{"id":88719,"date":"2025-08-29T12:19:00","date_gmt":"2025-08-29T17:19:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/?p=88719"},"modified":"2025-08-29T14:16:54","modified_gmt":"2025-08-29T19:16:54","slug":"meyers-returns-home-makes-impact-in-fort-hays-state-debut","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/?p=88719","title":{"rendered":"Meyers returns home, makes impact in Fort Hays State debut"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By GARRETT WELLBROCK<\/strong>
Tiger Media Network<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Photo by Cayden Sanders<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

For Gavin Meyers, Thursday night at Lewis Field Stadium felt like a homecoming.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Fort Hays State University linebacker, who spent the past three years at Kansas State University, returned to his hometown this summer and suited up for the Tigers in their season opener against Angelo State. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Though FHSU fell 28-7, Meyers stood out with 10 tackles \u2014 including half a tackle for loss \u2014 in his first game back on the same field where he starred for Hays High School.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt was pretty awesome coming back for the home crowd,\u201d Meyers said. \u201cBack in high school, it was great to have that home feel, and just getting to come back and do that again and be in that atmosphere was really cool. I was really excited to be back in this environment.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

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Meyers\u2019 path back to Hays carried plenty of twists. He was rated the No. 5 overall prospect in Kansas by Rivals in 2022, was a first-team all-state pick and the Class 5A Defensive Player of the Year. At Hays High, he broke the school record for career tackles with 384 and capped his senior season with 124 stops, 13 tackles for loss, three sacks, an interception and a forced fumble. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the wrestling mat, he went 37-0 as a senior to win a state title.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But after limited playing time at Kansas State, Meyers decided to return home. The connection with FHSU defensive line coach Layton Hickel, his former defensive coordinator at Hays High, helped seal the move.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI got the opportunity to come back home and play for Coach (Chris) Brown and the Tigers, and I\u2019m super grateful and super blessed,\u201d Meyers said. \u201cWe grinded all summer, and I was grateful to come back and get close with the boys. We got a lot to work on, but it\u2019s a long season ahead of us.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meyers now lines up alongside All-MIAA linebacker John Johnson, forming the Tigers\u2019 new duo in the middle of the defense.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe kinda base it off iron sharpens iron,\u201d Meyers said. \u201cWhen one of us is down, we just lift the other person up and make sure they\u2019re in the right headspace. One thing I always say is good play, bad play, next play \u2014 that\u2019s the mentality we have to have.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Brown said Meyers\u2019 addition is already paying off.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s great to have him,\u201d Brown said. \u201cHe\u2019s physical, he\u2019s aggressive. You can tell he\u2019s still trying to learn what we\u2019re doing defensively, but once he picks it up, he\u2019s going to be a solid force for us.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Brown also pointed to the value of keeping local talent like Meyers close to home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThat\u2019s what it\u2019s about, getting the best kids in the area,\u201d Brown said. \u201cIf there\u2019s a kid at Hays High or TMP that can help us win ballgames, we\u2019re going to go after them. We want them to stay home, play in front of their community and the people that support them and show what they can do.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For Meyers, that chance has finally arrived.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This story was written as part of INF 322: Sports Writing<\/em>, a course in the Department of Informatics at Fort Hays State University.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By GARRETT WELLBROCKTiger Media Network Photo by Cayden Sanders For Gavin Meyers, Thursday night at Lewis Field Stadium felt like a homecoming. The Fort Hays… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":88722,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3387,7349],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-88719","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-football-sports","category-sports"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/tigermedianet.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Meyers-Gavin-practice-scaled.jpg?fit=2560%2C1707","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88719","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=88719"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88719\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":88725,"href":"http:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88719\/revisions\/88725"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/88722"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=88719"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=88719"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=88719"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}