Former Wolverine Named Student Athlete of the Year

Westwood High School alum, Adrian Macdonald was honored recently as a joint recipient for Gettysburg College's student athlete of the year award.

In order to be elected for this specific award, students, parents, friends and Bullets fans were asked to vote online on the Gettysburg College athletic site and on the social media site, Facebook. Combining for 50.9 percent of the male votes, Macdonald and his counterpart, Clay Reynolds of Medway, Mass., who decided to enter the pool of student athletes together, were announced as the winners through an article on Gettysburg's athletic site on July 8, 2010.

Explaining the process of how Macdonald campaigned for support, he said, "(Clay and I) were teamed up so we wouldn't take votes away from each other. We used facebook to get people to vote for us, so it was cool (that) all of our friends and family helped pick us."

Macdonald hasn't forgetton various athletic moments that he endured through his youth and high school sports days that helped him capture this award.

Macdonald's mission began on the gridiron as a member of one of Westwood's many youth football teams. From playing on the gridiron, he learned that in order to be successful, he had to be motivated and confident. 

"Football was taken much more serious than youth soccer, youth baseball or basketball or anything like that," said Macdonald. "It taught me you have to work to do well in sports."

He certainly worked hard, especially when he trained. It was while training for soccer that Macdonald discovered a new love, running, which was a major component of his off-season conditioning programs.

"I did a summer track program between fourth and fifth grade and then there was an after school activity during middle school, but I only really started doing track to get faster for soccer," said Macdonald.

Macdonald helped Westwood's track team be successful in the Tri-Valley League in addition to having a tremendous soccer career before eventually focusing soley on track in college.

One of the multiple reasons he said he felt track was the right sport was because of the support he received by former varsity soccer coach, Andrew Burke. Burke helped Macdonald accomplish his personal goals of gaining speed and winning various events during his freshmen year.           

Besides the help of coach Burke, Neil White also helped Macdonald improve his performance on the track, as well as his training regimen. White was an important asset to Macdonald's success because of how he motivated him during practices and meets.

"One good thing about him is a lot of high school coaches will work the kids in high school too hard and when they get to college they can't really improve very much, but he was very good," said Macdonald.

Macdonald became an important part of the Westwood's track team during his four years in high school and continues to follow the Wolverines today. He often wanders back to the same streets he trained on when going on runs around the town and always finds time to return for the annual alumni race.

This fall, Macdonald will go from the student to the teacher when he  returns to Gettysburg to assist with the schools cross country and track program.