Sept. 3, 2018, South Pointe High School’s starting cornerback, Jaylen Mahoney committed to Vanderbilt University.

As Mahoney ended his junior year, he had 12 college football offers, including many top universities such as, Wake Forest University, Vanderbilt University, and Yale University. With so many accomplished schools interested in him, Mahoney had a very difficult decision to make about his future.

At the end of his junior year, Mahoney was most interested in furthering his education originally at Wake Forest University. With this interest in mind, Mahoney decided to commit to Wake Forest University for football.

When thinking about his decision, Mahoney later decided to decommit from Wake Forest.

“I just didn’t feel comfortable with my decision. I just rushed everything and did not think stuff through,” said Mahoney after explaining his thought process throughout the decommitment.

After decommitting, Mahoney thought long and hard about where he should continue his education. He wanted his decision to feel right and did not want to have any second thoughts, and Vanderbilt University is where he knew he would be happy.

Getting a feel for Vanderbilt University and the football team from going on official visits with his family, Mahoney knew he was making the right choice. He committed at his last official visit to Vanderbilt and is content with his decision.

“I committed to Vanderbilt because that’s where I felt most at home. I felt most comfortable there; you get top academics and an elite team all in one,” says Mahoney when discussing his reasoning on committing to Vanderbilt.

Along with being a well-skilled athlete, Mahoney is also an exceptional student, ranking 51 in his class of about 400 students.

When furthering his education, he would like to major in engineering like his father, to become a civil or architectural engineer.

Inspired by his father for his career, Mahoney has always been a very family-based person. Mahoney wanted to stay close to his relative and he saw Vanderbilt as a more viable option than many of the other schools. Location was a big deal to him because he liked Rock Hill and did not want to be too far, being one of the reasons he barely considered Yale University.

Mahoney has played at South Pointe since his freshman year, starting for the varsity team at the end of the 2015-2016 season.

Seniors Joe Ervin and Marice Whitlock have helped push and compete with him to make them all better players ever since his freshman year. South Pointe’s head coach, Strait Herron and the offensive coordinator, Jason McManus, has helped and influenced Mahoney’s recruiting process.

Along with the coaches and players of South Pointe, Mahoney’s family and faith have helped him achieve so much.

“My parents have motivated me to be the person I am today…as well as faith playing a big role. You just wonder when you get there, would you like it there or not. You’re basically taking a chance on yourself,” says Mahoney, discussing the role family and faith have played into his achievements and decision making.

Jaylen Mahoney will start his college football career at Vanderbilt University, planning on playing cornerback for the team.

“I feel like I will have a chance to be a big time player at Vanderbilt. The best thing is I can get a great education while being on a great team,”