South Georgia - In The Game High School Sports Magazine

When the game is on the line with the outcome hanging in the balance, the great players want the ball. Unless they happen to be offensive linemen. No matter the situation, they won’t get the ball. The game doesn’t allow it. Good strategy doesn’t allow it. Linemen want the next best thing – for the guy who gets the ball with the game on the line to run to the lineman’s side. They want to be the guy who plows a path through the defense to make room for the ball carrier. That’s the lineman’s job and the great ones revel in doing their job well.

Cook High right tackle Lewis Boyskin falls into that category. He anchors an offensive line that helped win 12 straight football games and go 9-1 against playoff teams, defeat the last Region 1-AAAAA team standing in the playoffs and rack up huge numbers all year. Boyskin is neither the biggest nor the heaviest, but he’s one of the best – on the field and in the classroom.

Boyskin’s football career began at eight years old. He played in the Cook County recreation program until he reached Cook Middle School, where he joined the middle school squad. When he entered high school, he knew exactly what he wanted to do: play for the Hornets. Cook has had a solid program – the Hornets have made the playoffs every season since 2001. They are always a threat to make a strong postseason run. In 2007, Boyskin’s freshman year, Cook reached the semifinals. A year later, the Hornets advanced to the second round. Last year, under the late Mac Thompson, Cook went all the way to the quarterfinals.

When the 2009 season closed, the Hornets knew what they wanted to do. They had a strong group of seniors returning – 21 in all – and felt they had a good chance to win a state title. They had standout running back Shannon Brown, an Alabama signee. Among those 21 seniors were seven or eight college prospects, including Boyskin. Then, in February 2010, things changed suddenly and tragically. Thompson, 39, passed away after suffering a massive heart attack. His death left the entire team and the Cook community in shock. Ken Cofer, Thompson’s offensive coordinator, was named head coach. He knew the system, the players, the school system and the community. He also knew how to win. “When Coach Cofer was announced as head coach, we said we had two goals – win a region championship then win a state championship. We were playing for Coach Thompson. We feel like he’s there with us every Friday night,” says Boyskin.

Boyskin and his teammates knew the best way to honor Thompson’s memory was to get to work immediately. Cofer felt the same way. “He’s worked us hard, keeping us running and lifting. It’s developed a family atmosphere on the team. Adversity gave us a purpose and brought us  closer

together,” says Boyskin. The 6’0”, 250-pound tackle also knows a little about adversity on a much more personal level. His senior season almost didn’t happen. During spring drills, in a seven-on-seven scrimmage that had Boyskin playing on the defensive line, he went down with a knee injury.

“I thought we were going to lose him. There’s just no way we can replace him,” says Cofer. Boyskin worked hard through the spring and summer to rehab the knee. When the season opened, he was back on the line in his familiar position. “We managed to get him well by the start of the season,” says Cofer.

So just how important is Boyskin to the Cook Hornets? According to his head coach, the Hornets wouldn’t have had the success they did this year without him on the line. “He’s a quiet leader but the kids all follow him,” Cofer says.  “He sets a good example and works hard every day. When things didn’t go well in practice, the other players listened to him. In games, he would tell us to run the ball to his side. The other offensive linemen and the running backs told us the same thing.”

Boyskin wants to be the best he possibly can be on the football field. He has always been one of the biggest kids on the field and he’s been a lineman for as long as he can remember. He loves playing in the trenches and relishes his role on the team. “We are supposed to move the offense. If we don’t do our job, the offense doesn’t work. We don’t get much recognition but our job is very important,” he says.

From the first practice, Boyskin and the other 20 seniors threw down the gauntlet for the rest of the 2010 Hornets. They were going to out-work, out-practice, out-hustle and out-play every opponent on the schedule. They would do it the old-fashioned way. It wasn’t going to be easy, and it certainly wasn’t going to be fun. But it was going to lead Cook to success.

“Our team fought to the very end. Lewis was a big part of that. He could run with the running backs and receivers. He wanted to finish first in every drill and ran as hard as he could every day. He lost a lot of weight this summer because of all the running,” says Cofer.

The Hornets opened in August against the Colquitt County Packers, a Region 1-AAAAA team that advanced to the semifinals last year and were ranked nationally at the beginning of the season. Cook, which has shown over the years that it is capable of pulling off upsets, made the short trip to Moultrie not looking for a moral victory or just hoping to keep it close. They wanted to win and felt like they had a legitimate shot to leave Colquitt County 1-0. Against all the odds, that’s exactly what happened.

“It was our first game after losing Coach Thompson,” says Boyskin.  “We were down in their house. It was my biggest moment. After that first drive, when I saw their defense and felt our emotions, I knew we would win.”

When the final second ticked off the clock, Cook had managed a stunning 15-9 upset over the Packers. The Hornets never lost a game during the regular season, winning the region title. With their first goal accomplished, it was on to number two – winning a state championship. The Hornets dominated the first two rounds of the playoffs but ran into trouble in the quarterfinals against Buford, a team that has won the last three AA state championships. “These kids believed everything we told them. I’m disappointed we didn’t go 15-0 but I’m proud that we went 12-1,” says Cofer.

With the season over, Boyskin can now turn his attention to the future. He holds a 3.5 grade point average and will be an honor graduate. He credits his mother with inspiring him to work hard in the classroom. He says grades have always been first, football second. “It’s not hard to balance sports with school. I always knew I had to do well in school. I had to make good grades to play football,” he states. Boyskin is a very good student in all of his subjects but cites math as his favorite. “You use math every day. And I’m pretty good at it.”

The hard work on the field and in the classroom has been geared toward getting Boyskin into college. Ever since middle school, Boyskin has dreamed of playing college football. But even if football didn’t work out for him, he always knew he would land on a college campus one day. It looks as though he will get the chance to extend his football career four more years. Several schools are looking at him, including Jacksonville State, Wofford, Shorter, LaGrange, Clark Atlanta and Albany State. Boyskin isn’t saying where he would like to attend college just yet. “I’m waiting to see who comes through with an offer,” he says.

Cofer has no doubt that Boyskin will play on Saturdays.  “He is definitely a college guy,” Cofer says. “We’ve got recruiters visiting like crazy and Lewis is one of the guys they are targeting. His only knock is his height. But he’s quick and he can run. He may be better suited for defense in college. He has the heart and the want-to. Whichever college takes a chance on him won’t lose out.”

Boyskin is eyeing a career in sports medicine. “I would like to be a trainer or team doctor. I want to do something with sports,” he says. “I’d like to stay as close to the game as possible.” •

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