By Chance Bradley, Journalism student at GWCFC
The gun sounds off. The race begins. Runners do what they do best, run. Who is the best high school cross country runner at Coffee High School? Freshman…Cameron Watson. Watson is only in ninth grade at George Washington Carver Freshman Campus (GWCFC), but he is shattering high school records his first on the course.
Watson has set a Coffee High School and new personal record (PR) of 17:14, and he set a new course record. The old record of 17:45 was left in the dust! Then at the next meet, he beat his PR by another two seconds with a 17:12. Watson has been running since the fifth grade, and he has been running for Coffee Middle School from seventh grade to present day. He has broken numerous records and is still striving to be the best everywhere else. He also played Coffee County football in sixth grade.
At the regional meet, Watson placed second overall for boys helping the varsity cross country team to place second overall in the meet. Both boys and girls cross country teams qualified for the state championship in Atlanta. Then at the state Cross Country, Watson placed 68th in the 6A competition field.
Watson started running at a young age. He was an excellent runner from the start. Watson’s brothers inspired him to take up Cross Country when they started running. He took to it and ran with it. Although Watson has broken many records and is the best runner in Coffee County Cross Country, he still shows humbleness. When interviewed Watson stated, “I’m not the best, but I’m the best here.” This statement shows that he will always consider himself having room for improvement and strives to be better. Not only does this make him a great runner, but a great person with an even greater amount of character. Cameron is only a freshman runner. However, he is shattering records with three more years of high school ahead. He is staying on track, and the sky is the limit for his running career.