Joshua Gill '27 Recruiting Profile

I would love to be able to run track in college. I know my times from last season could have been much better, but it was my last year of middle school. And, as such, I decided I would try to juggle being a lead in a play and also running track for my team. Every meet everyone just did so much better than me, and to be honest, it was disheartening because I couldn't skip any play practices even though I wanted to run instead. It stung when the other people in my races kept getting faster, while I stayed pretty static compared to them. Every time I ran the 300m hurdles, my times were based on raw talent; my school doesn't even have a track, let alone practice hurdles for me to use. The first time I ran the whole race was the first meet of the season. Yet I got second and third several times throughout the season, as my times slowly improved. Having to practice on my own, I gave myself the hardest workout possible every Saturday we could go to the local track. Mid-season, I added triple jump to my repertoire, which already included 100m dash and 200m dash, besides 300m hurdles. My coach is a single mom and during the season a mass was found near her daughter's brain. Because of that, she often had to go to the big city on weekends for scans and other things for her daughter. We never got a practice together to work on my triple jump. I essentially taught myself, and my only times to tweak things with my coach were the practice jumps at meets, right before the actual event. Despite all of this, I managed to get third in triple at my last meet. I'm looking forward to this season, and have worked out every day all summer long in preparation. It's definitely a possibility that this year, as a freshman, I'll run 300m hurdles on varsity. I'm going to focus less on extracurriculars this spring, because I already do quite a few. I think it'll be enough to just do track and the play [working out every day after drama practice, this season!] and keeping straight A's. I have the ambition and the drive to give track my all. I just haven't had the opportunity to show my skills yet.