Palmer senior earns chance to play football in Minnesota

PALMER — Palmer High head coach Rod Christiansen is not worried about Jared Oviok finding his place on a college football team. Christiansen knows Oviok is going to give his future squad plenty of options.

And that team is the University of Minnesota Morris.

Thursday afternoon, surrounded by friends and family, Oviok signed his National Letter of Intent to attend the Morris, Minnesota, school and play for the Cougars.

“I’m not sure where I’d put him if I was the coach there,” Christiansen said at the signing ceremony at Palmer High.

And that’s because Oviok had success in multiple areas during his career with the Moose. Oviok started in the defensive backfield since his sophomore season. He was part of Palmer’s running attack on offense. Oviok was also a standout on special teams.

“He has big upside,” Christiansen said.

Christiansen said Oviok has the physical attributes and the intangibles to have success at the next level.

“His is a real coachable kid,” Christiansen said. “He really works hard. He’ll do what they ask him to do.”

Oviok said the school recruited him to play running back.

“I like to play safety a lot, but running back is really fun too,” Oviok said.

Oviok, one of three running backs with at lest 82 carries for the Moose during the 2017 season, finished with 738 yards and seven touchdowns as a senior. He averaged 7.6 yards per carry.

“He has surprising speed. He broke a lot of long ones,” Christiansen said. “He has good football speed. He carries the pads well, runs north-south really well.”

Oviok said he has wanted to play college football since he was in middle school, and said he considered it a realistic goal when the Palmer coaching staff named him a starter as a sophomore. He said the chance to play early in his career was among the reasons he chose to commit to the school.

Oviok is now the second Palmer High product in the Minnesota Morris program. Chris Yannayon will be a junior next season.

Oviok and fellow Palmer High senior Lucas Santana were both honored during the ceremony. For more on Santana, see https://www.frontiersman.com/sports/california-college-signs-second-valley-all-state-lineman-of-offseason/article_c0b065ee-4083-11e8-865f-2733c44c6c07.html.

Contact Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman sports editor Jeremiah Bartz at sports@frontiersman.com.