By Hayden Swope

Kyle Newsom of Andover Central was a first team all-league defensive end last season for the Jaguars, but he doesn’t plan to stop there this year. 

“What I am most excited about is honestly just the whole season as this is going to be my senior year, and I’m ready to play my hardest with my other senior friends for the last time together,” Newsom said.

Pushing to strengthen himself over the summer, Newsom spent most of the offseason in the gym.

“In the off season I’ve been training with our school’s weights and conditioning. I’ve also been going to the gym to further strengthen myself,” Newsom said. “One area I want to improve on this year is my size and overall strength as I’m very small for my position. I worked on this by pushing myself and weights class and not skipping reps and even going to the YMCA.”

Newsom’s biggest goal for the season is to be a better and stronger athlete out on the field, as well help the Jaguars to another winning season. 

“My main goal for this year is to be better in every area than I was last year, such as more sacks or tackles for loss because I had a lot of missed tackles last year which I don’t want to happen again,” Newsom said.  “As a team I hope that we come together because the only way we could get better is if we work together.”

While football is not in the cards for Newsom, he does plan to attend Kansas State University next year to continue his education. 

“My future plans are to attend K-State as just a student,” Newsom said. “Football was a huge part of my life but I don’t want to continue in college. I plan on studying Engineering in my next years of life.”