“It sounds cliché, but football teaches you a lot of life lessons, like how hard work pays off,” said Chase Royer, Pierce County High senior wideout. “I’ve seen it throughout my four years, starting out at as eighth grader going up against Hunter Skipper and those guys on scout team, to being a guy giving out water on Friday nights, to an all-state receiver. I can use that from the standpoint of hard work and respect.”
Royer is a rarity in more than one sense. The son of Mark and Julie Royer, he is his school’s all-time receptions leader and could become just the second player in PCHS history to be named all-state two years in a row. But Royer knows what he wants out of football and where he wants the game to take him. He recently committed to play at Vermont-based Middlebury College, which is among the top five liberal arts colleges in the country, according to U.S. News & World Report.
“I love football, but I also want to be able to have a college experience,” Royer said. “Up there they only play eight games. Then they have a conference championship, so they’re done before Thanksgiving. They don’t really have a spring football season. In spring semester, guys go study abroad, and that really interests me.”
Royer chose Middlebury from a pack of interested schools that included Case Western Reserve University (Illinois), Macalaster College (Minnesota), and Colby College (Maine). With family living nearby, Royer found the campus and its facilities to his liking at Middlebury, which also offers an interesting career track. With an affinity for studying the physical sciences, Royer’s favorite class is human anatomy, a college class he takes at PCHS through the Move On When Ready program. His professor is Dean Thornton.
“It’s just a whole lot of different ways on how the body works,” Royer said. “It’s interesting how you feel a certain way because of the way the cells are interacting with the body. I’m looking to follow the pre-med track and kind of want to do something that works with kids.”
Recently recognized by Georgia High School Football Daily as its Scholar Athlete of the Week, Royer is a Beta Club member and the owner of a 4.0 GPA, and he scored 28 on the ACT. Royer also holds membership with the First Southern Bank Junior Board of Directors. Additionally, he was an All-State Academic pick by Georgia High School Football Magazine last season. He is also a three-time scholar-athlete for PCHS football and won the Academic Athlete Award last season for PCHS basketball.
“Chase is not the most blazing, speedy guy or the most athletic guy on the team, but he’s a guy who knows how to get open, is a great route runner, and is a team player,” said PCHS head coach Sean Pender. “With Chase, it’s like having a coach out on the field. He is a very smart player that understands zones, and his relationship with the quarterback helps tremendously. He not only has a high academic IQ, but a high football IQ as well.”
Royer gleaned All-State accolades in 2015 after snagging 76 passes for 1,054 yards (13.9 average) with nine touchdowns. He thus became just the second PCHS receiver in history to surpass 1,000 yards in a season. Through the first seven games of this season, he had 38 grabs for 526 yards and five scores. He became the school’s career receptions leader against Long County, a game in which he snagged one of Stetson Bennett’s school-record seven touchdown passes. The 49-0 victory also gave coach Sean Pender his 50th win at PCHS.
“Chase has a photographic memory, so he memorized every play and route for every receiver position,” Mark Royer said. “His sophomore year he played at all three positions in relief of starters because he knew every position, route, and play. He is a super smart young man who used his brain to get varsity playing time as a sophomore.”
“From the time Chase was very little, you knew if he put his mind to something that he would do it to the best if his ability,” Julie Royer said. “When he sets out to do things, he is going to be the best at it. There are still great things to come from him, and I’m not just saying that because I’m his mother. It’s just how he is.”
Long-time pal Bennett, a fellow All-State pick at quarterback last season, has been a big part of the younger Royer’s success, according to the receiver himself. Bennett has not yet made a commitment despite numerous offers. Royer said he’d love the chance to play alongside his buddy at the next level.
“I’ve known Stetson since I first moved to Georgia from Virginia in third grade, and I’ve played football with him every year,” Royer said. “On the field he knows where I’m going to be, and I know what he’s thinking. The Middlebury coaches have asked me, ‘How is your QB? You’re catching all these passes, so you’ve got to have somebody to throw it to you.’”
When he’s not playing catch with Bennett, Royer makes time to support the endeavors of his siblings. He sister Kylee is a sophomore softball player, and they have an 11-year-old brother, Cole. Royer equates his role as a big brother with having a particular level of responsibility, mirroring the influence of his parents, both of whom work in law enforcement.
“It feels good to know I have somebody who is out there trying to help others, trying to protect others,” Royer said. “I have good role models to look up to. Kylee and I know what it takes to win, and we know that practices are hard. We know doing homework after practices is hard. I do enjoy having her in school and will miss here when I go off to college. With Cole it’s leading by example, making sure he’s doing right in class and not goofing off. If he is struggling with something, I can help him out with that.”
This “pass it on” mentality also applies to Royer’s support of fellow athletes at PCHS. He volunteers at softball games where he can also watch Kylee play. He also makes it a point to attend as many basketball, baseball, soccer, cheerleading, and track events as possible. His Beta Club service projects also include the Special Olympics, fall festivals, and tech fairs. He and fellow senior Marisa Ramirez were recently named Most Spirited in the PCHS Class of 2017. As for how he’d like to be remembered, Royer offered a familiar example.
“Dillon Veal (Class of 2013) was my role model,” Royer said. “I want to be somebody’s role model. I wanted to run routes the way Dillon did and to make plays the way he did. I hope that I have done my job as a senior to the underclassmen, and then they can hopefully do the same. I take my academics more seriously than I do football, but I’m putting in more time to football so it can get me into a high academic school. I’d like to think that makes me smart on the field, like with learning to read different defenses. I’d just really like to be remembered as a smart guy that can play football.”
ITG Web Content
Academic Athlete: Chase Royer, Pierce County Football
Written by John DuPont
Photo by Jennifer Carter Johnson
