has 20 players on its roster and replacements harder to come by.

Since the fall football season ended, Easton was co-conference MVP and LeFlore County All-Star in basketball and all-district in baseball. On June 3, he was one of three eight-man players participating in the second annual Citizen Potawatomi Nation All-Star Bowl for Oklahoma senior football players representing all classifications and not having to be enrolled or associated with the Native American tribe.

At this week’s Oklahoma 8-man All-Star game, the former Mustang hopes to open eyes yet also looks forward to an experience that includes a casino night with fake chips, bowling and a banquet the night before Saturday’s 6 p.m. game.

“It’s a great week for them and it’s a lot of fun,” Weatherton said. “It ends with a great game on Saturday. The 8-man organization is fantastic. It really has a lot of expectations to put on a show for those guys. It’s a good place to go.”

You can follow Bryant Roche on Twitter @BRocheSPorts and you can email him at BRoche@gannett.com

This article originally appeared on Fort Smith Times Record: Easton Smith hopes to shine in Oklahoma 8-man all-star football game