Former Ozark basketball player Kyland Hewett-Newbill said he recently received a text message from his high school’s head coach.
“What is FBOY Island?” said the text read by head coach Mark Schweitzer.
Hewett-Newbill sent him the trailer for the upcoming reality TV show he will be appearing on.
The trailer showed three women looking for love in a tropical paradise, but they had to sort through 26 men, half of whom were “good guys” who were there for love. The other half? They’re looking for, well, other stuff and a $100,000 prize.
“He asked ‘am I going to be embarrassed for you or am I going to be proud of you?'” Hewett-Newbill said. “I just laugh at the thought of Coach Schweitzer logging on.”
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The 2016 Ozark grad who played a year at Drury will be taking part in the second season of FBOY Island. The first three episodes of the 10-part show debut July 14 with additional episodes dropping every Thursday until the August 4 finale.
Hewett-Newbill filmed the show over a three-month period in Cabo San Lucas. During the first season, the women selected men to date, with each episode ending with the elimination of three men. It is then revealed whether the contestant was a “nice guy” or a self-proclaimed “Fboy”. The show, supposedly, calls them “f-boys” all the time and not what you know it stands for.
For Hewett-Newbill, he got involved with the show through his social media activity. After his basketball career ended, he continued to be a role model like his sister. The chance to travel the world attracted him.
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Hewett-Newbill didn’t have a job so he got into an agency, took pictures, and started getting minor acting roles. Her Instagram direct messages were then inundated with requests from other reality shows, including Love Island, The Circle and, eventually, FBOY Island.
“They contacted me about it and I thought it was pretty interesting,” Hewitt-Newbill said. “I applied and had a long interview. I didn’t know I was going to be cast on the show until a week before we left. It was crazy.”
Hewett-Newbill said he checked the social media pages of some of the guys who competed in the first season and saw their follower numbers grow to the point where they were modeling for different clothing lines. The show, created by some who worked on The Bachelor and Love Is Blind, had the biggest launch for a reality show on HBO Max since its spring 2020 launch, according to WarnerMedia.
It’s quite a start for the former First Team All-Central Ozark Conference player who led the Tigers to a 19-9 season as a senior while averaging 13.4 points per game.
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His player page on Drury’s website said his dream job was once to be a professional basketball player, but now he has his sights set on becoming a social media influencer in addition to a sports ground in which he is going after earning a sports administration degree next fall. semester.
Hewett-Newbill said his whole family can’t wait to sit down and watch the show – although he admitted he told them there was a certain part in one of the episodes where they might want to turn away.
As for the biggest question on everyone’s mind: Is Hewett-Newbill an FBOY?
“You’ll just have to log in to find out,” he said.
Wyatt D. Wheeler is a reporter and columnist for the Springfield News-Leader. You can contact him at 417-371-6987, by email at wwheeler@news-leader.com or Twitter at @WyattWheeler_NL. He is also a co-host of Sports Talk on Jock Radio weekdays from 4-6 p.m.
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