CHARACTER COUNTS

Honor student and track athlete calls Westview High ‘second home’

Jan 14, 2019, 4:30 AM

Photo courtesy of Robert Irish...

Photo courtesy of Robert Irish

Patrice Garner is not your typical high school senior.

When she arrives at Westview High School every morning at 7 a.m., she doesn’t anticipate getting home until 7 p.m.

Not only does she run four events in track (100-meter, 200-meter, 4×100-meter, long jump), but she has also been the film and technology manager for the football team for the last two years, all while being an honor student.

And now with football season being over, she has decided to do the same for the wrestling team.

“I try to volunteer a lot of my time and be involved in all of the available activities I can volunteer for,” Garner said.

“I love being involved in sports and getting to learn the ins and outs of them.”

What sets Garner apart from most high schoolers devoting 11 hours a day at school is that she is not receiving any school or college credit for it in return.

And she doesn’t care.

“I didn’t even know I could get college credit doing it,” Garner said.

“Even if I did know, I really had so much fun I don’t think I would’ve cared if I got college credit. I like getting a lot of responsibility. I learned a lot about the sport and myself, so I wouldn’t have done anything differently. I feel like school is my second home.”

Garner also worked at Harkins Theatres during the summer and would even Uber from work to football practice just because she loved it so much.

“I loved every second of it even if it was in the hot sun or the cold,” Garner said.

She would have multiple camera angles from the sideline to the press box so that the team could study game film that led to her team’s first round playoff upset of No. 2 Desert Ridge in 2017 and 8-2 record in 2018.

Because Garner will be graduating in the spring, she has taken an apprentice under her wing to continue the foundation she has set for the future film and technology manager of the football team.

“Most of why it was fun is you got to know the boys on a personal level,” said Garner.

“Even though they were my classmates, I never really talked to them, so I got to get to know them more and to get out of my comfort zone socially because sometimes I can be shy.”

But before she leaves for college, she has one more track season left to run for her beloved school.

“I can’t wait for this upcoming season,” Garner said. “I can’t wait to run when I get to college. That’s a whole other part of my life.”

Along with aspirations to run track collegiately, Garner will be studying to become a sports medicine physician.

“I want to have that time management skill so that when I do go to college, it’s not so hard to where I can’t manage my time,” Garner said.

She has already been accepted to West Virginia and is waiting to hear back from Arizona State, Grand Canyon and Oregon State.

“To anyone out there that doesn’t know what they want to do in college, keep exploring your ideas throughout high school,” Garner said.

“There’s an endless amount of things you can do out in this world, so don’t stop at one thing.”

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Honor student and track athlete calls Westview High ‘second home’