KWBG Senior Spotlight: Will Atkinson, Madrid Senior

Joining us now on our senior spotlight on KWBG, we're heading over to Madrid tonight and get a chance to talk to Will Atkinson, senior at Madrid, and we're going to talk about school and sports and other stuff as well. And I was just kind of joking with Will. He had a big game last Friday night at 30 carries. Will, that had to be a career high, huh? Yeah, for sure. What was it like Saturday morning waking up? Didn't get out of bed much. I was real sore. Is that one of those things? Do you, do you, I mean, when do you start kind of feeling back to normal? Um, usually come Sunday night, Monday morning, I start feeling better. We get a lift in Sunday night, get some things shaken out, get stretching, just to get loose. Well, I gotta tell you, that had to be a thrilling game last week. Will, what's that like leaving the locker room after the game and hopping into a vehicle and either heading out to eat or heading home, whatever you decided to do? What's that like? Um, well, I was too tired after the game to go out to eat, so I just went home, but I mean, usually in the locker room, we're all excited. Everyone's jacked up listening to music, so vibes are really good after the game, especially after a big one like that. No, I bet so, I bet so. Well, let's talk about school a little bit, Will. I want to know about classes so far here. First semester, your senior years were just over a month in. How's school been like so far at Madrid? It's been pretty easy this year so far. My schedule is not too bad, but I still got some dual credit classes through DMAC that I'm taking, so not empty, but it's pretty chill. Okay, what are you enjoying? Give me a class or two that you're having a good time with so far. Um, I've got some friends in my government class that I like hanging out with, and I don't know. My calculus class is pretty fun. Alright, DMAC. Okay. Alright, so you know I have to ask the next one too. What's the most difficult class you're taking right now? Uh, I don't know. I'm not very good at Spanish. I'm in Spanish 4 right now, so that's probably one of my harder ones. Wait a minute, though. Spanish 4, Will, that means you had to go through a couple of Spanish classes to get there? Yeah, I made it through the first three, but this one's a bit different, you know. Everyone's talking in Spanish. It's a lot more. Alright, so you can't just go in there and just talk a little English and then maybe do some verbs and call it a day? I would. I figured it probably wasn't that easy. So with the classes you're taking at DMAC, Will, next year let's fast forward you a little bit. What's future plans kind of looking like for you? Yeah, well, I plan on studying engineering in college. I don't know what type yet, possibly mechanical or electrical. And then I also want to play football in college. I don't know quite where yet, though. I've looked at a few schools like Cornell College and Mount Vernon or Warburg. Schools like that. And good visits so far? Yeah, I've been on some pretty good visits and football visits. It's been great. I love the staff there and the campus is really nice for both. Alright, I'm always interested in this, Will, because I always find it kind of different with my kids, but it always comes down to one or two things. But what would make a campus or a college like a good fit for you? How would you know when you walked on campus, you had your visits and everything, talked to coaches, advisors and whatnot, how would you know it was a good spot? I don't know. Sometimes I just look around like a courtyard area or right in the middle. If you look around and the weather's nice and they've got a nice courtyard, nice grass, nice people walking around and always looking at the cafeteria too. Go check out the foods. So if they had the perfect food, Will, getting ready to be served at that cafeteria, what would it be? I don't know. I like a good spread of stuff. Maybe like pizza, wings. Good grill out food too. What about a nice steak sitting there? I wish. Will, could you even imagine walking into a cafeteria on a college campus and their steak being, I mean, come on, there's no shy. I would be impressed for sure. That's a sign up immediately, bud. And you know what? If you need somebody to come hang out every now and then, like during lunch, just give me a holler. I'm there, okay? If I find one, I'll let you know. Oh boy. Well, okay. So we kind of know what we want to at least do when we're at college or at least close area wise. Does like location matter? If you're a couple hours away from home, is that okay? Yeah, I'd like to be a couple hours away from home. I know my parents want me to be close, but far enough away that I don't come home every weekend. There you go. But if you need laundry done, you can get there. Yeah, for sure. That's what I'm talking about. That's what I'm talking about. So you've had a lot of things that go on so far this, Will, Will, when we talk about, you know, first football game, homecoming is already over with. What are some other things you're looking forward to your senior year? Will, give me a couple activities or things that you like to do? Yeah, well, after football season, I go straight into wrestling, which I'm pretty excited for, senior wrestling season. Sure. And then after that, I've got track. I like running hurdles and tracks, so got a pretty good group of guys I like running hurdles with. Yes, you do. And then after that, you know, graduation, getting into college stuff. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. Okay, so take me away from football, take me away from school. What do you like to do in some free time? Will, I got to imagine you have a little bit of free time. What do you like to go do? Yeah, for sure. Well, a lot of my free time right now is spent playing Minecraft and video games with the boys. Yeah, you know, after football games, after practices, we like going home and just taking some time to relax, play some video games. Yeah. Will, you got to tell me about how do you play multiplayer on Minecraft? I've seen my kids play Minecraft. I kind of understand what it is. What do you guys do during Minecraft? You got to tell me some more about this. Yeah, so we put on a realm where you got to pay just a pretty cheap monthly subscription so all the guys can play together. I think we've got a group like six guys that are playing and we just relax, build stuff, hang out and talk. We're usually on a video call just talking to each other while we play. See, I figured you guys maybe got together, played football and talked a bunch of trash on each other. We do that sometimes. That probably can happen on Minecraft though too, can it? Yeah, I kind of figured it would. Will, give me some memories. Give me some Madrid memories here. I always like to kind of wonder back when you start thinking. You can do sports or just fun stuff too. It doesn't matter to me, but give me a couple of memories. What are some things you're going to remember about Madrid for a long time? Oh, memories. A lot of it's just hanging out with friends. I've got a lot of work memories because I work with a buddy that I play almost every sport with. I used to hang out with Preston Wicker that went to Madrid and just hang out with all my guys most of the time. I play sports with the same group of guys every season, so I hang around them a lot. What's it like running out onto Randy Hinkelfield on a Friday night, Will? It's electric. Madrid's football culture is great. It's a great community, great field. I think we've got one of the best fields in the state as far as grass, corn fed field, so I think it's great. It's one of the coolest locations. I tell anybody that just having the cornfield in the background and the school right there, it's pretty fun on a Friday night is all I'm going to tell you. Will, I need a piece of advice before we let you go here today. I always ask my seniors if they could give a freshman a couple of things to do to have a great four years at Madrid what they might do. Give me some advice. You can do sports. You can do school. I'll let you pick it, but what do you think you might tell them? I don't know. Some I go by a lot is don't just go and try to survive, go and thrive. That can be for sports in school. You're not just trying to survive a football game or survive a season. You want to go out and thrive, go battle and dominate. Great advice. Great advice. Will, thank you so much for joining us on our Senior Spotlight. Have a great rest of your senior year. Yes, thanks, Ryan. You bet. Will Atkinson again joining us. Madrid Senior on our Senior Spotlight.