Gatorade Names Rowlett HS Standout Track and Field Athlete of the Year
Article Date: June 25, 2008
In its third decade of honoring the nation’s best high school athletes, The Gatorade Company – in partnership with RISE Magazine – recently announced Marquise Goodwin of Rowlett High School as its 2007-08 Gatorade Texas Boys Track & Field Athlete of the Year.
The award, which recognizes not only outstanding athletic excellence, but also high standards of academic achievement and exemplary character demonstrated on and off the track, distinguishes Goodwin as Texas’ best high school boys track & field athlete. Goodwin is now a finalist for the prestigious Gatorade National Boys Track & Field Athlete of the Year award to be announced later this month.
The junior field athlete swept the long jump and triple jump competitions at the Class 5A state meet in Austin, leading the Eagles to their first state championship. Goodwin, the Track Athlete of the Year as named by the Dallas Morning News, won the long jump with a leap of 26 feet, 1.5 inches and captured the triple jump with an effort of 50 feet, 0.5 inches. Those feats ranked as the nation’s No. 1 and No. 10 scholastic performances in 2008, respectively.
The long jump champion at both the 2008 Nike Indoor Nationals and the 2007 Nike Outdoor Nationals, he also placed second at the state meet in the 100-meter dash with a time of 10.38 seconds in addition to helping Rowlett’s 4-x-100-meter relay quartet to a winning time of 40.26 seconds.
Goodwin’s performance in the 100 ranked No. 19 nationally among scholastic competitors this spring, and the 4-x-100 relay squad’s time was the nation’s fastest at the time at the time of Goodwin’s selection.
In the classroom, Goodwin has maintained a B average. A talented artist who hopes to study architecture in college, he also donates his time to cleanup efforts on the shoreline of Lake Ray Hubbard as well as a literacy-outreach program at local elementary schools.
Goodwin also volunteers on behalf of the Garland Track Club, where he mentors youth athletes as a track instructor, in addition to participating in multiple community-service initiatives in association with the Fellowship of Christian Athletes.
“He’s a compact athlete with a lot of ability,” said Rowlett High Head Coach David Nanez. “He’s something special. He had three jumps over 25 feet at the state meet. The wind was a little too strong so they didn’t count as records, but everyone knows that record is going to fall before he’s done.”
Goodwin will begin his senior year of high school this fall and has verbally committed to a track and field scholarship at the University of Texas for the fall of 2009.
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 school football, girls volleyball, boys and girls cross country, boys and girls basketball, boys and girls soccer, baseball, softball, and boys and girls track & 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.
Goodwin joins recent Gatorade Texas Boys Track & Field Athletes of the Year Robert Griffin (2006-07, Copperas Cove HS), LeGerald Betters (2005-06, Waco HS), and Jamaal Charles (2004-05, Port Arthur Memorial HS) among the state’s list of former award winners.
For more on the Gatorade Player of the Year program, including nomination information, a list of past winners, and the announcement of the Gatorade National Player of the Year, visit gatorade.com/playeroftheyear.