Covington senior Myles Stark signed a football scholarship with Bethel University last Wednesday. Pictured with Stark are, from left, front, Joseph Stark, father; Catina Stark, mother; back, J.R. Kirby, CHS head coach; Eumorrion Flowers, cousin, Natasha Towns, cousin; Ja'Nile Alston, cousin; and Adrian Stark, brother. Photo by Jeff Ireland
Before the 2019 football season started, Covington senior Myles Stark was considering not playing his senior year.
After talking with the coaching staff, Stark decided to suit up and it ended being a great decision for everyone involved.
Covington made it all the way the state semifinals and Stark, who was all-state, all-region and a member of the Liberty Bowl Classic All-Star Team, enjoyed a great senior season.
It all added up to a football scholarship to Bethel University for Stark, who made it official during a signing ceremony Wednesday morning in the CHS library.
“I’m so proud of him,” Covington head coach J.R. Kirby said. “It just shows you that hard work pays off.”
Stark was a lockdown cornerback with four interceptions, also played wideout and returned a punt and kickoff for a touchdown. At 6-2, 180, Stark is a hyper-athletic guy who also stars for the Charger basketball team.
Bethel head coach Michael Jasper asked Stark to visit the campus in McKenzie, Tenn. and Stark liked what he saw.
“They showed my everything and it looked nice,” Stark said. “It’s a good place to be academics-wise and everything.”
Stark will join former Covington players Ethan McDivitt and K.J. Fayne at Bethel.
Kirby said a lot of players and fans get caught up in the idea of attending a larger school even though there are a lot of other opportunities out there.
“Everybody gets on the hype train, you gotta go Division I, you gotta go here, gotta go there,” Kirby said. “You need to find the best place for you. Not every kid is going to go Division I … I think he’ll go there and show what we can do. If he wants to spend four years there, he can. If he wants to go somewhere bigger and better once he puts film out there, he’ll have that opportunity because he has the frame and the size. He’s going to a great university and great football program and getting a lot of his education paid for.”
When asked for advice to players trying to get to the next level, Stark said, “You just gotta believe. You can make anything happen.”
