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Tiftarea center could finish year at the top of his class

sg aa 04-14 03Some students make a conscious decision to do well in the classroom. Others don’t have a choice at all – it’s do or die when it comes to academics. Tiftarea basketball player Christopher Gravitt falls into the former category. He had no choice at all. He absolutely has absolutely had to make excellent grades throughout his academic career. As the son of a teacher and a principal, there was no getting around it. He would, above all else, be an excellent student. It’s not that his parents were overbearing or unreasonable. Gravitt instinctively knew that no teacher or principal wants their child to be the one other teachers talked about in the workroom. He made up his mind at an early age that he wouldn’t be one of those students. “Yeah, I had no choice,” he laughs. “If I didn’t do well with my grades, it would have been bad. Really bad.”

 

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Fortunately for Gravitt and his parents, such was never the case. And now, at the end of his high school career, Gravitt will likely graduate at the top of his class en route to a career in the medical field. Along the way, he has made a name for himself as a basketball player – he was named First Team All Region this season – and a member of Tiftarea’s shotgun team, helping the basketball Panthers win a region title this year and making All State on the shotgun team.

Though Gravitt is tops in his class, he will not be named Tiftarea’s valedictorian. Gravitt has only been at Tiftarea for three semesters, not long enough to qualify for valedictorian. He transferred to Tiftarea after basketball season last year. He only played one year with the Panthers and was a part of their first ever region championship in the 3A classification. Heading into the season, he had few expectations. “I really didn’t know what to expect. As it turned out, we won region,” he says. The Panthers went into the region tournament as a third seed. They upset Deerfield Windsor in game one then stunned Southland Academy for the championship. In the title game, Gravitt scored 17 points and grabbed 15 rebounds. “After we won the first game, we all realized we could do it. We didn’t want to settle for just one win. We played a heckuva game. I had a lot of rebounds and our guards did the scoring. It felt like it was meant to be.”

sg aa 04-14 hiliteDuring the fall athletic season, Gravitt had also been a member of Tiftarea’s shotgun team. The shotgun team shoots in three disciplines: skeet, sporting clays, and trap. Shotgunning requires good hand-eye coordination and intense focus. To do well, Gravitt says you must be patient, stay focused, and have a short memory. “If you miss, you can’t dwell on it. You have to focus on the next target. You also have to practice a great deal,” he says. Last year, when the shotgun seasosg aa 04-14 01n was in the spring (it moved to fall this year), he won state in trap shooting. This year, he had a perfect round in skeet and placed in the top five overall.

Throughout all of his various activities, Gravitt has managed to keep his grades among the best in his class. Now, he actually takes few high school classes. Most of his academic work is done at Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College, where he is jointly enrolled. “When I graduate from high school, I’ll have 36 college credits,” he says.

Gravitt has been accepted to the University of Georgia but doesn’t plan to attend classes in Athens. He would like to pursue a career as a nurse anesthetist, which he couldn’t do in Athens. Instead, he plans to use Valdosta State University as a springboard for his future in medicine. “I want a career in the medical field but I’d rather not go to medical school. I don’t want to stay in school that long. Medical school just takes too long,” he says.

 

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Christopher Gravitt firmly believes the time he spent with the Tift County Blue Devils made a tremendous difference when he made the switch to Tiftarea. He didn’t get a lot of playing time with Tift County – at 6’4” and 195 pounds, he was one of the smaller players on a team loaded with future college players. To do anything with the Blue Devils, he had to be fundamentally sound, play aggressively, and use whatever leverage he had to his advantage. When he moved to Tiftarea, he went from being one of the smallest on the court to one of the largest. And the skills he had developed to help him at the 6A level paid off big time in GISA. “Coach [Eric] Holland was a great coach and he taught me a lot. When I used what he taught me at Tift County, I scored a lot of points and did really well,” says Gravitt.

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Favorites:

•    Team: Kansas Jayhawks
•    Player: Blake Griffin
•    Subject in school: Math and history
•    Pepsi or Coke: Coke
•    Superpower: Super strength
•    What would you do with $1 million? “Pay off family debt, donate some to charity, and use some for college.”
•    Place to travel: Australia

 

 


Academic Athlete/South Georgia/April 2014
Christopher Gravitt
Tiftarea Academy
Chula, Georgia
Robert Preston Jr.
Tiftarea center could finish year at the top of his class

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