Athlete of the Month
The Sky's the Limit
By Charles Durrenberger

Forget the stereotypes.

Myles Mayfield isn’t just another teenager neglecting his schoolwork for the sake of tunnel-visioned parents pushing him to be the next Shaquille O’Neal. Despite a dominating presence around the basket (he averages 18 points and 14 rebounds for his club team) Mayfield has perfected the fine art of time management at a very early age. Mayfield, 13, had exactly four days in March when he wasn’t practicing basketball or playing in games for either his AAU club, the Desert Storm, or his team at Desert Christian Middle School. Did we mention that he maintained his 3.6 grade-point average, served in student government, and participated in his church youth group? “The sky’s the limit for Myles,” said Dennis O’Reilly, who teaches at DCMS and coaches the DCHS boy basketball team.

Well, certainly he must be the product of over-bearing parents who push him harder than a ’72 Pacer. “The comedy of it is,” said father, Atwood, “neither his mom nor I played sports. We don’t really understand any of it.” Added his mother, Joanne: “Someone said Myles patrols the paint, and I had to ask what ‘the paint’ was.”

For the record, ‘the paint’ is the free-throw lane, where the 6-foot-1, 175-pound Mayfield dominates even 10th- and 11th-graders, according to his AAU coach, Kelvin Eafon. “He’s growing into his body,” said Eafon, who played both football and hoops at the University of Arizona.

“He’s starting to understand that it’s OK to use his size. He’s really grown to understand that part of the game without being over-aggressive,” Eafon added.

Home-schooled until last year, Mayfield entered the conventional classroom with all the subtlety of a fire alarm. Two months into his seventh-grade year he successfully campaigned for vice president, “persuading” the electorate with M&M candies.

“For my initials,” Mayfield said with a chuckle. As the lone seventh-grader on this year’s Desert Christian eight-grade A-team, Mayfield has made the transition look easy.

“Myles is very coachable and an outstanding young man,” O’Reilly explained. “He has been a leader at the middle school. He jumped right in. He’s very personable and connects with people.” He is one of three students from his school to be nominated for the Junior National Leaders Conference in Washington D.C. this June.

His summer also includes the prestigious Phenom 150 camp in San Diego. Sponsored by Adidas, the three-day event is an invitation-only collection of the West’s top 150 middle school (sixth-, seventh- and eighth-graders) basketball players.

“He will do very well there; he’ll surprise himself,” said Eafon, who has seen Mayfield grow (literally and figuratively) since first coaching him as a fifth-grader. “I think he’s the best middle school big man in the state,” Eafon added. “He probably could play JV or varsity at the Christian school level.”

For now, high school can wait. Mayfield is focused on winning. The stats and honors that come with it are just icing on the cake, he said. “How many points I score doesn’t matter to me,” he said. “I’m there for my team to win. If I get double-teamed, I pass the ball. That makes our team better.” Mayfield was named Most Outstanding Camper at the Adidas Invitational for the state’s top 150 middle-schoolers last summer. And he was selected Most Valuable Camper at the Joe Nehls Basketball Camp in 2005.

In 2006, his 13 & Under teams won 3-on-3 tournaments in Tucson and Phoenix. “He plays to win,” said his father, Atwood. “He
gives 100 percent to wherever he is, whether that’s basketball, student government, school or youth group. On the court, nothing else is going on. He can separate them.” That self-determination is evident in Mayfield’s dogged defense.

“I take a lot of pride in stopping the other guy,” he remarked. “I try to not even let him catch the ball. That’s what I get the most satisfaction from.” Yet he still is humble enough to help an opponent up from the floor. “Someone told us he’s a teddy bear who turns into a Grizzly bear on the court,” his mother, Joanne, added. “Maybe nice guys can finish first.”