A crack of the bat and a line drive heads for right-centerfield. Taking off at a full sprint, McIntosh County Academy senior Bryan Mixon starts tracking the ball. He leaps at the last second, glove outstretched reaching for the ball. As he makes the catch, he slides across the grass until he comes to a stop. He holds up his glove displaying the ball.
He may be one of the top students at MCA, but Mixon still likes to get dirty when he plays baseball. His favorite part of the game? Playing centerfield and diving to make catches.
He gets to make circus catches as a member of Coach Wade Peterson’s MCA baseball team. Being on the diamond has been a passion of Mixon’s since he was six-years-old. Although he was smaller than the older players, he was chosen for All-Stars because of his toughness and determination, although he now admits that he was afraid of the pitching machine back then. His mom, Kim Mixon, can still remember watching him dive for baseballs while playing recreation league ball with the Department of Leisure Services in McIntosh County. “He pretty much just laid out in the dirt. He dove for everything that came to him, and not a ball got past him.”
Growing up in Darien, Mixon continued playing baseball through middle school and in eighth grade hit a homerun against Camden County while playing summer ball with the MCA varsity, a feat that ranks at the top of memories from his young baseball career. He started playing varsity outfield his freshman year and took to centerfield naturally. “He turned two double-plays from the outfield on balls nobody thought he’d get to but us,” Peterson said.
In addition to his duties in centerfield, the 5’11, 145 pound Mixon is also occasionally put in as pitcher or catcher, and he spent a great deal of time behind the plate this season out of necessity. He hit .295 his senior year with a .509 on-base percentage and also had seven RBIs and scored 17 runs with 14 stolen bases. “He could steal a base whenever he wanted to, as evident by not getting caught all year,” Peterson said. “He is the best defensive outfielder I have coached.”
In the outfield, he had a .924 fielding percentage, and he won the Buccaneer’s Defensive Player of the Year as both a sophomore and a junior. In 2013, he also took home the Coach’s Award, and this year he has been honored with the Georgia Dugout Club Award.
In 11th grade, Mixon became a mutli-sport athlete when he heeded the call to go out for the football team and became the Buccaneers new kicker, blasting extra points and field goals. “It was about mid-season, and the coach came and asked if I knew how to kick.” On his first live kick during a game, Mixon broke the school record for longest field goal by hitting a 35-yarder against Toombs County. He went on to kick a 42-yarder for the longest of his career, and by his senior year, he was also the captain of special teams.
In the classroom, Mixon holds down a solid 3.76 grade point average and is set to graduate in the top ten of his class at MCA. He is a member of the National Honor Society, Spanish Honor Society, and the Future Business Leaders of America. His plans for college do not include athletics, but do include majoring in business management at the College of Coastal Georgia in Brunswick. Mixon plans on going into management in the sporting goods industry, so he can continue his love of athletics.
Mixon is spending the summer as a youth leader with the Youth Conservation Corps at Harris Neck Wildlife Refuge in McIntosh County. The YCC helps maintain the grounds and buildings at Harris Neck and Blackbeard’s Island. He has spent his last two summers at the refuge as well as working part time as a server at Hutcheson Plantation.
Kim Mixon believes sports have taught her son dedication and commitment. At an age when most young people have more important things to do, Mixon finds a way to stay focused on practice and school without complaint.
“He has never given any less than 100 percent of himself to the sport or to his team. I couldn’t be more proud of him.”
SE-AA-0614-Bryan Mixon
Academic Athlete/ Southeast / June 2014
Bryan Mixon
McIntosh County Academy
Darien, Ga
By Rob Asbell
A Head for Business and Sports
