The pieces were there for West Side’s Ladarrion Newell.
This season, though, Cougars coach Alger Boswell believes the 6-foot-1, 180-pound senior has figured out where those pieces belong.
“It’s just been one of those things when everything comes together at the right time, it’s your senior year and all of the pieces fall into place,” Boswell said. “He’s having a great year so far.”
During West Side’s lopsided victories in its first two games of the season, Newell started at running back and linebacker and made key plays on both sides of the ball.
Making contributions on defense is nothing new for Newell, who leads the Cougars with 14 tackles after posting a team-high 74 tackles last season. He already has six tackles for loss, another team high, as well as a pair of forced fumbles and one fumble recovery going into a home game against Boone Grove this week.
But Newell wasn’t a factor on offense before this season. He had a 43-yard touchdown run during West Side’s 44-18 win against East Chicago on Friday and is second on the team with 114 rushing yards on just 14 carries.
“I haven’t been running the ball since my freshman year, so I hadn’t been working on it,” he said. “We’ve always had good running backs, so I learned from watching them, and I feel like I’ve been doing good when I get the chance.”
Boswell said the combination of Newell’s physical abilities and his better grasp of the game has been essential to his strong start.
“His film study really stepped up,” Boswell said. “He’s pretty much our quarterback on defense, and we ask a lot of him. He’s been studying film, and he’s on it now.
“He’s always been a great athlete, but the film study this year has put his mental game on another level.”
Newell, the youngest of five children who have all played sports at West Side, has grown up as an underdog. His father, Mario Newell, said Ladarrion certainly took his lumps.
“They were definitely going to pick on the youngest,” Mario Newell said with a laugh. “It went down from the oldest, who messed with the second-youngest, then down to the third and the fourth and then to him. There was never a dull moment in our house.”
As Ladarrion Newell got older, he said he paid close attention to his brother DeMarion, a 2020 West Side graduate who is a senior safety at Franklin.
“I just saw how hard he worked and the effort he kept putting in every day,” Ladarrion Newell said.
Newell has become a multisport athlete at West Side, where he also wrestles and plays baseball. A regional qualifier at 175 pounds in February, Newell said wrestling season has paid dividends in football.
“I was working on getting stronger, faster and being able to tackle better,” he said. “Wrestling takes a lot out of you, so moving on to football feels good now, especially playing both sides of the ball.”
Boswell said Newell’s effort makes him a leader for the Cougars.
“He’s not a big rah-rah leader, but everyone follows him because of his work ethic and his knowledge,” Boswell said. “He’s always here and always on time. He’s one of those types of leaders.”
Newell takes that role seriously in a program that hasn’t won a postseason game since 2014.
“I just need to keep the defense good,” he said. “I’m a defensive captain, so I’ve got to keep them moving, keep them motivated and make sure nothing gets out of hand so we can continue to play well.”
Dave Melton is a freelance reporter.
