Akron East running back Ziaire Stevens proving to be special on and off the football field

The sophomore already has more than 2,000 yards rushing in his career

Photo by Jeff Harwell

AKRON, Ohio – For Akron East running back Ziaire Stevens, this has not been the easiest of seasons. But he has powered through and has proven to be special, even as a sophomore.

In East’s season opener against Massillon Jackson, Stevens went down with an ankle sprain early in the game. The injury forced him to miss the next week and then allowed him to only play sparingly in the following game against Uniontown Lake.

But Stevens came back strong in week 4 and hasn’t looked back since.

“(There have) definitely been trials and tribulations,” Stevens said. “(Starting with) week four, it has been good for me ever since. The offensive line, they have been playing the best I have ever seen them play and it has been a good year.”

This season, Stevens has rushed for 1,358 yards and 12 touchdowns, despite missing a game and playing limited snaps in three others as he was also limited in East’s regular season finale – a 50-8 win over Ellet – when he was “just being cautious” following a play in which he came up limping in the first quarter.

This comes after Stevens burst on the scene last season as a freshman with 95 carries for more than 800 yards and nine touchdowns to help lead East to the Akron City Series championship.

“It is great knowing my team can depend on me to make plays for us and helping us to come out with a win,” Stevens said.

In that freshman season, East head coach Marques Hayes knew he had something special early on, when Stevens took the field in the second game of the season against Massillon Perry and gave East a lead in overtime, even though the Dragons ended up losing 21-20.

“We got an opportunity to go down there against Massillon Perry and the kid scores the go-ahead touchdown in overtime for us,” Hayes said. “You don’t see that from a freshman.”

From that point on, the Dragons knew they had to get Stevens as involved as possible, even if there were more seasoned running backs ahead of him on the preseason depth chart. That included getting him 18 carries in the playoffs against Chardon, who was the reigning Division III state champions with one of the best defenses in the state. In the loss, Stevens had 138 yards rushing and averaged more than seven yards per carry.

“As the season progressed, you just saw him getting better and better and we were able to start feeding him more and more,” Hayes said. “You are a little bit cautious because you are like ‘he’s a freshman,’ but I will tell you what, we made it to the playoffs, and he is playing against the reigning state champs and he looked like he was a seasoned veteran.”

Chardon went on to win its second consecutive state title and is again East’s opponent in the first round this season.

Being the youngest of the running backs didn’t matter to Stevens. While some players might be willing to just wait their turn until their number was called, Stevens showed a willingness to compete right off the bat.

“He knew that we had underclassmen in the backfield who were coming back,” Hayes said. “Two of our starting running backs were coming back and he still came, and he wanted to compete.”

What might be most impressive is that Stevens chose to compete at East instead of fleeing elsewhere. In fact, he did the opposite of what most players in his position would do.

Instead of leaving his local public school to play for a private school, Stevens left a private school to play at East. Originally enrolled at Archbishop Hoban, Stevens never participated in activities with the Knights and found himself at home at East.

“He was slated to go to Archbishop Hoban,” Hayes said. “But his brother played football for us, so he ended up coming to us and working out in the offseason and before you know it, he felt like family. He said he really wanted to come here, so he did.”

Stevens, who already holds offers from Boston College and Cincinnati as well as multiple Mid-American Conference schools, has had two older brothers play for East. Kyaire Stevens graduated in 2022 and Deaire Stevens is a senior this year.

And while the younger Stevens is special on the field, his coach lights up when talking about the person he is off the field.

On most days, Stevens can be found in the weightroom working out while also making sure his teammates are doing their workouts.

“He is our self-proclaimed strength and conditioning coach,” Hayes said. “He is the guy in weightroom (yelling) ‘you better not skip your reps, I am watching.’”

When he isn’t doing something football-related, Stevens is a member of East’s leadership council and gets to speak to groups at different events. Before some of his speaking engagements, he reaches out to his coach for a little encouragement, and his coach is always there with a helpful word or two.

“He goes and speaks at all of these different engagements for the school,” Hayes said. “(Sometimes) he gets nervous, and he will facetime me ‘coach I just need a pick-me-up, just give me a little-pick-me up speech before I go out here and talk.’ He is that kid.”

Stevens doesn’t just reach out to Hayes on the phone for inspirational speeches, either. Sometimes, he just wants to play a game.

“He will send me a text message that he wants to play 8-ball pool over the phone,” Hayes said.

And Hayes obliges because he realizes that a kid like Stevens is a rarity.

“You get one of these kids and you don’t get them often like that where they come in and do the things he has been doing,” Hayes said. “(You) cherish every moment that you have with him, really.”

Photos by Jeff Harwell