Spencer OL Ye’Majesty Sanders garnering plenty of college attention

What’s in a name?

For Spencer offensive lineman Ye’Majesty Sanders, it’s the weight of expectation as he enters his senior season and his second with the Greenwave.

Like his name, an homage to his grandmother Cinderella, might suggest, he’s royalty on a team that had its first winning season since 1977 last year. As the team goes through its summer workouts, preparing to take another step as a program in 2016, he has emerged as a leader in the locker room and also one on the field. He’s getting attention from colleges unlike any recent Spencer player has, and that attention could continue to increase in the future.

He’s a triple threat, for lack of a better description. Coach Pierre Coffey said Sanders has the goods on the field, in the weight room and in the classroom. Younger teammates look up to him and peers follow his lead when it comes to the amount of work he puts in to improve.

Sanders is really an individual representation of the program he plays for. He entered last season, his first in Columbus after moving in from El Paso, Texas, as a talented but unknown player. By the end of the year, he had made everyone take notice.

“He came in with huge potential last year, and he just got better and better every week,” Coffey said. “He worked extremely hard to get better. He fit in well with the kids. It showed in his film every Friday night. He just emerged to be one of the leaders on the team.”

Sanders began to see the fruits of his labor a few months ago, when his scholarship offers from colleges began to pile up. It went from a handful of interested coaches to offers from Mississippi State, East Carolina, South Florida, Georgia State and Arkansas State, among others. All total, he has 13 offers, and Coffey expects that number to rise as high as 20 by the start of the football season in August.

“He’s got camps at the end of the summer, and that’s generally when kids pick up more offers,” he said. “If he camps well and we continue to have that same success from last year, he could easily be at 20-plus offers.”

Sanders said he’s been playing football since he was 8 years old, but has really bloomed over the past couple of years. The size is one thing. He’s 6-foot-5 and 300 pounds. But it’s also the footwork, the strength and the agility, which he began to show enormous strides with as a junior.

He hurt his knee late last season, suffering a meniscus tear in the playoffs that he is still trying to work his way all the way back from. But that hasn’t held him back either. He continued to get offers as he rehabbed, and he’s found that he can heal pretty quick. He’s spent countless hours putting in work to make sure he’s even better as a senior this year.

“I’m still just grinding, trying to get all the way back,” he said. “Hot days. Rainy days. Sweaty days. I just think about my family, my teammates, all that. I’ve just been working hard, thinking about them and staying motivated.”

That, more than anything else, is what Coffey said makes Sanders a special player. Many recruits, when they begin to get big-time attention, can think more about their future in the game than the current team they’re playing for.

That hasn’t been the case for Sanders.

“I want to win,” he said. “Our focus is on the Dome. We’re taking it one step at a time, but we want to win the region and take it from there.”

If they do, his prospects will undoubtedly continue to skyrocket. For now, though, he’s just going to continue letting his recruitment play out.

“I haven’t made a decision yet,” he said. “Colleges are still showing interest, so I’m just taking it all in.”

This story was originally published July 2, 2016 at 1:46 PM with the headline "Spencer OL Ye’Majesty Sanders garnering plenty of college attention."