Each week during the Road to the Alabama High School State Championships, Mark, Lee, and Michael will feature an “Athlete of the Week” right here!
With our Road to the Alabama High School State Championships starting to wind down, the final high school that the Opening Kickoff visited was Mobile Christian, where out Athlete of the Week is junior Damien Gatson!
Damien is a two-sport star for the Leopards, winning a state championship this past fall as the Leopards’ quarterback as well as playing center field and leading off for the baseball team which is also playing for a Blue Map with the team in the state finals beginning Monday against Alexandria in Jacksonville.
The team has not yet lost a game in the postseason and are a perfect 8-0 as they head into the best-of-three championship series.
He is hitting for a .419 batting average with 44 hits on the year along with six home runs, 26 RBIs, 48 runs scored, and 15 stolen bases.
Damien’s head coach Jason Smith, who is in his first season, talked about the season Damien has had and just how important he is to the Leopards’ team.
“Our center-fielder, our quarterback, our leadoff hitter. He kinda sets the tone. In just about every game that we’ve played, he does something incredible in his first at bat that’s gotten us going,” Smith said.
Damien is committed to South Alabama for baseball and says that there is a small chance he could try to continue his football career there as well, but baseball is the sport he loves most.
“I just love being around the people, I love being around my teammates. Growing up, to be honest, football was my sport. But by the age of 7 or 8 that’s when I started really getting into it….as I got older I started really learning the game, I watch a lot of baseball,” Damien said.
Regardless, Damien has a lot of baseball in the city of Mobile left in him. First things first, chasing a Blue Map to bring home to the 251 this week.
