Walker prepping for second season at Presbyterian

Philip Simmons High School’s first valedictorian, Mickey Walker, is spending the summer working as a part-time custodian. But for Walker, it’s a labor of love.

 

Walker will soon begin his second season as a member of the Presbyterian College football team. Unlike players from schools such as Clemson or South Carolina, Blue Hose players must find their own facilities to work out during the summer before reporting to fall camp.

 

That’s why Walker is pushing a broom. It gives him a chance to make money and pump some iron in his goal to become a starter for the 2021 season, which commences Sept. 4 with a game against St. Andrews.

 

“Yeah, I’ve been working part-time as a custodian at the high school with a fellow Class of 2020 graduate,” Walker said. “The weight room was one of the biggest factors in why I decided to work there as well as being within walking distance from my home.”

 

“On top of that, the high school has recently hired a new strength and conditioning coach who I’ve been working with and bouncing ideas off of, Coach Cory Magwood,” Walker added. “Not only has he helped me by just giving me ideas, but he also has done tremendous work with all of the sports programs at Philip Simmons.”  

 

Philip Simmons football coach Eric Bendig said Walker’s decision to do double duty was a smart decision. That’s something Bendig expects of Walker, who was ranked No. 1 out of a class of 85 students in the graduating class of 2020.

 

“He’s taking a step forward to get better and make a little money while he’s at it,” Bendig said. “He clocks in, gets his work done and then hits the weight room. He just wants to get better.”

 

It’s a labor of love, but it wasn’t always that way. Walker is a Charleston-area native who moved to Seattle when his father took a job there. He returned to the Lowcountry his sophomore year and was in a class taught by Bendig.

 

“I told him he needed to give (football) a shot,” Bendig said. “His response was, ‘I’m not really into that sport.’”

 

The rest is history.

 

Walker went on to be a force on the Iron Horses’ offensive line his junior and senior years, and found a perfect match when he visited Presbyterian. He didn’t get much playing time his freshman season. But he was the only freshman lineman to make the team’s travel

squad.

 

“My goal this year for football is to be able to maintain the travel squad and just help out where I can,” Walker said. “There are a lot of good players on the O-Line, so it will be hard to find a spot. But I am willing to work for it. I also want to keep working on fundamentals, getting better wherever I can.”

 

And it begins in the Philip Simmons weight room.

 

“Football has taught me a lot about myself, especially when it comes to personal fitness,” said Walker who is 6-1, 270 pounds. “Before football, I was unmotivated to really do anything, but now after playing for two to three years I actually have gotten myself on a relatively strict diet and look forward to working out and exercising pretty much every day.”