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Poly coach Raul Lara forwarded us this press release yesterday, informing us that one of his graduating linebackers, George Daily-Lyles, has been awarded a significant honor by the National Football Foundation’s Play It Smart Program, as GDL is their national student-athlete of the month. <\/span>It’s great to see a quality kid like Lyles recognized by such a big organization, adding to an already impressive list of awards he’s gotten this year, including All-CIF Defensive Player of the Year.<\/span><\/p>\n DALLAS, March 25, 2009 – The National Football Foundation & College Hall of Fame (NFF) announced today that George Daily-Lyles, a senior linebacker from Long Beach Polytechnic High School in Long Beach, Calif., has been named the Play It Smart National Student-Athlete of the Month for February. <\/p>\n A four-year member of Play It Smart at Long Beach Poly, Lyles has been an active participant in the program, inspiring his teammates to balance their powerhouse status on the field with equal success in the classroom and as leaders in the community.<\/p>\n “[Play It Smart] has taught the whole Poly family, about family and that there are no individual successes without family success,” said Lyles. “So this honor is a team honor, not an individual honor.” <\/p>\n Lyles, who has received numerous football accolades, recently signed a letter of intent with the University of Hawai’i to play football in the fall. On the field, the team captain led his team to a 14-1 record, a California Interscholastic Federation Southern Section title (the school’s 18th), and a runner-up finish in the CIF Open State Championships. <\/p>\n “Play It Smart is like a big brother standing over you and encouraging you to perform on and off-the-field,” said Lyles. “While my friends from other schools were fumbling around trying to keep up with the recruiting process, I was already set thanks to Play It Smart.”<\/p>\n “George’s leadership skills have been invaluable to the football program,” said Long Beach Poly Academic Coach Monica Kim. “As team captain, he has taken on his younger teammates and stressed the importance of academics and discipline.”<\/p>\n “Coach Kim has helped me get to where I am today,” said Lyles. “Without Coach Kim, I don’t know where I would be.”<\/p>\n “Each month we honor student-athletes who demonstrate excellence on the field, in the classroom, and in service to others,” said NFF Chairman Archie Manning. “George is one these extraordinary student-athletes. We look forward to following the bright future of this remarkable young man.”<\/p>\n Lyles recorded over 150 tackles this season and was named to several All-State teams. In addition, he was crowned Moore League and CIF Southern Section PAC-5 defensive MVP. Even with all the accolades on the field, Lyles found the time to give back to his community, volunteering with Habitat for Humanity, the Long Beach Rescue Mission, Foundation for Kids’ Long Beach One Million Toy Benefit, Miller’s Children’s Hospital, and reading and mentoring local elementary school children.<\/p>\n “Volunteering at the soup kitchen was one of the most beneficial activities we did,” said Lyles. “It really put life into perspective, it reminds you to be humble.”<\/p>\n “George is just a great kid, a hard worker, and an awesome leader,” said Head Football Coach Raul Lara. “He is a real student of the game, and that’s because his classroom ethics transfer over to the football field.”<\/p>\n “This young man is a tremendous talent on the field and he has become a valuable asset to his community through his volunteer work,” said Len Stachitas, Play It Smart Executive Director. “Hawai’i is getting a great football player but an even better young man.”<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" GDL has been recognized as a national student-athlete of the month by the National Football Foundation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_sponsor_sponsorship_scope":"","newspack_sponsor_native_byline_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_native_category_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_style":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_placement":"inherit","inline_featured_image":false,"newspack_ads_suppress_ads":false,"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":"","_":"","_author_alias":"","cap-aim":"","cap-description":"","cap-display_name":"","cap-first_name":"","cap-jabber":"","cap-last_name":"","cap-linked_account":"","cap-newspack_employer":"","cap-newspack_job_title":"","cap-newspack_phone_number":"","cap-newspack_role":"","cap-user_email":"","cap-user_login":"","cap-website":"","cap-yahooim":"","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_email_html":"","newspack_email_type":"","newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_hide_page_title":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_show_share_buttons":"","newspack_sponsor_byline_prefix":"","newspack_sponsor_disclaimer_override":"","newspack_sponsor_flag_override":"","newspack_sponsor_only_direct":"","newspack_sponsor_url":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_show_updated_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"newspack_spnsrs_tax":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-4323","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4323","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4323"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4323\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4323"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4323"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4323"},{"taxonomy":"newspack_spnsrs_tax","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newspack_spnsrs_tax?post=4323"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=4323"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}