Student Athlete of the Week – Austin McDanel

Xavier Prep safety/wide receiver Austin McDanel is this week's student-athlete of the week.

For every football team, there are always a couple of players that play both ways and can really do it all, and one of those players for Xavier Prep is Austin McDanel. 

"I think, like we've always talked about Austin, his intelligence, right," head coach James Dockery said. "The intelligence allows him to understand his alignment and assignment and technique in numerous positions on a team. Then, obviously, he's blessed with athletic ability. He's fast, he's strong, he's tough, so when you mix, you know, the IQ and the physicality that he possesses, he's able to do a lot of different things on the field."

Playing both safety and wide receiver at a high level, McDanel's mindset is to be calm, cool, and collected. 

"My head's blank. It's just kind of instinctive. Everything's instinctive," McDanel said. "Like, sure, I go over film and everything like that. So, like, before the play, my head's going through whatever they can do, and just when the play starts, my head goes blank, and I'm just going with whatever like my brain has thought of before the play and my film study has shown me and just what my body tells me to do."

Along with being a star on the field, McDanel is also a star in the classroom with a 4.0 GPA plus, and his drive to excel in the classroom is to get to the next level. 

"Since this is my last year, I have to show that continuous improvement for especially the good schools," McDanel said. "The top schools I want to go to for football and like for academics would be Ivy League schools, and especially with a lot of schools that have interest in me right now, they're very high academics, so I have to keep that up."

Being with the Saints for the past four years, McDanel has shown his coaches that he is the definition of a student-athlete. 

"He's been a very busy student-athlete, both engaged on campus and outside of campus, and he hasn't let the amount of hours that we require of Austin on our campus," head coach Dockery said. "He hasn't let that get to him. He hasn't let that deter him from his goals, and it hasn't affected his ability to perform, so we've been blessed to have him for these four years."

We are always looking for Student Athlete of the Week nominations. If you know a senior who should be featured next, be sure to contact the KESQ sports department.

The Student-Athlete of the Week segment airs every Tuesday.