{"id":84228,"date":"2021-11-22T10:59:20","date_gmt":"2021-11-22T18:59:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/test-www.ewu.edu\/give\/?post_type=stories&p=84228"},"modified":"2021-11-23T08:40:38","modified_gmt":"2021-11-23T16:40:38","slug":"84228","status":"publish","type":"stories","link":"https:\/\/test-www.ewu.edu\/give\/news\/84228\/","title":{"rendered":"Student Profile: Anthany Smith"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Anthany<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Anthany Smith, a\u00a023-year-old Eagle Football safety, is\u00a0known for shutting down the competition and lighting up the\u00a0red Inferno.<\/em><\/p>\n

His hard work on the field earned him\u00a0All-Big Sky Conference first team honors for 2020-21, and he was selected as defensive MVP\u00a0for the\u00a0Eagle Football team.<\/p>\n

Hardworking athletes like Anthany bring an infectious energy to Eastern’s NCAA Division 1 athletics while increasing the university\u2019s visibility, rallying alumni support and creating a more engaging\u00a0collegiate experience for other students.<\/p>\n

Watching Eastern\u2019s 300-plus student athletes dominate the Big Sky Conference is thrilling, yet there is so much more to their stories.<\/p>\n

Anthany, an Everett, Washington native, gives his very best both on and off the field.\u00a0The business management major balances a full class schedule and trips to the library, where he spends up to five hours at a time studying, with four-plus hours of practice\u00a0and\u00a0training six days a week. In his little free time, Anthany and his teammates volunteer. These demanding schedules leave no time to work an outside job.<\/p>\n

Anthany\u00a0walked onto the\u00a0Eagle Football\u00a0team as\u00a0a\u00a0freshman\u00a0\u2013 earning a\u00a0partial scholarship.\u00a0Like many of\u00a0Eastern\u2019s\u00a0student athletes,\u00a0he\u00a0is the first in his family to go to college and is on his own\u00a0to cover\u00a0most of his college and living expenses.<\/p>\n

For two years, Anthany struggled to pay his bills and afford enough groceries. At one point, he was tired of the financial struggles and thought about quitting college and going to work full time.<\/p>\n

Anthany, who continued playing hard on the field and studying hard in his classes, explains what kept him Eagle strong: \u201cMentally, you\u2019ve got to always remember, \u2018Why am I doing this?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

When the diligent student athlete was notified that he was awarded a full scholarship for his senior year, it was lifechanging.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt just felt good to see that my hard work was paying off,\u201d he says, \u201cI appreciate people taking a chance on me and giving me this opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Anthany Smith, a\u00a023-year-old Eagle Football safety, is\u00a0known for shutting down the competition and lighting up the\u00a0red Inferno. His hard work on the field earned him\u00a0All-Big Sky Conference first team honors for 2020-21, and he was selected as defensive MVP\u00a0for the\u00a0Eagle Football team. Hardworking athletes like Anthany bring an infectious energy to Eastern’s NCAA Division 1…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":462,"featured_media":84227,"menu_order":0,"template":"","class_list":["post-84228","stories","type-stories","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","stories_categories-impact-of-gifts"],"acf":{"featured_video":"","subheading":"","display_byline":false,"display_date_published":true,"Links":[{"stories_ctas_link":{"title":"View Athletic Profile","url":"https:\/\/goeags.com\/sports\/football\/roster\/anthany-smith\/7556","target":""}}],"Resources":false},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test-www.ewu.edu\/give\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/stories\/84228","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test-www.ewu.edu\/give\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/stories"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test-www.ewu.edu\/give\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/stories"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test-www.ewu.edu\/give\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/462"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/test-www.ewu.edu\/give\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/stories\/84228\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":84233,"href":"https:\/\/test-www.ewu.edu\/give\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/stories\/84228\/revisions\/84233"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test-www.ewu.edu\/give\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/84227"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test-www.ewu.edu\/give\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=84228"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}