Sixteen-year-old Josh Polk is ready for the football season to get underway. The rising Hobbton High junior feels more prepared than ever to continue competing in football and track and field.
The two-sport athlete plays two positions for the Wildcats football squad — wide receiver and running back. He also excels as a sprinter for the Hobbton Track and Field team, with his 40-yard dash clocked at an impressive 4.4 seconds. Just for comparison, the average 40-yard dash time for the wide receivers entering the National Football League was 4.55 and for wide receivers and backs it was 4.59.
Polk considers himself the biggest challenge to reaching his own personal goals, and feels like his own goals can be reached and surpassed if he pushes himself to the limit day in and day out.
Polk began playing football in seventh grade with the recreation department, primarily to play with his friends. Little did he know that football would become a passion of his, one that has not left him since the day he stepped on the field for the first time as a seventh grader.
He said he always makes sure to put God first and that relationship is at the top of his priority list.
“To keep God first is the best advice I have even been given,” he affirmed.
Polk is quick to credit his past coaches, parents and his teammates for helping him take his game to the next level and for his successes on and off the field and track.
“In football all of my past coaches and current coaches have bettered me, and in track, it was my coach, my teammates and my parents,” noted Polk, who credited his mom for his success on the field. She is also his sole inspiration, he said.
Polk does not just excel in athletics, but also in the classroom, holding a 3.8 GPA. Even though he has yet to decide which college he will attend, he has his eyes set on majoring in engineering.
While Polk’s biggest accomplishments so far is winning a state championship in track, he feel he has bigger fish to fry and his his ultimate goal is to win a state championship in football.
“To win a state championship would be my absolute ultimate goal and accomplishment,” concluded Polk.
