It’s hard to miss Ryker Porter when he comes down the hall at Haskell High School. At 6-5, 300 pounds, Porter is the very picture of what a football lineman should look like. And his playing credentials back up that sizeable frame. “I’ve been a lot of places in 35 years of coaching and he’s a kid that could play at any of those places,” said his coach Trandy Birch. “He has the God-given intangibles of size, strength and athleticism and is a major force on both sides of the ball of us. Man, I’d like to run him through the copy machine about 50 times.” A VYPE TOP 100 pick this year, Porter is also a state qualified powerlifter and baseball player in addition to football, but it’s just been recently that football has become his jam. “If you’d have asked me that a couple of years ago it would have been a hard question, but I think football has jumped to the front now because there is so much complexity and continual action.” His start in football was a bit delayed. “I always wanted to play football, but my mom wouldn’t let me until I got into middle school, and I got big enough and I guess she decided I wouldn’t get hurt,” he laughed. Off the gridiron, Ryker is also involved in National Honor Society, student council, president of the senior class and in debate where he was the Lincoln-Douglas state debate champion last year. He’s also in the running to be class valedictorian next spring. As a result of his performance in football and academics, Ryker has already received an offer to play football at Ivy League Dartmouth next year. Ryker says his freshman year was special for a number of reasons. “It was special because we had a lot of great guys on that team including Briar Payne who was a lineman that taught me a lot. I also had a great game that year against Gore and our game against Casady where we were underdogs but came back in the second half to win.” Ryker has just one main goal for his senior year. “I want to leave it all on the field for my team.”
