First of all, allow us to wish you a prosperous New Year from both Independence Bank and Kentucky Prep Gridiron. As is our custom, it is the first of the week, and time to designate, this week’s, Independence Bank Player of the Week. Independence Bank is proud to sponsor a weekly article highlighting players in the areas where Independence Bank flourishes who embody the same type of revolutionary service to their respective football teams which has made Independence Bank unique and special in the banking industry. Independence Bank has a goal of achieving everyday excellence and this week we are focusing on a player whose performance exceeded both the Mustangs, and the Paducah community’s, expectations. We are focusing on a linebacker who seemed to both strive for and achieve excellence every single day he walked on either a practice or playing field. That player is Class of 2018 and signee with EIU, Skyler Mayes.
Dale Dauten is an American business management columnist, an author, a professional speaker, a management coach, a mediator and someone who once said something either about playing linebacker or being a lawyer, or both, on which I intend to rely in this column about Skyler Mayes. Criticizing lawyers for lawsuits is like criticizing linebackers for knocking people down. Linebackers knock people down, that is just what they do, and no one around the area did it better or more often than Skyler Mayes.
Skyler Mayes at 6’2″ tall and weighing 220 pounds was big enough to play tackle to tackle and still get immediately up into the line and make plays coming right at him. Skyler runs the 40 in 4.62, the pro-shuttle in 4.31, and has a 37 inch vertical, meaning he is fast, quick and explosive enough to also cover both the flats and sideline to sideline. Skyler, who is young for his age and played much of the past season as a 17 year old, bench presses 300 pounds and squats 535 pounds. When Skyler gets to Charleston, Illinois, and gets to participate in EIU’s strength & conditioning program, together with getting a little more age on him, it is easy to see how he will arrive at ready for play quickly upon his enrollment.
I formerly talked with both Skyler’s parents in connection with publishing an earlier article on this site about Skyler and Skyler’s mom, herself a middle school teacher, provided me with information which also made recruiters drool. Skyler has a 4.063 GPA in honor’s and dual credit (college) courses. Recruiting kids who are likely to succeed in college academically is a HUGE priority. Both EIU and Independence Bank prefer athletes who are students first, and that can certainly be said about Skyler Mayes.
Congratulations to Skyler Mayes for his Revolutionary Play and efforts in the classroom which have earned him this week’s recognition from the fastest growing bank in the Commonwealth of Kentucky, your friends at Independence Bank. This is Fletcher Long reporting for Kentucky Prep Gridiron reminding you to PLAY THROUGH THE WHISTLE!
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