Statewide Honors for Local Athletes

By Dale Gathright, Jr., 05/19/20 5:47 PM

 

LITTLE ROCK -The Arkansas Track Coaches Association (ATCA) has honored Arkansas’s High School Cross Country and Track and Field student athletes for their outstanding achievements during the 2019-20 school year. That includes two local athletes. These awards are typically celebrated and awarded to deserving high school athletes at the Arkansas Track and Field Hall of Fame Banquet in Little Rock during the month of June. However, due to the pandemic, adjustments to the process were made. “During this time of hardship, we wanted to give our high school athletes something positive about their track and field season, even though many schools didn’t have an opportunity to run any outdoor meets.”

The ATCA board discussed and came up with criteria, procedures, and a system to award our state’s best academic and athletic based performances.This process included many current and a few former Arkansas high school coaches.

The awards are as follows:

1. The All Arkansas Academic Team – The criteria used for this award is that students had to have a minimum of a 3.5 cumulative GPA and a 25 ACT score.

2. All Arkansas Team – The criteria used for this team was solely based on the athlete’s performance during the 2019-2020 Indoor Track and Field season (could not use results from outdoor season due to COVID-19).

3. All State Team – The criteria used for this award are as follows: Competitors had to finish either as a state champion or a state runner-up in the ATCA State Indoor Championships in any of the events in their divisions.

The indoor state meet was held at The University of Arkansas on February 28-29.There were 108 schools and almost 1900 student athletes that competed in our state indoor meet.

“We would like to recognize outstanding track athletes with All State, All Academic and All Arkansas Awards. These student athletes are the elite in their events. They represent themselves and their schools as well.We are proud to highlight each one of these fine young men and women,” said Drew Yoakum, Indoor High School State Track Meet Director 2020, Fayetteville High School Track Head Coach and Assistant Athletic Director.

ATCA says their goal is to provide “interscholastic student athletes, our sport, our schools, and our coaches a way to promote our success in the sports of cross country and track and field in the state of Arkansas.We work closely with Arkansas Activities Association and all of our schools’ administrators and coaches.”

Local honorees:

4A Girls All State

Genesis Curtis – Hope

3A Boys All State

Alex George – Prescott