Tyler Wages Enjoys At-Home School
Tyler Wages, Jasper County High School (JCHS) Class of 2020, brother to Taylor Wages, JCHS Class of 2018 who now attends the University of North Georgia (UNG), and son of Maylon and Magen Wages has always lived in Monticello. His mom Magen works locally at Perma Therm and Tyler’s father Maylon works in nearby Eatonton at Gro Tec, Inc.
“I was glad to get out. Work was pretty easy online,” Tyler shared of school closing early. Taking advantage of having more time, Tyler started working on a neighbor’s farm. Working as a handyman of sorts, he cuts hay, checks fence lines and helps out with whatever chores need to be done on the farm.
Tyler’s tenure at JCHS included playing football and baseball all four years of high school. He played left tackle and defensive end for the Canes’ football team and catcher for Hurricanes’ baseball. His favorite is baseball. His dad was a Hurricane baseball player and his sister Taylor was a cheerleader and played tennis for the Lady Canes.
“I’m going to Brewton-Parker for baseball,”Tyler said, telling me that he will be attending on a baseball scholarship. Two years running at JCHS he received regional Honorable Mentions for both football and baseball, as an offensive lineman in football and as a catcher for baseball. As a Brewton-Parker Baron, Tyler will take the baseball field as a first baseman rather than a catcher.
As for a field of study, he is choosing elementary or middle school education. He hopes to be a teacher and most likely a coach. “I just know I want to do it,” he said of his reasons for wanting to teach and coach. He had always planned on going into nursing, but while in the Nursing Pathways program he changed his mind.
He is looking forward to living on campus, sharing, “I think my parents are ready for me to go!” He has not met his roommate, but he isn’t worried because Brewton-Parker puts all of the baseball team in one dormitory, making for an instant “family and friends’ group.” “Baseball and football teams are like family,”Tyler said.
“Jasper schools have been pretty good. We have good teachers. We all get along pretty good,” he told me. Since both prom and graduation are scheduled for the end of July, Tyler shared that he did not feel that he lost out on much during his senior year. He has plans to attend prom and graduation. He did add, however, that if he had one thing to tell incoming seniors it would be, “Just don’t take it [school] for granted.”
“It can be boring at times,”he said of living in a town as small as Monticello. But he found fun like many others found fun—Friday night football, the occasional trip to the Dairy Queen after the games and hunting and fishing. He always has one of his favorite pastimes, “ I did a lot of riding dirt roads with my friends,” he shared.
Tyler also has extended family in Monticello. “We always hang out a lot together,”he shared of his aunt and uncle and of his cousins, Makayla, Maddie and Macey Wages. He also has his youth group at the Monticello Baptist Church.
He is not sure if he will return to Monticello after college. He is sure about voting, registering to vote when he turned 18. He is also ready to go he told me.
His date to go, his move in at Brewton-Parker to his dorm with his Baron baseball family is scheduled for August 14th and the start of classes on August 17th. “I’m looking forward to college, to meeting new people and to continuing to play baseball.”
