Weaver, Hearne named Athletes of the Week

The holiday season has begun with teams taking breaks this week for Thanksgiving and winter holidays just around the corner.

Graham’s football team continued its postseason run last week with a win in the area round over Monahans while the basketball teams continue to push forward with their non-district schedules.

For their performances in recent games and all season, Addyson Weaver of the Lady Blues basketball team and Jayton Hearne of the Steers football team earned selections as Athletes of the Week.

Addyson Weaver, Lady Blues basketball

The Lady Blues are nine games into the season and Weaver has already worn through a pair of knee pads.

“If there's a loose ball, you can expect her to be on the floor, and that's huge,” head coach Baylee Thompson said. “That's hard to get in girls a lot of times, and that's what we want.”

Weaver is only a sophomore but she started plenty of games as a freshman for the varsity team. She gained valuable experience last year and that growth has continued this season on both sides of the ball.

Confidence is one of the keys for a player in every sport, and for Weaver it’s becoming more apparent in the way she plays and her results on the court.

“You can tell she's more confident, like she's trying to get in on every rebound, and it's showing in her stats,” Thompson said. “She's gotten a lot more, especially offensive boards, those have turned into putbacks for her. That's where she gets a lot of her points.”

While Weaver spends most of her time down low with the other post players, she’s worked on her offensive game, in particular her shooting. She possesses an ability to find open spots on the court, especially in transition, where she can get a shot off quickly.

“She shows up to open gym. If I know someone's going to be there, it's going to be her,” Thompson said. “I can always count on her to be there, always trying to improve herself.”

In last week’s games, though the record didn’t go the way the Lady Blues wanted, Weaver gave every ounce of effort she had, pulling down rebounds and scoring at every opportunity she got. Being young, she’s still got a lot of basketball left to play.

“Everything she does is 100 miles an hour, which is great, and you can never doubt that she's not giving her best effort,” Thompson said.
 

Jayton Hearne,  Steers football

For the past few years but especially this season, if you were to watch only where the ball is on the field when Graham’s opponents are on offense, you’ve more than likely seen a lot of Hearne.

The senior linebacker has a knack for finding the football and getting to it.

“He's just a playmaker. He's one that he's always around the ball,” head coach Clay McChristian said. “It doesn't matter if it's inside, if it's outside, if it's the passing game, you look up, you're always going to see (number) 41.”

Hearne is in his third year as a member of Graham’s varsity team. He started out his sophomore season on the JV squad, but he played so well he practically forced the coaches to bring him up to varsity.

For most of his time in the program, Hearne wore No. 9 on his jersey. But in his final season he decided to switch to No. 41, in honor of his older brother who wore the same number and played the same position.

“There's something about having a Hearne out there; they're just playmakers,” McChristian said. “So he never looked back. He got moved up, and he's been starting ever since.”

Hearne had a solid game in Graham’s area round crushing of the Monahans Loboes in which he tied for the team lead with five tackles, one of them being a tackle for loss. On the season, he’s third on the team averaging 5.5 tackles per game, and he’s fourth on the defense in total tackles for loss with nine on the year.

“He just plays fearless. He has no regard for his own body, and so it's just a crazy amount of passion he plays with and his physicality,” McChristian said. “When he hits people, he drops them. People might look at him and think he's undersized, but when he hits you, he drops people.”