A perfect example of a motivated student-athlete who is willing to go above and beyond in order to live life to the fullest is Jayson Tyler. In addition to being an excellent student at Frederick High, Jayson is a cross country runner who is figuring out how he wants to live his life. As he tried out numerous different programs at Frederick, he also took on a lot of obstacles in high school and established his own rhythm. He participated in baseball, basketball, track, a theater play, debate, and other activities. Since then, he has finally found what he is passionate about.
In the middle of his freshman year, Jayson transferred to Frederick High during the Covid-19 pandemic. Since then, he had to get used to high school and meet new people. He says, “I would say I’ve branched out to a lot of people during my four years. Freshman year was difficult, as it was the covid year where I moved to FHS halfway through the year, friends then were sparse. However I tried to involve myself in a lot of clubs and programs to expand my friend group.” But this year, he is merely attempting to concentrate on finishing high school and focus on cross country, saying, “I am not as involved as I used to be. Outside of XC I am pretty “clock in, clock out” when it comes to navigating my day at FHS.”
Jayson has been involved in cross country for all four years of high school, despite moving to Frederick his freshman year. He lettered on the Frederick team for three years and at his previous high school as well. Jayson has almost exclusively focused on running. “Running is a sport where you don’t need a league or teams after high school to look for. I definitely plan on running still, however I am not looking at continuing my cross country career in college.” Jayson quotes.
As his final cross-country season comes to a conclusion, Jayson describes the emotions and experiences that running has given him. Jayson is a big proponent of challenging yourself to improve and doing everything in your power to be the greatest version of yourself. “For me, cross country is like my way to push myself to be better. It’s a sport where it’s mainly you VS you, so it’s up to the individual on how hard they push themselves. My high school cross country experience was amazing.”
When it comes to his studies, Jayson wants to focus in all of his classes, soak up all the information that is presented to him, and acquire as much knowledge as he can. His grades remain excellent, and he gets mostly A’s with an exception of one or two B’s a year on average. Despite having outstanding marks, he still works hard for everything and he had to learn time management. “For me, overcoming the challenge of balancing athletic and academic responsibilities included time management skills, and preparing week by week on what I work on. The key is not stressing and knocking things out one by one.” He had to face the challenge of balancing his priorities, which included school, cross country, and his work, in addition to learning time management. “It’s true, it can get really tiring. My method for dealing with everything is taking it day by day. The routine is simple. Just knock off assignments one by one. If you try to merge everything it will get hectic.”
Jayson enjoys taking each day as it comes, but he also wants to live life to the fullest. “A mantra I like to live by is an extended version of a line in the movie “Green Book,” If you do something, do it 100%. If you work, work hard till you’re too tired to work any more. If you laugh, laugh so hard that you cry. If you’re gonna eat, eat like it’s your last meal.”
Jayson is still deciding where he will go college in the fall but would like to ideally attend a four-year university to improve his knowledge. He intends to pursue a career in aviation and aerospace management, regardless of the university he decides to attend. “For years I’ve been hooked on studying this industry, a coworker was the one who got me invested in the aerospace community.” Jayson has been influenced by a variety of people throughout his life, but his mother Carly, father Matt, and captain Sully Sullenberg — who helped him navigate his aviation classes — have had the most influence on him. His major influences have enabled him to take decisive action and the initiative to begin his professional path early. Over the past two years, he has studied a variety of aviation lessons at the innovative center in Longmont, from meteorology to ground school itself.
Jayson puts in a lot of effort and has a positive influence on all of his peers. “Get a planner, and don’t be afraid to take a practice off or talk to your coach about having time to study. Be a student before an athlete, but if you do choose doing schoolwork over practice, make sure you’re actually holding yourself accountable to your work,” advises Jayson to the new and upcoming Frederick High students. Jayson still has a few things he wants to cross off his list before finishing his race and taking off into the skies of fate. “My athletic goal is to be able to run a sub 19 minute 5k. In terms of academics, I would like to bring my GPA as high as possible.”
