Football, Lacrosse
Favorite athlete: Aaron Rodgers
Favorite team: Phillies
Favorite memory competing in sports: Getting our first win of the 2022 Football season against William Tennent on Senior Night.
Most embarrassing/funniest thing that has happened while competing in sports: I played JV golf in my sophomore year, and in our first match of the year I completely shanked my first drive and then teed up again and hit it out of bounds again. This was in front of all the other golfers and coaches because I was in the first group teeing off. Pretty embarrassing.
Music on Playlist: A lot of Lil Wayne, Future, and Moneybagg Yo.
Future plans: I plan to attend college after high school but I am still unsure of what school I will be going to or what I want to study.
Words to live by: “You only live once.”
One goal before turning 30: Own my own pet. Preferably a goat but if that is unreasonable at the time a dog will do.
One thing people don’t know about me: I got to dance on the dugout with the Philly Phanatic when I was younger during a Phillies game.
By GORDON GLANTZ
The chance to play football the last two years has meant a great deal to Gavin Myers, who was a bit of a sports vagabond, playing soccer, golf and basketball outside of lacrosse season in the spring.
With a series of dings and dents – including a gruesome broken leg, requiring a long rehabilitation, just one game into his high school soccer career – Myers he sought the green light from his mother and grandmother to hit the gridiron.
“My mom didn’t want me to get injured,” he said, after recalling the comeback from the soccer injury that went from a wheelchair to crutches to a walking boot to a half-year of rigorous rehab. “I had broken a lot of bones in my sports career, so that didn’t help me to convince her. My grandma was the same way. My brother got to play his senior year, so that I kind of did it for me. I was, like, ‘You let him play, you’ve got to let me play.’”
What also did it for him was his life approach of “you only live once” and taking it from there.
“Just a mindset I always have,” he explained. “I knew high school would be the only opportunity to play football, if I really want to try it out.”
Translation: The opportunity to play organized football was there, and he wanted to grab it after playing golf in the fall of his sophomore year in place of soccer, which just didn’t do it for him.
“I probably could have gone back to the soccer team and started, if I wanted,” he said. “But, you only live once, and I really wanted to try football.”
To that end, no regrets. At all.
“I never played (organized football) before,” said the receiver/hybrid linebacker. “It was always just with friends and family, like in the backyard, but I always wanted to play. It’s been great fun. I’ve got to say that’s really been my favorite sport, even though it’s only been two years.”
First-year coach Rory Graver came over to Wissahickon from Pope John Paul II with no preconceived notions about the holdovers he had inherited.
Myers caught his eye, both with his play and leadership, and quickly became one of his favorite players.
“He is someone who has improved greatly,” said Graver. “He came out last year, which was his first year, and he was kind of learning the sport. This year, he has taken a lot of strides as a football player.
“We’ve been telling our guys that, while they may not see the results on the scoreboard, we are getting better as a football program and as football players. Gavin has been a huge part of that.”
Ready to Rock
Myers, who excels as a lacrosse midfielder, believes that the combination of being new to organized football and not being fully healthy after a broken leg suffered as a freshman in his first soccer game was holding him back as a junior.
He came in ready to rock as a senior, and he has done just that.
“I knew I had to work on some stuff, just to become a better athlete, but it was also a lot for me to just get healthier,” said Myers. “I didn’t go through many injuries last year. My junior season, I was still wearing a knee brace and an ankle brace. Through the winter and then the spring, with lacrosse, I went away from my braces. This summer, during football, I was brace-free. That allowed me to move around a lot better.”
Laying a Foundation
Graver, who played high school football under legendary coach Joe Iacovitti at Plymouth Whitemarsh, has zero doubt that the Wissahickon program will turn the corner.
When that happens, he will think of Myers.
“He took over that leadership role, and he has been great with it,” said Graver. “I tell Gavin – and the other seniors – that, once we get this thing moving in the right direction, it’ll be because of what they’ve done.”
“It’s been a tough season, in terms of wins and losses, but he has some outstanding leadership skills that are some of the strongest that I’ve seen from a high school student-athlete.”
Myers explained that there is something about football, a certain rush, that can’t be found in the myriad of other sports he has played in his life, lacrosse included.
“I feel it’s always been natural for me to work within a group,” he said. “This season, I really learned how to work within a group. That wasn’t really until this football season.”
If there was an a-ha moment, it was right before the season opened.
“During the warmups for the first game, I just realized how much I cared about the program,” he said. “It’s been tough this year, but I just care a lot about the football team and the program. Myself and a couple of other captains, we all know that we have to set a good example for the young guys to form that culture for the years coming up.”
The net result? An amazing experience that has transcended wins and losses.
“I have had a lot of fun,” continued Myers, who credited both Graver and defensive coordinator Mike Magowan for his development. “It’s like a whole different sport, honestly, compared to all the other sports I’ve played. The brotherhood is just totally different on a football team. All 11 guys have to do their job on every play. It’s not really like that in any other sport. Even in the other sports that I played my whole life – basketball, lacrosse and soccer – it’s not really like that. I like the team bonding and how you have to depend on your teammates on Friday nights.”
That said, he will not forget the feeling of this season’s lone win, which came at home over William Tennent on Senior Night.
“That was great,” he said of the instant indelible memory. “I felt great for all the seniors. It was our last game at home, so it was nice to get a win in that situation. It was also good for the young guys, just to show them, you know, ‘Doesn’t this feel good? You guys should be doing this a lot more next season and the season after that.’ It was also Coach Graver’s first win (at Wissahickon), so that was also great.”
Planning Payback
After a 56-6 loss to Plymouth Whitemarsh, in what will be the second to last organized football of his life, Myers shared a thought with fellow senior Andrew Slackman, one of the team’s kickers.
Said Myers, a senior captain in both sports: “We were walking off the field together. I said, ‘I can’t wait for lacrosse season, so we can do this same thing to all the other lacrosse teams.’ In lacrosse, we dominate the whole league. We pretty much blow out every team.”
Myers first tasted what it was like playing lacrosse for Wissahickon as a sophomore who got some intermittent varsity time on a team where his older brother, Brody, was a senior (younger brother, Austin, just might be the best of the bunch, according to coach Matt Conway).
That team not only reached states, but upset La Salle in the first round.
“It was like winning the state championship,” he said. “Last year, with a tough seeding, we fell just short of states.”
This season, Myers will be one of four core seniors charged with leading a younger team.
The leadership skills touted by Graver will be expected from Conway, who describes Myers as an outstanding two-way midfielder, which, he added, has become a bit of an endangered species.
“I trust him in every situation,” said Conway. “It’s rare to have a midfielder like him. These days, you are either an offensive midfielder or a defensive midfielder. There are not many two-way guys. For us, though, he is definitely our best two-way midfielder. He is kind of like a do-it-all kind of guy for us. He is a very smart player.”
But it is leadership skills, above all else, that makes Myers stand out, leading him to be named a captain back in the summer.
Conway said: “That is because of how mature he is and how he celebrates for his teammates. He is just a natural-born leader. He’s a great kid. He’s very mature. He’s probably the kid out there on the field that I trust the most at any given point.”
The aforementioned broken leg in two places -- and subsequent rehab --gave Myers the time to think, which he believes made him the mature coach on the field that he has become.
“It was definitely from being out that whole year,” he said. “Everyone else was step ahead of me in every sport. But, it definitely made me stronger and develop a new mindset in life. I felt like I could get through anything if I kept a positive attitude.”
A Bright Future
What is most inspiring about Myers – who thanks his parents (Mandy and Bill Myers), grandparents (Penny and Alan Kardon) and football co-captains (Ronnie Weldon, Tre Stubbs and Adam Grossman) -- is how well-rounded he is even with sports taking up a lot of his time.
He is primarily looking at following the family tradition at Penn State (where standout lacrosse teammate Kyle Lehman is headed), although UCLA and USC have not been ruled out.
Myers, who will likely limit sports in college to the club level, is heavily involved in Mini-Thon at Wissahickon and some other clubs, such as SADD (Students Against Destructive Decisions).
As for maintaining his weighted 4.84 GPA, Myers says he often finds himself so wiped out that he gets up early to do his work and also meets up with friends at the Whole Foods in Spring House in study groups.
None of that comes as a surprise to Graver.
“He is a leader by example, in terms of the way he come to practice each day and the way he competes,” said the coach. “He is also what you want, as a student-athlete, in terms of what he does in the classroom and in the community. He is a phenomenal student. He works extremely hard. He’s going to have a bright future for sure.”
