Five-star Texas A&M signee Daylon Mack will be at The White House tomorrow to receive the Franklin D. Watkins Memorial Trophy Award . It’s an honor that is a means for recognizing exceptionally talented African-American male athletes who, by their example, help promote high academic standards and a commitment to community service.

Mack was one of six finalist for the prestigious award that was initiated in 1992 to promote academic excellence among young African-American males. Of all the awards the small town Gladewater, Texas, native has brought home during in his distinguished career, he says this is the biggest honor of them all.

“I think this is definitely the biggest one of them all because it’s not football related,” Mack said. “It’s about what I’m doing off-the-field that’s bigger than football. That’s real big for me.”

He added, “I’ve always been an active leader in the community. I’ve always been involved with a lot of stuff and my grades have always been good. I’m at the top of my class and been at the top since the sixth grade. Football helped put the spotlight on what I was doing so it was great to give back.”

The Mack family will fly out to Washington D.C. early tomorrow morning and the butterflies are starting to flutter already.

“It’s very surreal and it’s setting in that I’m leaving in the morning,” he said. “It’s going to be an honor to meet with the President of the United States. Whether you agree with him or not he’s still the President. It will be an outstanding honor and a blessing for my family and the city of Gladewater. It’s hard to take it all in right now.”

Mack says he wants to make the most of his once in a lifetime opportunity to meet President Barack Obama.

“I just want to take a picture with him and throw up the ‘Gig’Em’ and I want to see if he’ll throw it up too,” he said laughing. “That would be real fun. I’ve got to represent Aggieland wherever I go.”

