Showcasing talent on and off the field

Every year, the athletic department brings more than 100 new student-athletes to the University. To help fans get to know some of these newcomers, this magazine introduces you to five who have unique interests and backgrounds.

Jenna Akins

Jenna Akins, a freshman triple jumper on the track and field team, plays an instrument invented in the 1800s. She learned to play the banjo in a very modern way — YouTube. “The store I bought it at offered four free lessons,” Akins says. “After that, I just got on YouTube to learn the songs I like.” Her favorite songs to play are “Country Road” and “Wagon Wheel.” Most of Akins’ early performances have been for her friends and family, but perhaps larger crowds are in the future. Akins also plays the ukulele and says the two instruments strum differently.

Donnell Bowes

Donnell Bowes, a native of Greenford, England, is a central defender on the soccer team this fall, but the sport of his childhood was cricket.

Bowes’ parents are Jamaican, and he watched West Indies cricket as a child. His uncle is a cricket coach in England. “In our back garden, my dad would bowl against me or vice versa,” Bowes says. “I always liked to hit the ball as far as I could, but I was a fast bowler as well. That’s how my sporting career got started.”

Bowes continued to play cricket recreationally but began to get serious about football (soccer) around age 15. His school team won a national competition, and Bowes began to think about his future in the sport. Though he began his career as a forward or winger, Bowes moved to central defender as a teenager and patterns his game after Manchester United and Ivory Coast defender Eric Bailly.

Sam Mathews

Sam Mathews of League City, Texas, is a freshman quarterback for the Bisons, but his route to Harding included six years in Japan. Mathews was born at Camp Pendleton in California but was not there long before moving to Okinawa, Japan, where his father was in the Marine Corps. “We were always moving from place to place,” Mathews says. “We lived on a military base in Japan, and it was a great community to grow up in.” Mathew’s best memories of Japan are his family’s weekend trips to the beach. His family returned to the United States and spent two years at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina before settling in the Houston area. Mathews attended Clear Creek High School, where he rushed and threw for 33 touchdowns as a senior.

Savana Melton

With four games left in the 2014 North Little Rock (Arkansas) High School junior varsity football season, Coach Jeff Brown needed someone — anyone — to kick extra points. There was not an obvious choice among players on the team, and no one on the men’s soccer team wanted to give it a try. One of the guys on the team said, “Hey, Savana can kick, she’s played soccer forever.”

The recommendation led to a tryout in P.E. class. It went well. After one kicking session, Coach Brown told her: “I’m bringing you a jersey tomorrow.” The rest is history. Melton kicked for the rest of that season and three more for the Charging Wildcats. She now holds the state record with 68 consecutive made extra points as a junior and 237 career points, playing for North Little Rock’s state championship team in 2017.

Her success led to an interesting evening during her senior season when she was crowned homecoming queen dressed in her football gear before the Friday night game.

This season, Melton continues her soccer career as a Lady Bison. Playing forward, Melton looks to build on a high school soccer career where she led her team in scoring all four seasons and won four club soccer state championships with the Mighty Bluebirds.

John Stokes

“They stand out like trees,” says John Stokes, a freshman golfer from Dickson, Tennessee, of his ability to find four-leaf clovers. At 10 years old in 2010, Stokes and his brother were playing golf in the back yard. He reached over and pulled up a four-leaf clover, then found another and another. With the help of an attorney and a video camera, Stokes’ parents helped him certify his talent, and he received a plaque for “Finding the most four-leaf clovers in the shortest time.” He found three in 20 minutes. He later received a second plaque for breaking his own record. About 1 in every 10,000 clovers has four leaves, but for Stokes they might as well be four-feet tall. “I find them all the time,” he says.