Because, you see, as much as football has always been part of Ben’s life, unfortunately, so has adversity. It started when he was only seven years old, ending a day of playing football at a bonfire with friends. An explosion in the fire left Ben’s tiny body covered in burns - burns that spread over 25% of him. The family left for Vanderbilt University Medical Center to begin the long and arduous process of healing their baby. But, even then, Ben was a battler. He was not going to let this get him down. He fought so hard and so valiantly that his family and nursing team dubbed him Super Ben. Even through the complications and the unknowns, Ben fought. “There was a time there with just medications and steroids and different sort of things,” Johnny recalls. “There were so many complications after the burn. It was awful, awful.” And, because the Myers family had not only found a sport-of-choice in football, but they’d found a community that rallied around them and helped support Ben’s recovery in so many ways, Johnny and Amy decided to make that name stick. “We developed an award. We called it the Super Ben Bomber Big Brother award,” Johnny says. “That initial year, we gave it to the whole Ballard football team because they were just such a big deal to Ben. He just idolized those young men.” When Ben healed from his severe injuries, he went back to playing football. But life’s hard tackles weren’t quite finished with him. He would face a big decision in moving schools, from Ballard to Paducah Tilghman. There, he would suffer a couple of poten- tially career-ending injuries. First a broken vertebra in his back, and then a leg fracture his sophomore season. But nothing could compare to watching his mother, Amy, fight and ultimately succumb to brain cancer. The last game that Amy watched her son play in, Ben was named Offensive Lineman of the Game. His mom, who had been such a driving force in his life, was going to see him on top, one final time. Ben saw to that, Johnny says. Battling through injuries, big life decisions, and soul-crush- ing loss - these are not things that a normal high-schooler has experienced. But Ben is no normal high schooler. Ben has taken life’s knocks and used them to sharpen his resolve. Be a better football player. Be an outstanding student. Be a good human being. Ben knows the way. There’s nothing he can’t do. He knows, because he’s already done very hard things. In football, Ben draws strength from his experiences to out- work everyone around him. “I’ve started every year I’ve been at Tilghman because I’ve always wanted it more,” he says. Paducah Tilghman High School Head Coach Sean Thomp- son saw the difference in Ben right out of the gate. “The thing that makes Ben different is his drive to be the best version of himself in whatever he is doing,” Coach Thompson says. “His work ethic is second-to-none.” Ben is hoping to parlay that drive into a college football career. And he’s already battling to get there. “That’s my ultimate goal, and maybe even the NFL if I’m able to, and so I realized that to do that, I have to work extremely hard,” he says. “Off-season, I’m in the gym every night until 9:00 or 10:00 just working on my craft and working on my body.” And he’s not only working for himself. These days, he’s using that grit to show his teammates how it’s done. “When last season was over, I was back in the gym the next day,” he says. “I would call any of my buddies that couldn’t drive to see if they wanted to come work out with me.” INTHEVUE.COM | OCTOBER 2025 9
