Senior forward Hurst flourishes in leadership role for Bobcats

Senior forward, Josh Hurst, was a jack of all trades when it came to athletics in high school.

He was a member of the Clarke Central High School—located in Athens—track and field team, competing in the long jump, triple jump, and 4×1, the football team starting as a wide receiver, and the basketball team where he played as a forward.

He started playing basketball when he was six years old and picked up football in middle school.It wasn’t until his freshman year in high school that he realized he could potentially have the opportunity to be recruited by a Division I football team.

But his real love was basketball.

“I think it was the summer going to my senior year when I realized I wasn’t ready to give up basketball for football and decided I wanted to play college basketball,” Hurst said.

Kendyl Wade | gcsunade.com

Hurst was initially a highly-touted football prospect in high school but chose to stick with basketball. He currently leads the Bobcats in several categories this season and has been a dependable senior leader.

In high school Hurst averaged 18.5 points, 12 rebounds and six blocks a game and played on the All-Northeast Georgia first team. Bobcats assistant coach Mark Gainous recognized his athletic ability.

“He’s very athletic, that’s one of the things that drew me to recruit him,” Gainous said.

During his senior year, he attended a game at Georgia College and soon after decided that this was the school he wanted to be at.

“When I came to a game, people were nice,” Hurst said. “I was introduced to the (Athletic Director) and the coaches, just the whole environment was great around here.”

Always being one of the tallest players, once he entered college he realized he was no longer the big fish in the little pond.

“I didn’t have my first awakening until I got to college and realized the other guys were just as tall and skilled or taller and more skilled than I .”

Posted by Lauren Davidson on Feb 10 2011. Filed under Lead stories, Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.