VALDOSTA — A trip to the mailbox one day has turned into a trip to Daytona Beach, Florida, for Jeffrey Davis.

The Lowndes linebacker received a letter from the Offense-Defense All-American Bowl and after doing some research with his father, the Lowndes will be spending the next week at the Offense-Defense Rising Stars Showcase. Davis’ team will have practices Tuesday through Thursday before playing at 2:15 p.m. Friday at the Daytona Beach Municipal Stadium.

“They sent me a letter in the mail, it was an invite to the Offense-Defense Junior Bowl game,” Davis said about how he ended up in the Junior Bowl. “Me and my dad looked up some information on it and looked up all the history about it and that’s when we started getting deep into it.

“We talked to coach Mac (Randy McPherson) about it and we decided to do it.”

Once he decided to attend the Offense-Defense game, Davis has turned his attention to getting the most out of the experience. Part of that is getting better as a player for his final campaign with the Vikings next fall.

“I just want to get better as a player myself,” Davis said. “Just keep on continuing to grow as a leader and as a teammate for the next season to come as a Viking. And I just want to go down there and have fun as well.”

As a junior, Davis made 34 stops in his first season as a starter on the Lowndes defense. That included 2.5 tackles for a loss while also recording two pass breakups and recovering a fumble.

In addition to wanting to get better as a Viking, Davis also hopes the competition at the All-American game can provide an opportunity to draw more attention from colleges as well.

“We wanted to get more competition and that way I could better expose myself to other teams and other coaches on the collegiate level,” Davis said, adding that while he hasn’t attracted any offers yet, he has taken visits to Florida, Georgia and Georgia Southern.

“Yes sir, that’d be great if it would.”

Jamie Wachter is the sports editor of the Valdosta Daily Times and can be followed on Twitter @jlwachter.