Travis West Is Playing Big For The Viking Football Team

Junior nickelback Travis West wants to play in the NFL. That’s been his goal practically from when he started playing football as a third grader on a team with fifth and sixth graders.    

He earned all-league and honorable mention all-state honors in football and track at Portland’s Central Catholic High School and walked on to the PSU football program, where he has worked his way into a starting nickelback position….all standard stuff, right?     

Except at 5’6”, 160 pounds, West is the smallest Viking and as Head Coach Bruce Barnum said with a smile…”there usually are a few people taller than him on the opposing teams when we show up for games.”      

But that just has made West work harder and this season he has 21 tackles in the first five games, including 14 against Oregon and Wyoming.    

“Almost always, the person I’m playing against is taller than me. The only thing this means for me is that I have to make sure my coverage is great, staying very close and not allowing any space,” West said.    

Barnum called West’s skill set “outstanding. His motor and knowledge of the game and the ability to anticipate make him better than his competition.” 

Still, his lack of size also made him have to work harder to even get onto a collegiate football field so he could continue on the road to trying to fulfill his dream.     

West drew little attention from college coaches out of high school even with his honors and his membership in the National Honor Society.    

Besides football, West played basketball, wrestled and participated in the long and triple jumps and 100-meter dash at Central.  His favorite sport was the triple jump.  He enjoyed those sports but always had his eye on playing college football because he knew it was the route to an NFL career.    

“After my senior year of high school, I talked to my coach and told him that I wanted to go to Portland State. He knew the coaches there, shared my film with them and told them of my interest.  They reached out to me and that’s where it started,” he recalled.       

He played mainly on special teams and occasionally as rover back his first two years following a red shirt season. But, a strong spring in 2021 earned him the start against Montana the following fall.     

And that got the ball rolling.    

West’s expectations at PSU are to “make a big impact on the field helping the team make the playoffs.” He’ll do this with “the competitiveness I bring to the team as well as a no limitations mindset. I don’t let what other people think of my height affect what I do on the field.”    

Barnum also has tall expectations.    

“From the day I met Travis, I expected him to be great on and off the field. He is a silent leader and a favorite of everyone on the football team,” Barnum said.    

Travis is very straight forward about the relationship between football and school. He’s going to school in order to play football.        

“I am going to school to play football.  School has some fun aspects to it, but it’s not necessarily fun.  I do school because it is required to play football,” he said.   At the same time, he’s a Academic All-Big Sky Conference honoree and is carrying a 3.64 cumulative GPA.  “Even though school isn’t as much fun to me, I still try to do well”, West said.      

His major focuses on the producing and creating of music and West writes and creates his own. He recently released a song on all platforms titled “Remember you”. His artist name is JoiZion.

West is also the son of the late Travis West Sr., who long-time Portland State Athletics followers will recall was a national champion and All-American wrestler for the Vikings from 1987-90. Travis Sr. is a member of the PSU Athletics Hall of Fame.     

And, in case you’re tempted to think West’s NFL aspirations are a pipe dream…he’d be joining the likes of New York Jets strong safety Jim Leonard, 5’8”, 160 pounds; Houston kick and punt returner Trindon Holliday (a recent draftee), 5’5”, 165 pounds, and San Diego running back Daren Sproles, 5’6”, 190 pounds.    

After all, he’s been playing larger than he is since he was an eight-year-old playing with a bunch of 10 and 11-year-olds.