Skylar Mays Rumors

Shortly after midnight on Sept. 28, 2018, an argument broke out outside the party involving about eight people, including one of Sims’ friends. Sims stepped between his friend and Dyteon Simpson, who allegedly responded by shooting Sims in the head. The encounter was captured on video by multiple bystanders, and the 20-year-old Simpson was arrested a day later. He remains incarcerated, awaiting trial. Mays began getting a stream of text messages about the shooting around 2 a.m., most saying, “I’m sorry,” before another LSU athlete finally called to tell him what had happened. “I pretty much went blank after that,” Mays said.

The rest of that Friday is hazy for Mays. He remembers having a team meeting but doesn’t remember if they reflected on what happened. Eventually, Sims’ parents came back to campus to pick up his dog, Buddha. “I saw Ms. Fay and she hugged me and said, ‘That’s my only baby. That’s my only child,'” Mays said. “That’s when it really hit home really hard. I was still kind of in shock before, but when Ms. Fay hugged me … it hit me.”

Throughout that season, assistant coach Greg Heiar, who was assigned to work with Mays twice a day almost every day for three years, saw a player who was in pain but newly determined. “It was a life-changing moment,” said Heiar, now an assistant coach at East Tennessee State. “He was already focused before, but he was laser-focused after [Sims’ death].”