Jacob Eason to attend awards ceremony in Hollywood
By Jay Hawkins
Georgia Football freshman quarterback Jacob Eason is headed to Hollywood.
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That’s right. The winner of the 2014 Gatorade National Football Player of the Year is heading to Hollywood, Calif., for the 14th annual Gatorade High School Athlete of the Year ceremony which takes place right before the 2016 ESPY Awards on July 13.
Eason will be going against top high school athletes (of different sports) in the country to receive the 2015-16 Gatorade Male High School Athlete of the Year. It would certainly be a massive honor to receive arguably the biggest award that can be given to a high school athlete.
The awards (one for males, one for females) will be presented by the Carolina Panthers’ Cam Newton, Karl-Anthony Towns of the Minnesota Timberwolves (2014 Gatorade High School Athlete of the Year, 2013-14 Gatorade National Boys Basketball Player of the Year) and Abby Wambach, 2015 Women’s World Cup Champion and 1997-98 Gatorade New York Girls Soccer Player of the Year, among others at a banquet-style event.
A qualified panel selects recipients of the award based on “athletic excellence, academic achievement and exemplary character, impact on team success, breadth of accomplishment demonstrated to this point in his or her career and individual resume for 2015-16.”
And what a resume Eason has. His 2015-2016 athletic accomplishments are astounding. He led his Lake Stevens (Washington) Vikings (12-1) to the Class 4A semifinals, completed 235-of-338 passes for 3,587 yards and 43 touchdowns, completed 70 percent of his passes as senior and averaged 10.6 yards per attempt, threw just six interceptions throughout his senior season. As a three-year starter, Eason led Lake Stevens to a 28-6 record along with three WESCO 4A titles, two District 1 Class 4A championships and three trips to the state postseason.
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He was rated as the No. 13 recruit of the Class of 2016 by ESPN and the No. 2 pro-style quarterback in the class according to 247Sports. He was also the 2016 U.S. Army All-American Bowl Player of the Year and was a National Elite 11 quarterback camp invitee.
He has also done his fair share off the field. Besides being a dedicated student (3.83 GPA), Eason volunteered with the Never Ever Give Up foundation, donated time as the coordinator and head coach for quarterbacks at the Vikings Junior Football Camp and as a four-year instructor at the Vikings Passing Academy, etc.
Winning this prestigious award would be a cherry on top for Eason. Just look at the list of former male winners; There is the aforementioned Cam Newton, LeBron James, Dwight Howard, Matt Barkley and Kevin Love among others.
Speaking for every member of Bulldog Nation, let’s hope that Eason gets this big-time award and adds to his accomplishments. Hopefully, that will be the first of many more before all is said and done.