FORTVILLE — Even when nobody is watching, Peyton Meadors is probably putting in the work.
Whether he’s at Fortville Elementary at 6:30 a.m., Mt. Vernon during the day or at Bishop Chatard late into the night, the Marauders senior is always working to improve his basketball game.
One of five seniors on the 2018-19 Marauders basketball roster, Meadors, like many of his teammates, has had a busy summer on the AAU circuit. All throughout high school he has played for the same coach and same AAU team, Shane Thomson’s Indiana Elite Force 2019.
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The AAU team sits at 32-9 with one tournament remaining, and Meadors has played in 36 of those games. He’s averaging 8.8 points, 2.9 rebounds, 1.3 assists and .8 steals per game, mostly as a sixth man but occasionally as a starter. He leads the team — by a large margin — in free-throw percentage, hitting just shy of 90 percent of his attempts.
“Honestly, any one of our nine players could be a starter, but Peyton accepts this role to come off the bench and provide that spark and to knock down shots,” Thomson said. “Last week he was crucial in helping us to a win by scoring 17 points and getting multiple steals while coming off the bench.”
Meadors helped Indiana Elite Force to a 5-1 record in this summer’s Adidas Invitational, where they finished in the top six against more than 60 other teams. They’ve had the success with a smaller-than-normal roster and while fighting some injuries.
With his senior year at Mt. Vernon quickly approaching, Meadors said he is focusing on specific areas of his game to try to help lead the Marauders to more success.
He’s working hard to try to earn a college offer before the end of his final AAU season. He’s doing that by trying to stand out on the defensive side of the ball, putting a lot of focus on improving in that area.
“I usually guard a lot of the best players,” Meadors said. “I take a lot of pride in my defense. I score some, but that’s the part about AAU … You’re playing with the best players from all kinds of schools, and everyone can score. I try to pick out other things I can do.”
Putting in the work
Meadors used to be a two-sport athlete, sharing a love of basketball with baseball. Growing up, he said he was “all baseball,” a lefty pitcher who loved the game.
He always loved basketball. He battled with his older sister and older brother playing basketball on a hoop they had in their basement growing up. His dad played at Greenfield-Central. He watched his older brother play on a regional team at Mt. Vernon.
Still, he viewed baseball as his main sport.
But one weekend in eighth grade, things changed.
He was on a team playing in a baseball tournament in Carmel. His team advanced to the championship game of that tournament, which directly conflicted with a basketball camp at Purdue that he wanted to go to for a second straight year.
Meadors made the tough choice to head back to Purdue. He made the all-star team and won MVP of the all-star game at the camp. The entire experience, which included staying in the dorms with many of his friends and having a successful weekend at basketball, was the light-bulb moment for Meadors.
The choice was made. Basketball became his future focus, what he wanted to do through high school and beyond. He wanted to put all his attention there, so Meadors became a one-sport athlete.
That lasted for just over a year.
Meadors picked up tennis as a second sport during his sophomore year of high school. He said he has really enjoyed his time on the tennis courts and is looking forward to his final year in what he hopes is a No. 1 doubles spot.
Picking up a second sport again drastically increased Meadors’ workload. Instead of splitting his time between two sports, he found workarounds to keep putting in as much time as possible with both.
At the time, Meadors said he didn’t tell anybody how he accomplished this. He knew playing tennis would take away after-school time from basketball, so he made time before school.
Two days a week, he’d wake up at 6 a.m. and head to Fortville Elementary, as the high school was still closed that early and he knew the principal at Fortville. She let him in the building to work out.
From 6:30 until about 8:15 a.m. Meadors worked on shooting and did drills by himself, then would head to Mt. Vernon for his regular high school day.
After school he’d go to tennis practice, then go try to lift weights with his basketball teammates.
“I’ve always thought if somebody wants to be good at something, they’re going to find time to shoot, to work on skills,” Mt. Vernon basketball coach Ben Rhoades said. “That’s the sign that shows a work ethic in life, not just on the basketball court. It shows he’s dedicated.”
That wasn’t all.
Meadors has his own personal trainer, Taylor Wayer, who works out with Meadors at Bishop Chatard. Meadors would head there later in the evening, sometimes at 9 p.m., and even did so on holidays, working out with Wayer on Christmas Eve and then turning around and training the next night, Christmas, at 11 p.m.
“If I have a trainer like that that’s willing to put in the time, then I’m going to put in the time,” Meadors said. “I’m always working out when people don’t see it. That’s how I get around when I play tennis.”
Off the court
Some of his coaches have nicknames for Meadors, representative of his work ethic and his personality.
“We call him the Pied Piper of our tennis team because everybody follows him,” Mt. Vernon tennis coach Gabe Muterspaugh said. “I tend to bounce off the walls sometimes, always try to be positive … he is like a Mini Me. It’s awesome. He’s always pumped up, always ready to go. He’s kind of like our hype guy, too. It makes it fun to have him around.”
His AAU coach sees him as a Swiss Army knife, someone who does a little bit of everything on the court.
But Thomson, Rhoades and Muterspaugh have all noticed something beyond his athletics prowess and skills. While Thomson and Muterspaugh have known Meadors for years, Rhoades just met him this year after taking the helm as the new Marauders basketball coach.
He quickly saw what Meadors’ other coaches see — someone who makes a big impact both on and off the court with his attitude, personality and work ethic.
“I could figure out very quickly that I can count on Peyton to do the right thing,” Rhoades said. “He led by example more than anything.”
Leading and making an impact beyond sports is important to Meadors.
In June, he attended a leadership conference at Plainfield High School with some other Mt. Vernon students. There, he learned of an organization called Champions Together, which is aimed at getting unified students involved with sports.
He wasn’t just impressed by the idea — he was inspired. So much so, Meadors has started a Champions Together program at Mt. Vernon. He’s starting a committee of about 10 people to work on starting a sports team for the special needs students at the school.
Regardless of what sport or sports the team would play, he’s hoping to have the program compete against other area schools.
His big goal for Champions Together is having a unified basketball game during halftime of a high school game against another county team this winter.
He’s started the program by himself and is working on setting up fundraisers and events for the program. He’s making T-shirts, has already created a Twitter account, and is just trying to spread the word now.
“I just want to be a role model for the community,” Meadors said. “I just want to do something good.”
Meadors has also developed a special bond with a young child, Tyler, who he met through former Mt. Vernon coach Travis Daugherty and Daugherty’s kids.
Tyler has been attending Daugherty’s basketball camps for years and looked up to Meadors, trying to group up with him at the camps and attending Mt. Vernon games.
Then, during last season, the team found out Tyler was battling cancer. He came to a game, and the team, wearing FightLikeTy bracelets, prayed with Tyler in the locker room.
“Every time I see him he always has a smile on his face and is so positive, so when I get down or when I think I’m going through something tough, I put myself in his situation and say I need to be positive and fight like he is,” Meadors said. “Tyler means a lot to me and I love that he looks up to me, because I want to be a role model for the younger kids at Mt. Vernon.”
One day in mid-July, Meadors woke up and heard Tyler was in the hospital again.
The soon-to-be senior said he thought it would be nice to surprise Tyler with a visit. He asked some of his teammates to join him, and the group went and visited with Tyler for about 40 minutes.
“He’s a great kid and I hope to do more for him soon,” Meadors said.
While he focuses a lot on improving his basketball game, Meadors always seems to find a way to make time for others among his practices, workouts and studies.
“He is such a huge role model for all athletes,” Muterspaugh said. “He goes out of his way to help others. I can’t say enough about him. I have a son who is 7 years old and I would love for him to turn out like how Peyton turned out. I can’t give a bigger compliment than that.”
The year ahead
As he heads into his senior year, Meadors has many goals and aspirations.
He hopes his hard work pays off with a college offer before the end of the AAU season this weekend. He’d love to win his final AAU tournament.
For his high school team, he wants to help lead the Marauders to a sectional championship and play deeper into the state tournament.
Being a senior tends to add a bit of a leadership role in sports by default. Even though he is one of five seniors, Meadors said he relishes the opportunity to lead his team for one more year.
“I want to bring some leadership. I was a leader last year, but now I’m a senior, I’m a big dog,” Meadors said. “I really want to do everything I can to help my team. Just showing them hard work, being in the weight room all the time, putting up shots when no one is watching, I think that’s big.”
He knows he’s going to be busy, with playing tennis and basketball, running Champions Together, keeping up with his studies and preparing for college all demanding attention.
But to achieve his team goals and some of his individual goals — he wants to earn a spot on all-county and all-conference teams — he’s more than ready to put in the work.
He’s the Marauders lead returning scorer and rebounder. He’s coming off what has been a highly successful summer.
Now, it’s his time to shine, both on and off the court, for one more year at Mt. Vernon.
“This is what I want to do, this is what I want,” Meadors said. “I want to be the big man, I want to be the leader, the top scorer, the rebounder. Those are my goals, to lead all of those things.”