Senior Easton Willyard encourages better performance through team building on the Varsity Football Team

Seasoned player finds leadership identity in building others up

Wyett Derr, Writer

Recently, The Mav sat down with Senior Easton Willyard and discussed how he is trying to become a better team leader. He does this by primarily focusing on helping underclassman.

In fact, he high-fives every single person on the team during practice.

If he doesn’t get a high-five from a player, he’ll call them out.

“I’m trying to improve my relationships with underclassman and encourage [teammates] to work harder” says Willyard.

As starting Varsity, he takes what his players do seriously—most of time. he still knows how to have fun, which is a large part of team building.

As far as being a team leader, he struggles with committing to whether or not he’s achieved that yet.

Like many players, Willyard sometimes struggles with his own performance, but he takes feedback and advice well from others to make his game better.

Teammates say he is willing to the same for others. Some students call it “loud motivation.”

It’s clear that it takes great pride and commitment to focus on younger players the way Willyard does. This allows him to add value to the team through encouraging others to add value as well.