“I’m really good in the air,” says Grayson Lyman, the seven-sport dervish from La Jolla Country Day School about his ability to head the ball in soccer, his No. 1 sport. What’s been kind of surprising the past year is that the 17-year-old senior’s top sport morphed from football – he’s a place-kicker who attended several kicking camps last summer – to soccer, where his 6-foot, 145-pound frame would seem to fit the sport to a tee. As Lyman’s body grew from 84 pounds as a ninth-grader to 97 as a sophomore and 110 as a junior, he was still the lightest person on the football team. But good-naturedly recounting his climb up the weight chart, he says, “As I got bigger, my kicking leg got stronger.” He says he had good technique but that there wasn’t enough oomph to go behind his kicking leg in the younger years. Finally, as his slowly increasing mass supplied more punch to his field goals, he rose to be rated the 50th best kicker in the nation by ProKicker.com last summer. He has been bumped down to number 62 after his senior season and has placed increased emphasis on other sports. So, as captain of both his club and high school soccer teams, he sees “real football” as his ticket to college studies and athletics. Lyman carries a 4.3 GPA, taking four AP classes in his senior year. As you might guess, to accomplish this, he is quite organized, texting a reporter multiple times on availability and time and place for an interview as well as follow-up information on his incredible athletoholism and success. “It went all right,” the torrid Torrey texted after an ice hockey game, to which he drove in Anaheim soon after an interview in Mira Mesa. “We lost in the last minute, but we played very well.” The day before, he had played for his Country Day soccer team. This was a light weekend. Athletic director and former football coach Jeff Hutzler is a big booster of Lyman’s. “One of the hardest workers I have ever seen,” Hutzler texted in arranging for the student athlete to meet with a reporter. One relief is that Lyman drives himself to many of his events – his mom Vicki doesn’t have to do it all. Another is that the “motivated” man, by his own description, knows that he can’t keep up this sports pace forever. He acknowledges there is a lot of nervous energy in there. At present, he hopes to play soccer at Santa Clara University next year. He says he didn’t go for an early signing in November, which would have locked him in to whatever college he signed a scholarship commitment with. His position is center back, and by his own estimation, his strengths (besides heading) include tactical and technical skills as well as leadership. Coach Dan Wagner at Country Day has been a major booster and father figure for Lyman, in addition to Lyman’s father Steve. “He has always been there to talk,” says the youth of his coach. “He was the reason we had a roller hockey team. My best friends came from the roller hockey team. Coach Dan is a great mentor and great coach.” Lyman’s California Interscholastic Federation championship itinerary last fall has already been recounted: He placed high in the federation cross-country championship. The Torreys won the federation football championship the next Friday, then Mr. Versatile flew out the next morning to the state cross-country meet in Fresno and finished ninth. At times, he didn’t alert his football coach to his athletics schedule “because I didn’t want him to think I might be too tired to do the place-kicking.” This past fall, he converted on six of 10 field goal attempts in football, having gone four for six in his junior year. After the Coastal Conference cross-country championship at Kit Carson Park in Escondido, he was vomiting on the way to the car. Fortunately, mom was driving this time. That was after the 3 p.m. meet. Vicki raced him down to Country Day, where he then boarded the team football bus to drive back up the I-15 to Rancho Bernardo. Lyman kicked a 37-yard field goal at Maranatha and racked up 11 points on eight point-after-touchdowns, his personal high. He then drove up to Anaheim the next day to play ice hockey under Wagner. The young man has a sweet spirit, even as he hustles from one activity to another. As team captain on both school and club teams as well as ice hockey, he says he is caring. Asked to describe himself, he’s direct: “I’m really compassionate. Family always comes first. I love my mom a lot. I’d do anything for her.” His drive and caring come from a deeper source. As a Christian, he says the words of Philippians 4:13 fuel him: “I can do all things through Christ, who strengthens me.” He values a summer family tradition – spending time in Whitefish, Mont., where he indulges himself in fishing, which he says he loves the most outside of all his sports. Only at a small school like Country Day would he be able to play seven sports, including four in one season. He realizes this and is appreciative. Sometimes coaches have fiefdoms, and they don’t want “their” athletes to spend time practicing or playing another sport, especially in season. But Lyman hasn’t run into this in Torreyville. Quite the opposite. Asked what significant issue he would like his generation to be active in, he gives an unorthodox answer: “I think the (national) debt is a pretty serious issue.” He goes on to add, “Also, trying to take God out of everything. People are trying to take our Christian beliefs out of (the public marketplace). They’re trying to take ‘In God We Trust’ off our money.” In the compassion arena, Lyman says he is in charge of sports outreach under his school’s Community Service Board, through which students do community service. Country Day has S4EA, which stands for Sports for Exceptional Athletes. “It’s a really fun day,” he says. “We get to play sports with special needs people.” He also participates in Fly’s 4-on-4, a soccer event tied to community service. Calling Wagner and his mother Vicki his heroes, he says gratefully, “In the past year, I have realized all the things she does for me.” While also running the 800 meters and 4 x 4 relay in track, and being a member of the school surf team, he has heard people wisecrack, “What sport haven’t you played?” The answer is threefold – basketball (“I’m too short”), swimming (despite his love of surfing) and lacrosse.