By Rich Winter

605 Sports

AVON — Avon High School senior Aziah Meyer is a tough man to catch, especially if you are trying to tackle him. 

The 6-foot-4, 200-pound senior rushed for 161 yards with four rushing touchdowns and ran two kickoffs back for scores as Class 9B No. 1 Avon defeated Colman-Egan 60-38 in its season opener. 

“I give a lot of the credit to my offensive line,” Meyer said. “Guys like Al’Shamon Gunter, Devin Rucktaeschel, Trevyan Talsma and Randall Powers played great. I feel like our offensive line has a chance to be as good or better than last year.” 

On one of his kickoff returns, the speedy Meyer went untouched and on the other he juked several defenders before turning on the jets. 

“I was surprised they kept kicking it to him,” Avon coach Justin Lukkes said. “He wasn’t touched on one of them and the other he made a couple of quick cuts and hit it full speed.” 

Meyer is coming off a junior season that saw him rush for 1,849 yards and 34 touchdowns in leading Avon to the Class 9B state championship. 

Coach Lukkes noted that Meyer added about 10 pounds of muscle to his lanky frame. The Avon coach also said that Meyer has a few things to work on with some younger athletes moving into starting roles this season. 

“We’ve got a sophomore with him in the backfield instead of a senior,” Lukkes said. “He’s been working on his lead blocking and he’s such a big kid he should be really good at that. He’s improved his patience as a running back if that hole closes and overall he’s worked really hard to become the best running back he can be.” 

Meyer has been a stalwart in the Avon athletic programs competing in basketball where he averaged over 15 points per game last season, and in track where he qualified in the 100-meter dash and fifth in the Class B long jump (20-8.75). 

Except for a brief stint in Wyoming, Meyer has always been a Pirate. 

“During my sophomore year, we moved to Buffalo, Wyoming, for a bit,” Meyer said. “We stayed for about four months and decided to come back to be around friends and family.” 

Meyer and his brother Al’Shamon Gunter, a 6-foot-6, 220 pound junior were welcomed back with open arms. Meyer said an appreciative-and-supportive community was part of the reason to come back to Avon. 

“The moms cook for us every Thursday before the game and I just feel like this has been a really great community for me to grow up in,” he said. 

Meyer took a knee to the jaw in the season opener and had multiple trips to the dentist this week before ultimately having a tooth pulled. Meyer said it was a painful week but he is expected to play in this week’s road contest at Sioux Falls Lutheran. 

The Pirates may need to lean on Meyer a bit more as they are very young at the quarterback position. 

“I don’t like to play freshman at quarterback but we have two guys Easton Sees and Weston Bierema back there,” Lukkes said. “They are smart kids that are mature for their age. They have two different styles and we’re kinda nursing one of them back to health after suffering an injury during track season.” 

For his part, Meyer spent the summer lifting weights and working at the meat locker and helping pour concrete. He attended the Iowa State University camp, the South Dakota State University prospect camp and the SDSU team camp. 

Meyer has intentions of playing college football and is receiving interest from at least one Division I program. 

“I’ve been contacted by a few schools,” he said. “The University of Sioux Falls was the first one to reach out and they have been pursuing me the hardest. I did get a call from Washington State University a couple of days ago.”

If the Pirates are to repeat as the Class 9B champs, coach Lukkes said they’ll need to improve from their Week 1 outing. 

“We had a really good first and third quarter but we missed some tackles in the second quarter,” Lukkes said. “We have some new guys in new positions so we’re hoping we got that all out of their system. We’re not as strong at the defensive line as we were a year ago so we’re hoping some guys step up to give us some depth.”

The Pirates were able to play some junior varsity players against Colman-Egan for most of the fourth quarter. 

Meyer said he isn’t really thinking about individual goals instead focusing on bringing another title to the town of Avon.

“We have a bigger target on our backs this year but everyone on this team is focused on just doing better than we did last year,” he said.