Maye emerges as leader for Pennington
LAWRENCE » Football wasn’t the first or even the second sport Darius Maye pursued at a young age when his father wanted him to be productive in his youth and not sit around the house.
But after basketball and soccer didn’t appeal to Maye, football quickly became an outlet at eight years old in Pop Warner, and his passion hasn’t wavered to this day.
“I liked the primetime aspect of it,” the Philadelphia native said. “It was fun for me. I just fell in love. At an early age I liked football and how it works and the game all-around.”
Ten years later, Maye is what assistant coach Blair Thompson calls a “rock” of The Pennington School’s football team — a two-way senior lineman that the Red Raiders can always depend on.
Thompson still remembers meeting Maye three years ago at an orientation luncheon for incoming freshmen at the Chairman of the Board of Trustees’ house. Maye’s deep interest in football stood out, and his size at that age projected well.
“He became I think our sixth lineman pretty quickly, and he’s just continued to grow and blossom,” Thompson said. “He’s the type of kid who does whatever you ask. He doesn’t complain. He doesn’t do anything except get out there and give you his best for 60 minutes of a game.”
Although Maye admittedly isn’t the biggest lineman on the field these days — he’s about 6 feet and 215 pounds — his mental fortitude and intelligence for the game have made him a quality starter on both sides of the ball the last two seasons.
“As a lineman, it’s more about mental toughness than size, I’d say,” Maye said. “I always take that into consideration on the line. You just can’t let the guy across from you beat you. Being smaller than most high school linemen ... I just try my hardest to not let the person across from me beat me on both sides of the ball.”
Maye, this week’s 12th Man TD Club Defensive Lineman of the Week, had a standout performance at nose guard Sunday against Rye Country Day of New York with three tackles-forloss and a sack. Maye also plays right guard on offense, where his blocking help sets the tone for Pennington’s running game.
“He’s kind of an unsung hero, but he deserved to be sung,” Thompson said. “He helps direct what people are doing. He and Steven Kopits (the Offensive Lineman of the Week in Week Three), they’re the guys that we run behind. They’ve really done a good job opening things up.”
Maye has also embraced the role of co-captain this season, stepping up as a leader after being more reserved in that aspect in the past.
“This year as a captain you want to help the younger kids out. You want to show them the correct way to do things,” he said. “I’m just trying to perfect my craft as much as I can on both ways of the ball. Help my team out, block, get tackles as much as I can.”
Maye hopes to take his love of the game to college as a walk-on at a Division III school. He also has ambitions to study business or marketing in college.
Whatever his future holds, he’s confident his growth as a person and football player at Pennington has breeded him for success.
“I wouldn’t go back and change my mind for anything,” Maye said.