News 25 Student Athlete of the Week: Gautier Center Madden High

We all see what student athletes do on the field, but what about what they do off of it? Balancing sports and school can be difficult, but one Gautier football player seems to have cracked the code.

News 25’s Andrew Scherer introduces us to our ‘WXXV Student Athlete of the Week.’

When you have a young team, growing pains should be expected. Luckily if you’re Gautier Head Football Coach Marcus High, you get much needed help from senior center and son, Madden High. “He does a great job of mentoring them and showing the ways, certain techniques and all. I catch him a lot of times when I’m off talking to a kid about a technique or something, he’s got other kids over there on the other side working with them.”

When Madden’s not helping teammates or dominating opposing defensive lines, he’s dominating the classroom. High received a 33 on his ACT and also has a 4.0 GPA, good for second in his class. “I always value my school work and it can be challenging sometimes to balance the athletics and then the school part of things cause sometimes those schedules clash, but there’s nothing really more rewarding than seeing both succeed after having those struggles.”

High’s work has already begun to pay off as he’s being recruited by some of the most prestigious schools in the country. “You grow up hearing about you know Dartmouth, Harvard, and Yale, they’re these super massive academic schools and then you can get a letter in the mail from them and you’re like, it kinda put’s everything into perspective and you know it makes you think, ‘maybe I am one of those guys, maybe I can be one of those guys.'”

While High hasn’t decided on which school he’s going to attend, he’s garnered the most interest from Dartmouth and the University of Chicago.

For Coach High, helping any player get to the next level provides for a sense of accomplishment and when that player is also your son, well, there’s no greater accomplishment than that. “You know it’s probably better that some other coach comes in here and talks about him then it is me but he’s been a pleasure to coach, and to also call him my son is another great pleasure.”