STILLWATER – Out in Stamford, Texas, they've canceled the regular Halloween Trunk-or-Treat event for Saturday night.
Seems folks are leaving town, heading over to Highway 84 for the 147-mile drive northwest into Lubbock to catch a more popular attraction: James Washington.
A product of Stamford (population 3,124), Washington remains must-see material for all in town who cheered him as a four-sport star at Stamford High; much as he's become a popular attraction for Oklahoma State fans. And with the sophomore receiver making his first trip to Texas Tech with the Cowboys, the candy will wait, he's the treat.
“All of the people of this community, we try to get behind our kids,” said Chrysta Washington, James' mother. “Some of them have never seen something like this and it's an opportunity, because it's so close. “So a lot of them said, ‘We want to go support him.'
“He should have a lot of people there to try and root him on.”
Stamford rarely sees one of its own on such a stage. Golfer Charles Coody, who beat Jack Nicklaus for the 1971 Masters, is a native. Bob Harrison, an All-American lineman at Oklahoma in the 1950s, is another local product.
Still, rising to fame from Stamford has proven difficult. And just getting to OSU wasn't easy for Washington, who went largely un-recruited with his varied athletic exploits taking place well off the usual grid of talent scouts.
So, eventually, at the urging of his high school coach Wayne Hutchinson, Washington took his talents to the scouts.
“My senior year, no one really recruited me, so I went to a lot of camps and spent a lot of money, just to try and get picked up,” said Washington, the Cowboys' second-leading receiver. “I wanted to get picked up anywhere, because I love the game of football. If I could go somewhere and play, that would be great with me.
“I went wherever I could and competed however I could, just trying to make something happen.”
Chrysta, however, wasn't so sure.
“We tried one camp and after that Coach Hutchinson said try this one, and this one. I'm like, ‘Hey coach, too many camps.'
“But every time we'd come back home, James told me, ‘Mom, I learned this. I learned that.' When you're in these smaller schools like this, you don't get all the best of the best coaches.”
Washington didn't attend camp at OSU, which usually rules a prospect out with Cowboys coaches, especially obscure prospects without any scholarship offers to offer some sense of legitimacy.
Still, OSU coaches got a tip on Washington after he performed well at a camp in Dallas. And they had video on him, even it wasn't exactly what they're used to viewing.
“He didn't have a whole lot of football video on there,” said Cowboys receivers coach Kasey Dunn. “He had a lot of basketball. It was kind of split.
“The video is grainy. It's small-town stuff. The cameraman is shaking and going all over the place.”
There was enough, though, to like. And Washington's accomplishments were impressive, even if he did them at a 1A high school.
His final two seasons at Stamford, Washington caught 151 passes for 2,503 yards and 46 touchdowns in leading his team to a second straight Class 1A state championship. And that was just part of the story. He'd been to the state track meet in five events every spring since his freshman year, played tennis and basketball and even baseball one season. He wanted to play golf, but couldn't fit it in the spring schedule, so he saved the links for the weekends.
As a senior, he'd go on to win the triple jump and the 100-meter dash at the state track meet, and finish second in the 100, third in the long jump and fourth on the 800-meter relay team. He also qualified for state in tennis, advancing to the quarterfinals in doubles. That came after he was named district Most Valuable Player in basketball.
He also served on the Stamford student council.
Oh, and he's a black belt in taekwondo.
“You can't dispute running 21.4 (in the 200),” Dunn said. “You can't dispute jumping 23 feet. I mean, the guy won the triple jump. Then he plays tennis and basketball. In these videos, he's 360-jamming the basketball. Now, how often do you see a 6-foot guy do that?
“If we're going to miss on a kid, we're going to miss on a guy that's a great character kid with unbelievable athleticism.”
Except the Cowboys didn't miss. They may even have hit it big.
Washington jumped into the Cowboys receiver rotation as a true freshman a year ago, leading the team with six touchdown catches and joining Dez Bryant, Marcellus Rivers and Hart Lee Dykes as the only freshmen in program history to put up a 100-yard receiving day.
This season, Washington has 27 catches for 388 yards and two touchdowns as one of several options in a stacked OSU receiving corps. And he has two years left to play beyond this season.
So the chance Dunn and the Cowboys took on the athlete from tiny Stamford, Texas, turned out well once they invited him up for a visit, camp or no camp, resulting in a scholarship offer on the spot.
“Just a great kid,” Dunn said. “And I'll tell you, his parents are awesome.
“It's like you're recruiting John Wayne's son. It's awesome.”
Mr. and Mrs. John Wayne, as far as James is concerned.
“My mom is one of the biggest influences on my entire life,” he said. “She's a big Christian lady. She worked hard, showed me the way in a lot of things. Her and my dad are the biggest role models in my life.
“I just want to be like them however I can.”
http://newsok.com/osu-football-cowboys-found-a-gem-in-james-washington/article/5456900
Seems folks are leaving town, heading over to Highway 84 for the 147-mile drive northwest into Lubbock to catch a more popular attraction: James Washington.
A product of Stamford (population 3,124), Washington remains must-see material for all in town who cheered him as a four-sport star at Stamford High; much as he's become a popular attraction for Oklahoma State fans. And with the sophomore receiver making his first trip to Texas Tech with the Cowboys, the candy will wait, he's the treat.
“All of the people of this community, we try to get behind our kids,” said Chrysta Washington, James' mother. “Some of them have never seen something like this and it's an opportunity, because it's so close. “So a lot of them said, ‘We want to go support him.'
“He should have a lot of people there to try and root him on.”
Stamford rarely sees one of its own on such a stage. Golfer Charles Coody, who beat Jack Nicklaus for the 1971 Masters, is a native. Bob Harrison, an All-American lineman at Oklahoma in the 1950s, is another local product.
Still, rising to fame from Stamford has proven difficult. And just getting to OSU wasn't easy for Washington, who went largely un-recruited with his varied athletic exploits taking place well off the usual grid of talent scouts.
So, eventually, at the urging of his high school coach Wayne Hutchinson, Washington took his talents to the scouts.
“My senior year, no one really recruited me, so I went to a lot of camps and spent a lot of money, just to try and get picked up,” said Washington, the Cowboys' second-leading receiver. “I wanted to get picked up anywhere, because I love the game of football. If I could go somewhere and play, that would be great with me.
“I went wherever I could and competed however I could, just trying to make something happen.”
Chrysta, however, wasn't so sure.
“We tried one camp and after that Coach Hutchinson said try this one, and this one. I'm like, ‘Hey coach, too many camps.'
“But every time we'd come back home, James told me, ‘Mom, I learned this. I learned that.' When you're in these smaller schools like this, you don't get all the best of the best coaches.”
Washington didn't attend camp at OSU, which usually rules a prospect out with Cowboys coaches, especially obscure prospects without any scholarship offers to offer some sense of legitimacy.
Still, OSU coaches got a tip on Washington after he performed well at a camp in Dallas. And they had video on him, even it wasn't exactly what they're used to viewing.
“He didn't have a whole lot of football video on there,” said Cowboys receivers coach Kasey Dunn. “He had a lot of basketball. It was kind of split.
“The video is grainy. It's small-town stuff. The cameraman is shaking and going all over the place.”
There was enough, though, to like. And Washington's accomplishments were impressive, even if he did them at a 1A high school.
His final two seasons at Stamford, Washington caught 151 passes for 2,503 yards and 46 touchdowns in leading his team to a second straight Class 1A state championship. And that was just part of the story. He'd been to the state track meet in five events every spring since his freshman year, played tennis and basketball and even baseball one season. He wanted to play golf, but couldn't fit it in the spring schedule, so he saved the links for the weekends.
As a senior, he'd go on to win the triple jump and the 100-meter dash at the state track meet, and finish second in the 100, third in the long jump and fourth on the 800-meter relay team. He also qualified for state in tennis, advancing to the quarterfinals in doubles. That came after he was named district Most Valuable Player in basketball.
He also served on the Stamford student council.
Oh, and he's a black belt in taekwondo.
“You can't dispute running 21.4 (in the 200),” Dunn said. “You can't dispute jumping 23 feet. I mean, the guy won the triple jump. Then he plays tennis and basketball. In these videos, he's 360-jamming the basketball. Now, how often do you see a 6-foot guy do that?
“If we're going to miss on a kid, we're going to miss on a guy that's a great character kid with unbelievable athleticism.”
Except the Cowboys didn't miss. They may even have hit it big.
Washington jumped into the Cowboys receiver rotation as a true freshman a year ago, leading the team with six touchdown catches and joining Dez Bryant, Marcellus Rivers and Hart Lee Dykes as the only freshmen in program history to put up a 100-yard receiving day.
This season, Washington has 27 catches for 388 yards and two touchdowns as one of several options in a stacked OSU receiving corps. And he has two years left to play beyond this season.
So the chance Dunn and the Cowboys took on the athlete from tiny Stamford, Texas, turned out well once they invited him up for a visit, camp or no camp, resulting in a scholarship offer on the spot.
“Just a great kid,” Dunn said. “And I'll tell you, his parents are awesome.
“It's like you're recruiting John Wayne's son. It's awesome.”
Mr. and Mrs. John Wayne, as far as James is concerned.
“My mom is one of the biggest influences on my entire life,” he said. “She's a big Christian lady. She worked hard, showed me the way in a lot of things. Her and my dad are the biggest role models in my life.
“I just want to be like them however I can.”
http://newsok.com/osu-football-cowboys-found-a-gem-in-james-washington/article/5456900
