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by Siri Huntington
The runners are lining up. The tension in the air is so thick, anything could set it off. Suddenly, senior Gage Cox is using his hand as a microphone to interview people surrounding him about how they feel about their race. Just like that, the tension is gone and people are laughing right along with him.
“From off the bat, I’ve always just known him as the funny, outgoing kid. He’s just always been one of those types of people that goes out of his way to make other people laugh and make people happy,” said Cox’s girlfriend Jasyln Dahl. “He’s one of those people that you know he will be there for you even if you barely know him. He goes out of his way to make people feel comfortable and make sure they are okay.”
Not only does Cox go out of his way to bring others around him up, but he is also extremely dedicated, whether it is in one of the many sports he plays or in his school work.
“He stands out and he really works hard at what he does. He wants to be one of the best and be the best that he can,” said Cameron Smith, one of Cox’s best friends. “He really tries to bring himself up and bring others around him up as well and help them achieve their goals and help support them when he can.”
While Cox goes out of his way to reach out to others, he is diligent in all aspects of his life. This mindset is something that his family has encouraged throughout his life.
“A lot of my family are really go-getters, especially my parents. If they put their mind to something, then they are going to do it,” Cox said. “My whole family has been super supportive of me especially with sports and the things that I do. Having that support system is really important and having people cheer me on and make sure that I get to where I want to be is really cool about my family.”
Having a positive support system is something that Cox has not always had, but when he realized he needed to play for himself and not to please his parents, he sat down and talked to them about this problem and the result was a change for the better.
“It definitely changed the dynamic of their support system. They were definitely more positive and that definitely had a better impact on my gameplay,” Cox said. “I know that no matter what I do, as long as I try my hardest, they are going to be proud. It was definitely a major turning point in my sports career.”
Since then, Cox has really embraced his love of sports, especially baseball. He has become very dedicated, so much so that he won’t take himself out of a game even though he may be battling one of his many injuries.
“I’ve never really been the type of guy to just be out because of an injury, so I’ve just kinda tried to play through it,” Cox said.
While this definitely shows his dedication to what he does, it also hasn’t made it easy to do anything about the constant injuries as he is always participating in one sport or another.
“If I don’t stay busy, I just end up loafing around, so it’s definitely good for me to stay busy like I have been,” Cox said.
Cox has stayed busy by playing many different sports. Some of the sports that he has played are baseball, basketball, cross country, swim, and lacrosse. Playing baseball has especially given him many opportunities to play different positions, travel, and to meet new people.
One of the positions that Cox was able to play was catcher, which turned out to be his all-time favorite.
“I just loved it. It was almost like being the captain of the field because you see everything,” Cox said. ”If the pitcher throws one in the dirt, you’ve got to block it, or if someone is trying to steal the base, then you’ve got to throw it. I liked making crazy plays, like crazy blocking plays. It was just really cool to be behind the plate.”
Not only has Cox been able to play almost everywhere on the baseball field, he has also had the chance to travel with his past two club teams the Blackhawks and SkullCandy, the latter of which was sponsored by SkullCandy Headphones. He also had the opportunity to play for a USA Baseball team which gave him the opportunity to travel to North Carolina.
Cox has also had the chance to be in many parades while playing with SkullCandy. Before many tournaments he and his team would ride on floats and throw SkullCandy headphones and candy. They would then get to go on stage and throw more candy, headphones and stickers to the crowd, as well as hold up their team banner.
Because of all of the teams he has played for, he has met some really cool people, some of which he plays against today.
“Some of the Juab games are pretty fun, especially because a lot of the kids I know are from Juab so I’m able to sometimes talk to them when they are on base,” Cox said. “That’s really fun to talk to them a little bit and play against them. So those are the funnest times, when I play against people that I played on a different team with.”
