Marshall County High School senior kicker Aaron Medley added another honor to his growing list of accolades when he was recently selected to play in the 2014 Under Armour All-America High School Football Game.

With the entire MCHS student body looking on, Medley was presented with his jersey last Wednesday morning by Under Armour All-America Game Campaign Coordinator Nick Johnson during an assembly in Dottie Kelso Gymnasium. Only 90 players are invited to participate in the Under Armour All-America Game out of the roughly two million individuals that play high school football each year.

'Huge honor'

"It's a huge honor. I've been working so hard and it's nice to see all that work pay off. It's a great place to showcase my talents," said Medley, who is currently committed to play for the University of Tennessee. "This is close to the top. Anytime you get a national honor it feels great. They had a lot of players to choose from so it's a humbling experience. It'll help me get ready for the college game since a lot of the top players in the country are going to be there."

After being selected to the Tennessean's All-Midstate Team at the end of his junior season, Medley was named to the Second Team Defense of MaxPreps Medium Schools All-American Football Team as a punter in January. Medley is also one of three finalists for this year's TSSAA Mr. Football Kicker of the Year Award along with Baylor's Rafael Gaglianone and Memphis University School's Gary Wunderlich.

Top prospect

Listed as a three star prospect on recruiting services such as Rivals, Scout, and ESPN, Medley is considered the number one placekicker in the 2014 class by ESPN and Kohl's Kicking Camp, while Kohl's also ranks him as the 12th best punter in the land.

During the 2013 campaign, Medley converted 33-of-35 extra point attempts, blasted 46-of-52 kickoffs into the end zone for touchbacks and made 3-of-6 field goals with a long of 44 yards. Medley handled the punting chores as well and averaged 37.3 yards per punt on 33 kicks this season.

Although he has a natural aptitude for kicking, Marshall County assistant coach Tony Johnson credit's Medley's work ethic as the reason for his success on the football field.

Hard worker

"I've worked with Aaron for seven years and no one else has worked harder than him," said Johnson. "He strives for perfection. He analyzes every kick he attempts. My job was to find something wrong with each kick so that he would keep trying to improve."

Having handled all of the Tigers' kicking duties since his freshman year, Medley has hit 111-of-121 extra points, made 20-of-32 field goal attempts, highlighted by a school record 50-yarder against Spring Hill during his junior campaign, and boomed 120-of-196 kickoffs into the end zone for touchbacks during the course of his MCHS career, while averaging 41.7 yards per punt over the last two seasons.

"He's provided stability in the kicking game for us. He was always consistent and you could always count on him," said Marshall County coach Aaron Pitts. "Aaron's a great kid and has worked extremely hard. You love having kids like him in your program because it shows the other players what can be done if you work hard."

The 2014 Under Armour All-America Game will be televised on ESPN and is set to be played at 3:00 p.m. on Jan. 2 at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Florida.