JT Daniels just took home an award won in the past by LeBron James, Peyton Manning and Karl-Anthony Towns.
JT Daniels won the 2018 Gatorade Boys High School Athlete of the Year award on Tuesday night after an incredible season of play. The nominees included:
· Football – JT Daniels (Santa Ana Calif. – USC)
· Cross Country – Aidan Troutner (Provo, Utah – BYU)
· Basketball – R.J. Barrett (Montverde, Fla. – Duke)
· Baseball – Ryan Weathers (Loretto, Tenn., – drafted by San Diego Padres)
· Soccer – Ousseni Bouda (Millbrook, N.Y. – Stanford)
· Boys Track & Field – Anthony Schwartz (Plantation, Fla.– Auburn)
The neatest thing about these awards is that they require the nominees to have superb academic credentials and character off the field of play. The athletes will all be honored at the ESPY’s tomorrow night as well.
You can see why Daniels has thrived at the high school level below in this insane mixtape, and it appears from his skill set that college football will be in for a show once he gets there.
“JT Daniels is definitely the real deal,” said Greg Biggins, National Recruiting Analyst for 247Sports. “He’s an elite player. A leader. One of the best quarterbacks I’ve ever seen. He’s also a great character kid off the field. He’s a great choice by Gatorade.”
Daniels won Gatorade’s state player of the year award last season as well, and this year his team went undefeated (15-0) and took the CIF state championship.
He completed 242-of-335 passes for 3,890 yards and 49 touchdowns while only recording four interceptions. He also rushed for 513 yards and seven scores on 57 carries. Daniels has a 4.18 GPA and volunteers for the Mater Dei’s Monarchs for Marines program as well as delivering care backpacks to the homeless.
He is verbally committed to the University of Southern California in the fall of 2019, and his career will be watched intently after this. We’ll have to wait and see if Daniels remains an impact player as the next few years go by, but don’t be surprised if he’s raising a Heisman trophy before his college career is over.
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Each of these nominees is deserving of praise, and they’ll get plenty of that in the coming days. Here is hoping that they enjoy the ride and cherish this moment. We’ll be seeing these athletes on the national stage before too much time passes.