Ridgeview’s Adkins named an SI All-American candidate

CLINTWOOD — Last month, Sports Illustrated named their SI All-American top 1,000 football players in the country and Ridgeview’s Trenton Adkins made the list.

“It feels great,” Adkins said via text message. “I’m more than honored and thankful.”

The award itself came as quite a surprise to Adkins.

“I had no idea. I just saw it posted and people were talking to me about it. I was surprised and really happy,” Adkins said.

The candidates will be narrowed down to 250 finalists in October and again to 99 in November. Then the top 25 first-team finalists will be named at SI’s national Sportsperson of the Year banquet in New York.

Adkins is currently ranked highly in several polls, including the State of Va Composite Rankings. He is also ranked 267th in the country as well as the 10th best running back nationally. He is the second ranked running back in the state of Virginia.

Adkins has set a few records in only three years running for the Wolfpack. Last year’s mark of 48 total touchdowns in a season puts him in sixth place overall in the VHSL standings, just one behind Powell Valley's Thomas Jones’s 49 in 1995. He is also only the 27th player to achieve 6,000 career yards in the state of Virginia and with his senior season yet to come, many feel he has a chance to own the record. He would most certainly pass Jones’s 7,193 career yards and needs only just over 3,000 yards to take over first place held by Grayson Overstreet of Staunton River High School at 9,042 yards.

“Yes, that record is something I am really hoping to accomplish if we are able to play,” Adkins said.

If. It’s a big word right now in the state of Virginia as fall sports have been moved to the spring in the time of COVID-19. Currently, several smaller NCAA conferences have cancelled or moved fall sports to spring, including the South Athletic Conference where UVA Wise plays and the Old Dominion Athletic Conference that hosts Emory & Henry. This does not bode well for any running back who is poised to set several records.

Adkins has pondered the possibility of graduating early and moving forward to college, but he wants one more year in high school. With Virginia delaying all fall sports, Adkins is looking at the possibility of transferring to either Pikeville or Dobyns-Bennett to play his senior year. His decision will mostly ride on the playoff system that the VHSL puts in place.

“Even if the playoffs get cancelled, it is still not guaranteed that I am leaving. As of right now, I’m staying at Ridgeview,” Adkins said.

Adkins has received 15 NCAA Division I offers, including Virginia, Virginia Tech, Tennessee and West Virginia. On July 30, Adkins stated on his Twitter profile he will be naming his top five colleges very soon.

“I’m getting all that figured out. I’ve felt at home in a few places, but I’m going to take officials to my top five schools and go from there sometime soon,” Adkins said.

Adkins has a lot to figure out in the upcoming days, but when it comes down to it, he just wants to play ball.

“The VHSL has a meeting mid-August about our playoff situation. I won’t know very much till after the meeting. Right now, I still play for the ‘Pack.”

In a time of such football uncertainty, this will be music to the Wolfpack’s fans’ ears.