It’s not all perfect, but it’s pretty close.
That is Eli Mashburn’s world of football/life in general/particular right now.
Pretty close for the Warner Robins High School student-athlete, who is also the Academy Sports+Outdoors Athlete of the Week: The fact that field goals don’t count as much as touchdowns. If they did, and with him having seven, and those coupled with his 26 points after touchdowns, he’d be leading the Demons in scoring. Even then, he has 47 points total, which is third on the list. Six others who have also scored points rank lower. (Note: And he does average six points a game.)
Pretty close (at least in signs of maturity): The difficulty, he said, of “making a mistake (OK, so he has missed one PAT try) and having to forget it and move on.”
Then there’s perfect for the senior, who is the son of Greg and Kim Mashburn, and has played varsity soccer for three years and JV football for a year and varsity football for two. He has also earned numerous awards along the way, including First Team All-Region for soccer and football. There’s also being named the Preseason All-State punter for 1-AAAAA.
More perfects for the “specialist” – a title he most prefers, seeing as there aren’t many of them on any team: Seven-for-seven on those aforementioned field goal attempts. Three times lining up with the opportunity to kick the game-winner – Peach County, Thomas County Central, Coffee – and nailing it. (The Peach County game, by the way, goes down as his all-time favorite to date.)
Perfect: “When you connect with a ball on a punt and you see it fly down the field like a pass and then it turns over.”
Perfect: Mom and dad – “family,” actually. Of the first: “They do everything they can to make me a better person.” And the second: “Everybody in my family is in love with the game and they all support me just as much as the other.”
Perfect: Pizza and the TV show “The Office”. OK, maybe not those, but definitely: God. “(Only He can) save us to give us eternal life.” And friends, which also the “youth group” he attends at church, “I like to just sit and talk with my friends after church, because it’s always fun with them.”
One more: 8-0. That is of course Warner Robins’ record to date. It’s perfect, and if he and his foot – accuracy, contributions, determination, et cetera – have anything to say about it, it will stay that way.
Sorry “pretty close.” You had your fun (field goals don’t count as much … making a mistake …) but your day is over.
