Blountstown, Fla. (WMBB) — This week’s Scholar Athlete of the Week sponsored by Perry and Young P.A. is Blountstown’s Josh Pope.
Pope was the quarterback for Blountstown football and helped lead the Tigers to their final-four appearance in his senior season.
“People downed us and said that we wouldn’t go far,” Pope said. “We just as a team, we stayed humble and did what we needed to do.”
In his high school career, he passed for 2,269 yards with 31 touchdowns and only 12 interceptions. Recently Pope was named to the FACA Class 1R All-State First Team as an offensive utility player.
“I had to step up a lot,” Pope said. “That’s one thing that the coach first talked to me about when he came to our school. That’s what helped me him telling me to have confidence in myself to be able to do what I need to do. And it took a lot of praying and stuff for me to be able to step up and be the leader I needed to be. But it was a very good year for us.”
Now Pope is preparing for baseball season.
“He stays extra and he hits in the cage all the time to work on his swing,” Blountstown Head Baseball Coach Emory Horne said. “He’s all the time wanting to take extra ground balls. And all these kids see that. And so they know what it takes.”
Pope has a 3.6 GPA and currently has three offers to play football in college.
“When you guys have a chance to make a choice on what sport you want to play,” Horne said “And then, you choose your school. That’s amazing. That just shows the talent the kid has. And he’s a very athletic kid and can do multiple things. He could play if any if we had everything he probably ever sport we got.”
But it hasn’t been easy for Pope, he didn’t receive his first offer until late January.
“I was the top dog when I did, but, at the same time, I couldn’t be selfish,” Pope said. “I just did my part. So where I can be able to have all these offers and it felt amazing.”
Pope has not made any decisions on where he will attend college and is keeping his options open for baseball.
