The Tribune

By RENALDO DORSETT

Sports Reporter

rdorsett@tribunemedia.net

IT WAS a week of highlights for Bahamian football player Kato Fawkes, who achieved a pair of career milestones in the classroom and on the field.

Fawkes graduated from the University of  Idaho with his BS in Sociology after previously completing his BS in Organisational Sciences last fall.

The Grand Bahama native also learned that his Idaho Vandals accepted a berth to the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl where they will face the Colorado State Rams at Albertsons Stadium in Boise, Idaho, on December 22.

It will be the third bowl appearance in Vandals history.They finished 8-4 this season, which is one more win than they had in their previous four seasons combined.

The Rams finished 7-5 in the Mountain West Conference.

Fawkes, in the final season of his career - his post graduate season - appeared in nine games this season in a reserve role for the Vandals behind starting guards Noah Johnson and Mason Woods.

Fawkes and the current Vandals roster look to make history as the football programme prepares for play in a lower division next fall.

The Vandals currently play in the Sun Belt Conference of Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) to be relegated to the Football Chaampionship Series and play in the Big Sky Conference in 2018.

The Vandals will become the first programme to make the move to drop down from the FBS to FCS since 1982, and the only one to do so without the NCAA forcing a decision.

The 6’4” 303-pound guard, a native of Freeport, Grand Bahama, graduated in May while he saw his first official gametime as a member of the Vandals. In the 2014 season, he was sidelined with an injury and redshirted.

Prior to his transfer to Idaho, Fawkes spent two seasons at the JUCO level at Western Iowa where his stellar play placed garnered attention from Division I programmes. Fawkes started every game for 11-1 Western Iowa and was a second-team Iowa Community College Athletic Conference selection.

Iowa Western was the league leader in total offence (522.5 yards per game), passing offence (257.5 yards per game), completions (274), pass attempts (441) and touchdowns (28).

The 23-year-old lineman is the son of Anthony and Bianca Fawkes.