Football, Basketball
Favorite athlete: Marshawn Lynch
Favorite team: Eagles
Favorite memory competing in sports: Beating Council Rock South on Homecoming last year
Most embarrassing/funniest moment playing sports: In my sophomore year against Hatboro Horsham, I had a free touchdown and tripped by myself.
Music on playlist: A lot of Rap and R&B
Future plans: Hopefully make the NFL or open my own barbershop
Words to live by: “Nothing’s impossible”
One goal before turning 30: Have a wife and kids
Something people don’t know about me: I can draw
By GORDON GLANTZ
From the moment he first hit the gridiron playing youth football for the Bucks County Bears, it was love at first contact for Aidan Mayfield.
“I have been playing football since I was 6,” said the Bensalem senior, who will be continuing his football journey at Lehigh as a running back. “My step-dad got me into it, and I’ve always just liked football.
“After starting back when I was 6, I just started loving it. Every season, I kept improving. I just wanted to be the best version of myself that I could be.”
Mayfield switched over to playing for the Lower Bucks Outlaws from ages 10 to 13 before entering a whole new world at the scholastic level.
“Once I got to high school, I noticed a big change,” he said. “It was a big difference. I was always the best on my team when I was in Little League. When I got to high school, it was like a fresh start. Everyone was better than me, so I had to work hard at it all over again.”
Hard work, though, was never a concern for Mayfield.
“Once I was a freshman, I was working out so much,” he said. “I was lifting, going out to the field on my own. After practice, I was the last one to leave. Before practice, I was the first one there.”
The fruits of his labor paid dividends, as he was in the starting lineup by Week 8 of his freshman year.
“We try not to play freshmen, but we also have a rule that the best player has to play,” said outgoing head coach Alex Houston. “Competition brings out the best in everybody, and he was the best running back.
“He also played (defensive back) his sophomore and junior years. The thing was, though, he was carrying the ball so much for us that we had to limit his defensive reps. He ended up playing defensive end for us this year, and he was lights out.”
Mayfield was inspired from there to keep the momentum going.
“I kept my starting spot my sophomore year, and I just kept working harder,” he said. “It all paid off.”
Mayfield rarely came off the field - playing on both sides of the ball and on special teams as a return specialist was a challenge he was willing to face.
“It’s really hard,” said Mayfield. “You have to have a lot of mental toughness. You have to be physically ready for it. I worked so hard, running up and down the field to build my stamina on the off days. I trained my body to be able to do that.”
Creating Opportunities
A strong student, Mayfield had some impressive choices, from service academies to the Ivy League to the Patriot League.
“At the end of my junior year, maybe in November, I started getting texts from these coaches on Twitter,” said Mayfield. “There weren’t any offers or anything like that yet. They just liked my film.”
And then, in December, an offer from Navy opened the floodgates.
“They said that once you get your first offer, all the other schools will come in, and I didn’t believe it at first,” he said. “It actually happened that way, though.
“I’d say after last December, that’s when things really started to go with my recruiting process.”
In addition to Navy, those lining up for the services of the stout 6-0, 215-pounder included: Army, Lehigh, Lafayette, and couple of Ivy League schools (Penn, Dartmouth, etc.), New Hampshire and Fordham.
Mayfield sat down with his parents, Erica Cross and Dave Luna, and weighed all the can’t-lose options.
“Me and my parents were talking a lot throughout this whole process,” said Mayfield. “It was a big decision for all of us. We looked at all the schools and what they had to offer. Navy and Army were great schools with great football programs, but military service was really not something I wanted to do or what my family wanted me to do.”
From there, it was all about where Mayfield could best picture himself.
“It really came down to what felt like home the most,” he said. “When I went up to Lehigh, all the coaches were great and all the players were great. They had a great winning season and a winning football program.”
Houston, a Bensalem grad who went on to play at Colgate, believes Mayfield and his family made the correct decision.
“I really think Lehigh really got a good one. He had several excellent choices – the service academies, Ivies and the Patriot League,” said Houston. “Lehigh is a really good fit for him. He’s a strong student and great football player, so it’s going to be the best of both worlds for him.
“The offensive coordinator at Lehigh was on the staff at Colgate when I was there. He was, like, ‘How can we get our hands on this guy?’ He jumps off the page. He’s an asset in so many different areas. He can catch the ball and he can run the ball. I think he is going to really give the Patriot League fits.”
And Mayfield -- with an eye toward being an entrepreneur, if he doesn’t make the NFL -- had other priorities as well when it came to his final decision.
“Ever since I was little, my parents always pushed me to be the best student-athlete that I could be,” he said. “Schooling always comes before being an athlete. I knew my grades were always good. I made sure my grades were always good before I could start football.
“My biggest concern was schooling, and Lehigh is one of the best in the U.S., so that was also big for me. For all those reasons, I just felt like Lehigh was the best choice for me. I felt like it was home.”
While he is described by his coach as more of a quiet leader, Mayfield showed his teammates that doors can be opened at the college level by having your academic house in order.
“The younger guys, they always ask me about college and stuff like that,” said Mayfield. “I make sure to mention first to them that school is the biggest thing.
“A lot of kids at Bensalem, they don’t all have the best grades. They are great athletes, but their grades are what is holding them back. That is what happens most of the time, and a lot of them won’t succeed because they don’t realize that school comes first. I just want everybody to realize that being a student comes before being an athlete.”
Between football and basketball, where he starts for the Owls, Mayfield’s priorities meant not getting involved too much in extracurricular activities.
“I just wanted to focus on my grades and making sure that part was all good,” he said. “And sports are a really big part of it for me. I need be able to balance everything and not overwork myself.”
With academics being a priority, he has to find the time to work around his two sports and being a workout warrior along with fellow gym rat and interior lineman Joey Ott, a junior.
“Normally, I’m able to finish all of my schoolwork in school,” he said. “I’m really good with all of my deadlines.
“If some stuff does leak out into home, I end up doing that after my practices or before I go to sleep.”
Pushing Through Adversity
In the five years that Houston coached at his alma matter, the Owls were 5-5 and just out of the playoffs, three times.
He could tell it took a toll on Mayfield, who will be the fourth Division I player out of Bensalem in Houston’s tenure.
“When you want something, and you work hard for something, you are disappointed,” said Houston, a pastor of a church in the Chestnut Hill section of Philadelphia. “But, at the same time, he kept coming to practice. He stayed focused on his books. He continued to be a guy we needed.
“I was also disappointed that we weren’t able to get to the mountaintop and punch a ticket for a playoff berth. We missed a playoff berth in three of my five years by one game. When I went back to the film, though, I realized that we did everything we could. You have to make the plays that are there to be made, but Aidan was a really big part of us having some good times these last couple of years.”
Mayfield, with time to reflect, has gained perspective on both his career and his senior season.
“This year could’ve been something special,” said Mayfield. “We had a lot of talent. Our quarterback was great. We had the receivers, the tight end. We had it all.
“The senior class - we all have been playing together since we were little, at 6 years old. This year could’ve been something special. There were a couple of opportunities where I think we should’ve won.
“But, I still think we did well this year. A few of those games go different and we are right there in that playoff race.”
The basketball team has had more success, winning league titles the last two seasons.
“I started that a little bit later than football,” he said. “I started basketball around third grade. It’s still a love that I have, but not as much as football.
“I just love the game of football.”
Nonetheless, first-year basketball coach Jerry Devine is glad to have Mayfield on his side.
“Aidan brings an innate toughness to our team,” he said. “His physicality creates mismatch opportunities against other guards. He is a tenacious defender who sets the tone on that side of the ball. He rebounds the ball well. He is a great compliment and leader to our younger players.”
While Mayfield’s chiseled body took some wear and tear on the football field, his most serious injury came on the hardwood when he broke his ankle as a sophomore.
“That was the first big setback that I ever had,” he said. “I had never really had a season-ending injury or anything like that, before.”
The adversity did provide some perspective.
“I just realized that anything could happen at any given moment,” said Mayfield. “You can’t take anything for granted. You have to just give 100 percent and just play at 100 percent.”
The injury meant some serious rehabbing to be ready for his junior season of football.
“I really, really worked hard to get my leg back to where it was before,” said Mayfield, who continued working out this past offseason, and now his maximum squat for one rep is 500 and his bench press is 335.
“This past offseason, me and my friend Joey (Ott) were in the gym together every single day. We work hard lifting together and we eat right together. We just worked every single day, and all that hard work just pays off so much.”
Debt of Gratitude
Mayfield knows he wouldn’t be where he is without a lot of love and support, starting at home.
“I couldn’t have done any of this without my dad,” he said. “He pushed me to be who I am today.
“And, my mom, she has been there for through everything. I just love her so much.”
Dad, as fate would have it, coached Mayfield from youth football and in high school.
Because of that, there was no real weirdness involved.
“He has been coaching me my whole life, since I was 6,” said Mayfield. “He has been there with me throughout everything. It’s just a great thing. I loved having my dad on the coaching staff,”
But the list does not end there.
“I would like to thank all of the coaches who pushed me all throughout my high school career, as well as my Little League coaches who always thought I could do great things,” said Mayfield. “Also, all of my teammates, because football is a team game. I couldn’t have done any of this without them.”
Mayfield, who almost attended Archbishop Wood as a freshman, feels it could not have turned out any better for him in the long run.
“That process was very hard because I was in 8th grade and didn’t know any better, but I definitely made the right decision,” he said. “I stayed with all my friends that I grew up with while accomplishing my goals.”
And it all culminated when he made it officially official on National Signing Day.
“It was a feeling I’ve never felt before because it was a once in a lifetime experience,” he said. “It was really, really cool. I wish everybody could experience it. It was something great.”
