Star Student’s Athlete: Dacula's Jacob Overcame Obstacles

DACULA, GA — We all know student athletes who also bring their A-game to other parts of their lives.

Here at Patch, we've launched an initiative to help recognize these heroes making a difference in their communities. We’re working to let all your neighbors know the individual stories behind the leaderboard.

This submission comes from Rita Bell, who nominated Jacob of Dacula.

Star student athlete’s name

Jacob

Star student athlete’s home state

Georgia

Star student athlete’s Patch town

Dacula

How do you know the star student athlete?

He's my son

What sport does the star student athlete play?

Cross country and track

Why do you believe the star student athlete should be recognized?

I believe Jacob should be a student athlete nominee because he's proven that you can use adversity and injury to develop skills that you will carry with you throughout life. Jacob had never run on any kind of team and decided to give it a try the summer before freshman year. He put in the work and was steadily improving with each race. He started out races in the 24:13 range, and over the course of cross country season, reduced his time to 21:41. He was happy with his performance and had found a way to decompress from his very heavy AP academic course load. He went into track season on a high, but soon found himself injured. After a visit to a sports medicine physician, he received a stress fracture diagnosis, and that put an end to his track season. Jacob rested and did the things he was supposed to and was cleared to begin gradually working back into conditioning. He started slow and tried to work himself back up, but he just wasn't recovering as quickly as he thought he should. It did create self doubt and resentment, but he persevered and continued to train. He was gradually getting better, and then would experience sickness or other setbacks, but he still persevered. He put in the work and continued to work hard at his academics. In spite of it all, he never gave up and continued to give it his best effort. He has recently had a breakthrough and has now run a new personal record of 20:38 and is excited to see where he can go from here. Jacob has learned that setbacks and disappointments are a part of life and can come at you at anytime and you just have to hold your head up and learn how to navigate through situations. These hands on, real life learning experiences are necessary for shaping these young athletes into the future leaders of tomorrow, and Jacob has learned that through the difficulties and not giving up, you can come back stronger and better.

What's one thing you want everyone to know about the star student athlete?

Jacob is resilient. Through injuries and challenges, he learned a lot about himself and how to persevere through situations to come back stronger and better.

Keep up the great work, Jacob!

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