Throwing the deep ball? Just look to speedy Peninsula wideout Akulschin

Peninsula’s high-flying offense wants to make a deep run into the state tournament this season, and Chris Akulschin is a big reason why.

The speedy senior wideout not only wants to take part of the Peninsula offense via the deep ball -- a role in which he excels -- but also on defense as a valued cornerback for the Seahawks.

In Peninsula Coach Ross Filkins’ words, it’s Akulschin’s diligence throughout his offseason training -- a period that has gone on much longer than expected -- that propelled him to his high level of play, one that’s already netted him a college offer from Pacific Lutheran University.

“When quarantine first started, I was outside doing a lot of footwork stuff,” Akulschin said.

“I was looking up videos online and trying to improve my footwork and my speed.”

Akulschin’s teammates have also kept up in their preparations, using home gyms and team get-togethers as a way to focus on strength and conditioning.

“(We’re) pretty excited and pretty hopeful that the season will still happen,” Akulschin said. “We’ve been preparing for it, for sure.”

A four-year player for the Seahawks, Akulschin now helps make up a dominant senior class, one that Filkins said may be his best yet over some 25 years. He’s included in the dozen or so seniors that Filkins expects to play at the college level next fall, and his offer from PLU -- among visits and conversations from other colleges -- establishes Akulschin as part of that group. In his junior season, Akulschin caught 16 passes for 309 yards and four touchdowns, averaging 19.3 yards per catch.

The wideout has yet to commit to a program, but is deep into talks with both Central Washington University and the University of San Diego, the latter being a school he visited earlier this fall with an appealing engineering program.

And despite his abilities on defense, Akulschin says the position of receiver is what he plans to focus on, given his speed from the jump.

“[Chris] is an excellent deep threat due to his top-end speed,” Filkins said. “He has a good violent release off the line of scrimmage and he is a very intelligent route runner.”

Akulschin says his speed could be most valuable when lined up alongside Bryce Cleave, a teammate with similar skills. Expect Cleave, who was regarded as one of the South Sound Conference’s best cornerbacks a season ago, to line up on offense as a receiver opposite Akulschin.

The senior pair somewhat reflect each other: Akulschin, the top-tier receiver, plans on playing a fair amount of defense in the Peninsula secondary, while Cleave, the elite defender, aims to line up on offense as a wideout.

“It’s been my speed,” Akulschin said. “I’ve usually been one of the faster guys on the team. I’m really excited about this because we actually have Bryce Cleave… we’re both bigger guys and we’ve both got pretty (good) speed. I’m excited to work some more deep stuff this year.”

The Seahawks acknowledge that their season ended earlier than planned last season; their loss in the Round of 16 to Mount Spokane High School kept them out of the quarterfinals. In a year far from normal -- Peninsula’s fall sports season would typically be long gone by now -- Akulschin recognizes that every player on the roster needs to be held accountable for their preparation of a season that has continued to get pushed farther down the calendar.

“It takes a lot of individual effort,” Akulschin said. “I know a lot of us guys have been doing our own separate things. There’s not really much that we can do together. I’m just hoping that we can all be accountable and push each other individually so that when we get back on the field, we click and we’re all ready to go.”

Akulschin noted the importance of team chemistry, and the ability to excel in a given role, even if it means playing on both sides of the ball.

For Akulschin specifically, that also meant holding down the position of kicker for two seasons, before Filkins recruited nationally-ranked senior Camron Watkins to the squad.

Akulschin doesn’t expect the role of kicker to come back to him any time soon.

“If they threw me in there, I don’t know what would happen,” Akulschin said with a laugh.

This story was originally published January 5, 2021 at 6:00 AM.