MT. PLEASANT, S.C. (WCBD) – Lucy Beckham High School’s starting quarterback Chalmers Ballard puts the student in student athlete.

“Grades are really a big deal to me. It takes time out of my day. I get home after practice, and I work straight on homework and knock out that work.”

In the top 20% in his class, Ballard boasts a 4.7 GPA.

One to stay on his grind, Chalmers makes sure others are on there’s as well.

“I’ve seen him working with students in his classes helping them with assignments, with papers, and just really showing that true student,” said Claire Gatlin Lucy, Beckham’s director of counseling.

Making others around him better is one of his jobs as the QB for LB.

The study habits he’s created in school have helped on the field.

“Football is also like a class, you have to study and learn the plays. You have to learn defenses,” Ballard said.

Mastering the playbook is a science.

Seeing as that is his favorite subject, it should help in his career goal of working in sports medicine.

“I think Chalmers has big goals and I see him striving for it every single day. I know he wants to go to a great college. And he knows that the more he does on the field and the more he does in the classroom. it’s just going to give him more and more options of what’s next for him,” Gatlin said.

Still a junior, what’s next is a road contest in Hilton Head Friday night.

With a GPA over four, Chalmers seems to know all the answers.

What about the question of a game winning touchdown or acing an AP course?

“I’d rather ace an AP course because that’s less money you have to spend in college on a college course,” said Chalmers Ballard.

A leader on the field and in the classroom, Ballard and the Bengals have taken others to school this season.