BAKER — Goshen High School is the only school in its district. It’s small, enrolling just 800 students this past year.
As such, you might not think many supremely gifted athletes have come through its scarlet and gray halls.
To this, Jackie Beck would say you are wrong.
She ran cross country for the Warriors more than three decades ago —so fast she set record upon record upon record.
According to her son, Jon, the baby in a family of three boys, many of those records stand today. And it’s of little wonder how Jackie Beck would give birth to Baker’s Mr. Everything.
Jon is a 6-foot-4, 160-pound wiry encapsulation of Baker.
His Southern accent is thicker than gravy. He says "yes, sir" and "no, sir" and "thank you, sir."
He’s tough.
“When it comes to anything athletic,” Baker football coach and athletic director Matt Brunson said, “you want him on your team.”
Baker, like Goshen, is a small school, enrolling little more than 400 students. To sustain a quality athletic program, the top athletes must play multiple sports.
No athlete in our coverage area may do this more than Beck.
In the fall, Beck will take every snap for a powerhouse football program that has won two consecutive district titles.
As quarterback — a position he has been named starter for since his freshman year — Beck has amassed a 22-3 record.
“He’s a very good football player, very competitive and very intelligent on the field,” Brunson said. “He does a great job year round. He works out hard in the weight room. It’s just a testament to him.”
Brunson remembers the first time he saw Beck.
Then an eighth-grader, Beck was playing basketball.
“He must have made eight or nine 3-pointers,” Brunson said. “We thought he was going to be an All-American basketball star.”
Beck did play basketball for a season. He also decided, on a whim, to try out for the baseball team, where he found his way into the rotation as a pitcher.
That baseball season coincided with track. "There were times a track meet ended and I went straight to a baseball game," he said. It's a sport he uses mostly for training purposes but also happens to be quite gifted in.
This past year, he qualified for state in three events — 1,600-relay, high jump and triple jump — more than any athlete in the coverage area.
“I do that because I want to do it,” he said. “It’s not because I feel like I should; it’s because I want to. If I end up missing something, I just wouldn’t feel right.
“I’m really competitive. Winning is a big thing. I wouldn’t say everything is a competition but it’s more of a pride thing.”
Beck has one more season as a Gator. His ultimate goal is to win a state championship in football.
If Baker falls short in the fall, though, there’s always basketball, or baseball, or track.
“Yeah,” he said when asked if a track state championship would be acceptable. “That would be pretty cool, too.”
Travis Mewhirter is a sports reporter for the Northwest Florida Daily News. Send him an email, contact him on Twitter or call 315-4432.
This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Meet Baker's 'Mr. Everything': Jon Beck, a three-sport athlete