Gateway Athlete: Courtney Jackson

Courtney Jackson is a multi-sport athlete who is currently a junior at Gateway High School who already has decided where he wants to go to college at.

Courtney plays three sports which are football, basketball and track and field. Courtney is most known for being a talented football wide receiver for the Gateway Gators. Courtney had 96 receptions for 1,916 yards this season as he led the WPIAL in receiving yards this seasons and was 2nd in the WPIAL in receptions. He also had 24 receiving touchdowns this season as well. In the 2016 WPIAL football season Courtney only had a total of 30 receptions and a total of 511 receiving yards. Now a typical high school football wide receiver might be fine with those stats but Courtney was not fine with those stats and he wanted to improve. He improved this offseason and showed everyone in the WPIAL that he is basically the best wide receiver in the WPIAL right now.

Courtney won a WPIAL football championship with the Gators this year and was one win away from winning the 5A Pennsylvania State football championship but unfortunately lost. Gateway has a pretty decent basketball team as all three years that Courtney has been playing basketball for the Gators they have made the playoffs but have not made a deep run. Gateway's boys' basketball has won 1 playoff game while Jackson has been attending at the high school. The Gators defeated Thomas Jefferson in the WPIAL 5A Boys basketball playoffs in 2017 when Jackson was a sophomore and that has been his only playoff win while playing basketball.

Courtney also plays cornerback for the football team as well but people around the WPIAL know him as the star wide receiver in Western Pennsylvania. What you got to like about Courtney is his speed. The man is so fast it's honestly unreal. He is very good when it comes to juking defenders and slipping away from tackles while he is playing wide receiver that it's crazy. Courtney did play with a strong arm quarterback for three years in Brady Walker and now that Walker is graduating this year the Gators will have to look for a new quarterback during the summer. Hopefully the Gators new quarterback for next year will have an easy time throwing balls open to Courtney like Brady did this season.

On April 27th 2018 Courtney Jackson committed to Syracuse University as he is going to continue his football and academic career. Syracuse is such a nice school. You should look at their campus on Google Maps or some other website and you will see how nice the campus really is. There has also been some notable NFL players that played football at Syracuse like former Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb, former Indianapolis Colts defensive end Dwight Freeney and former Indianapolis Colts wide receiver Marvin Harrison. Who knows we might see Courtney play in the NFL someday and be known as part of the Syracuse alumni. Courtney had other offers from West Virginia University, Temple University, the University of Akron, the University of Cincinnati and other colleges. If Courtney would have waited a little while longer he might have had more offers from other Division 1 FBS football schools but he has already made his decision now.

Courtney will not have to worry about making his college decision during his senior year and focus more on winning another WPIAL championship for the Gators boys' football team and looking to win a state championship next year. Perhaps he could even focus more on helping the Gators have a deep run in the basketball postseason next year.