Trackster gains national recognition

CHICAGO - Othello student athlete Courtney Kirkwood has been honored as one of the nation's top high school athletes by Rise Magazine and Gatorade.

Kirkwood, a two-time winner, is the first Gatorade Washington Girls Track and Field Athlete of the Year to be chosen from Othello High School.

The award recognizes not only out standing athletic excellence but high standards of academic achievement and exemplary character demonstrated on and off the track.

Kirkwood has maintained a 3.66 GPA in the classroom and volunteers as part of multiple community service initiatives on behalf of her church.

Kirkwood in now a finalist for the prestigious Gatorade National Girls Track and Field Athlete of the Year award to be announced later this month.

Kirkwood recently signed a letter of intent to attend Washington State University, where she will study Human Movement Studies while throwing javelin for the girls track and field team.

Othello High School track coach Mandi Perez called Courtney a "competitor and a natural talent."

"She can do it all," Perez added. "She's my once in a lifetime kid, I don't expect another one like her to come around."

The coach takes little credit for Courtney's success.

"They just walk on to the playing field and we get excited," she said.

Kirkwood on the other hand credits Perez for "giving me the tools to become a better athlete," noting that track coaches don't attend state finals and that's the "time to show them what we've learned."

At the state meet Kirkwood won the javelin event with a throw of 151 feet, which ranked as the nation's number 15 performance this spring at the time of her selection. She currently holds the state record at 160' 10", which she achieved her junior year at Othello High School.

The Gatorade Player of the Year Program annually recognizes one winner in the District of Columbia and each of the 50 states that sanction high shcool football, girls volleyball, boys and girls cross country, boys and girls basketball, boys and girls soccer, baseball, softball and boys and girls track and field. The selection process is administered by Rise Magazine, which works with top sport-specific experts and a media advisory board of accomplished, veteran prep sports journalists to determine the state winners in each sport.

For more on the Gatorade Player of the Year program visit http://playeroftheyear.gatorade.com.