#WETSU—We eat this stuff up. That’s the motto of the Poteau Pirates and one of their alums, Dean Odom, now a sophomore at Northeastern State University where he plays tight end for the RiverHawks. In Pirate country that motto and the name Odom are synonymous with high caliber football.

“It really all started with my grandpa Larry and then my dad Mike who went on to play at Evangel University and my uncle Chriswho played college ball at Tulsa. I even have a cousin, Bo, who is at Emporia State whom we played earlier this year. There was never really any pressure on me to play football, but it was known that it was the thing to do, and I’ve enjoyed it.”

As a freshman last year, Dean was thrust into the starting lineup early after the starter was injured and that had its pluses and minuses.

“Ideally, I would like to have had that first season to get settled and hit the weights more, but it was a blessing to get the game experience early and I learned a lot about movement and route running. Playing tight end isn’t always glamorous because you don’t get the ball thrown your way a lot but for me that’s ok because I love to block and the feeling of moving another man against his will is something that catching a pass can’t touch.”

Dean is majoring in Health and Human Performance which means lots of tough classes.

“On our long bus rides to and from games I end up studying a lot to keep up with my schoolwork, but NSU also offers on-line classes which helps because we have to be at football practice at 1:00 every day and so I’ve got a limited amount of time to take classes. I think the student/teacher relationship here is one of the best in the country. In the big Division I schools, you’ll have classes with 500 people in them, but here it’s usually no more than 50 in a class, which makes it easier to get to know the instructor and also to make friends. Anyone can have the WETSU mentality here because there are so many things to do, and I would recommend NSU to anyone.”