Prep Confidential

Jackson's 5

Posted by: Marcus Jackson

Wednesday, May 7, 2008 2:50 PM

In today's News-Gazette, we started a new feature called 'Jackson's 5'. Each week, I'll chat with an area prep athlete and pose five questions to him/her about school, sports, life or anything else we can think of.

More often than not, I'll ask more than five questions and the leftovers can be found in this space each week.

Today's guest was Tuscola football, basketball and baseball player Clayton Meyer.

MJ: Your senior prom was last week. Did everything go smoothly?

CM: Yeah, things went well. Senior prom is always fun and exciting and I had a good time, but the best was Six Flags the day afterward. I'm not a big stickler on rides, but my friends made me man up and get on some. At first we went on the Batman, and I was so scared. But it kind of got fun after a while, and I went on more and more.


MJ: Everyone's read about your good friend and teammate John Wienke and his athletic accomplishments. But tell us something we might not know about him by watching him play.

CM: He's hilarious. Any time you're around him it's hard to keep a straight face. He's just so goofy all the time, and he's so random, too. For prom he was dressed in some blue velvet tuxedo with a hat to match and some sunglasses and rocking the cane with it.

MJ: You played at a pro ballpark last week (Peoria's O'Brien Field). What was that experience like for you?

CM: It was unbelievable. I was talking to one of my buddies and I was like 'Could you imagine coming out here on a daily basis and playing baseball for a living?' It was just beyond me, and it would just be so unbelievable to me to be able to do that.


MJ: With your high school career kind of winding down, can you reflect on the last four years and what those have been like for you?

CM: Wow. It's been life-changing, that's for sure. Without sports I don't know what I would do. That's what I've grown up doing and that's what I've been doing, and to have all of this in my bag I guess is good to have. I wouldn't trade it for anything.


MJ: You've been a part of the first state championship football team at Tuscola and a runner-up team. Is it going to be weird coming back and not seeing Stan Wienke on the sideline?

CM: It's going to be really strange for sure. But change is sometimes good and it can be bad, but I think with
Tuscola's program and the people we have coming up it's going to be good. We've got good athletes coming through, and I think they can make the most out of it.

– Extras
MJ: Did you and your prom date match colors?

CM: Oh yeah man, of course. Black on purple man. I don't know why, it just came up.

MJ: Did she pick the colors, or did you?

CM: I picked the colors. I wanted to go with a pink tuxedo, but those are a little harder to come by.

MJ: It's Friday night in Tuscola and you don't have a game a practice. What are you and our friends doing?

CM: Whatever is in the moment, nothing is ever really planned. Might hang out at a buddy's house, play some video games. Maybe drive up to Champaign and watch a movie.

MJ: What's the big video game these days?

CM: Nintendo Wii. Mario Kart.

MJ: Do you break a sweat paying the Wii?

CM: Not as much playing Mario Kart as we do playing track and field. I'm always a little sore after that one.

MJ: Where do you see yourself in the next five years?

CM: Hopefully with my engineering degree. Maybe still playing baseball somewhere, hopefully. If not, that's life and I'll hopefully be working at a big corporation. I'm going to go into general engineering first and see where that takes me.

MJ: Tell me about the baseball team. You guys are playing well. Are you surprised with where you are?

CM: As far as the team goes, we're a pretty unified team. We all hang out together and we all laugh together and goof around and stuff. We're pretty close. But we're all playing really good baseball together and enjoying it.

MJ: And how do you feel about your performance personally?

CM: There's always room for improvement, but otherwise I feel pretty good about it.

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Previous Entries

• 7/16/2008
  Jackson's 5 Part X
• 7/2/2008
  Jackson's 5 Part IX
• 6/25/2008
  Jackson's 5 Part VIII
• More…