BOYS WINNER: Garret Scantling - Senior @ Jacksonville Episcopal
Episcopal coach Pat Crandall first met Garrett Scantling when he was in the 7th grade. He remembers the first time Scantling came out to practice quite well.
“When I got him he was a little stick pole. He could high jump 4-6 and pole vault 6-0. He couldn’t do anything because he was a skinny little boy.”
Over those five years, Scantling has grown physically and as an athlete. Scantling hit a growth spurt his sophomore year, hit a plateau as a junior, and then grew again his senior year. He currently stands 6’3 and 185 lbs. His size combined with the weight training from football makes him a pure athlete.
“I call him an athletic savant. Anything I show him he can immediately do shot put, discus, triple jump. His body is meant to do anything athletic.”
After disappointing marks of 14-0 in the pole vault and 6-6 in the high jump, Scantling came back on a mission.
“He likes winning but he gets very frustrated if he doesn’t jump the heights he thinks he can do. When he doesn’t jump that high he gets really motivated and it helps propel him to do better.”
The Episcopal senior went into the St. John’s Country Day meet and attempted a state best 15-1 on his first run. Coach Crandall says the reason behind that was to try him out on a bigger pole.
“The issue is never how high are you going to go but are you going to penetrate in the pit. He could have gone in at 10 feet and came down and hit the bar. If he wasn’t going to hit it he wasn’t going to get 15 feet. We wanted to force him to get on the biggest pole and if he couldn’t penetrate in the pit he wasn’t going to get any points, so it was mostly incentive.”
The incentive paid off. Scantling cleared the mark and won the pole vault. He also took home the trophy with a leap of 6-7 in the high jump. Coach Crandall says the star senior just got back from a visit from the University of Georgia, but wouldn’t be surprised if he stayed in state and became a Seminole. His older brother is a pitcher for the FSU baseball team. No matter what school he chooses Crandall believes the best is yet to come.
“In the high jump I’ve seen him go 6-10 so it’s just a matter of timing. I imagine in college he can go 7-0. I think he can pole vault 18 feet and be one of the best in the nation. He could also be one of the best decathletes in the nation because he picks up events so quickly. Whatever college gets him is getting an athlete with unlimited potential, what he’s done in high school is just the beginning."
