On Friday, June 8, 2018, Central Bucks South senior Kyle McGee was recognized for committing to continue his track career at St. Joseph’s University. Check back for photos of the event.
Kyle McGee – St. Joseph’s University (Track)
Major: Undecided/Natural Science
Final list of colleges: St. Joseph’s, Shippensburg, Penn State
Reasons for choosing St. Joe’s: “I really wanted to run at St. Joe’s and I liked the location. My older cousin actually ran track at St. Joe’s. He ran distance – the 800. I just decided it was a good fit.”
What was the progression that led you to competing in track at the collegiate level? “About this time last year, I decided I probably wanted to run in college, so I started looking on-line, looking at standards for roster consideration. I just decided that I wanted to work and try to get there because it’s something I loved doing theses past few years at CB South.”
Coach Jason Gable says: “Kyle McGee has been on our team four years – indoor and outdoor track all four of those years, and ever since freshman year, he started as a hurdler. Part of the great story is when he started freshman year one of our previous hurdlers, Kyle Raguz, who went on to be a national champ at Shippensburg, was our hurdling coach, so he and Kyle ran for us. Kyle Ragus taught Kyle McGee a lot about the team dynamic, the culture, the work ethic of the program, and then, of course, about hurdling and all the specifics. What was nice about those early years is – I would focus on a lot of the strength and speed training with McGee and Raguz would take him for a lot of technical work on the hurdles.
“Raguz was a huge asset to the program because he even taught me a lot about hurdling too, so when Raguz got a new job and had to move to Washington, D.C., I, of course, took over hurdling. That was McGee’s junior year, and once McGee became a junior, we started to see a lot of that connecting between the speed aspect, the strength aspect of sprint training and the hurdling. McGee’s first time his freshman year was a 48.6 in the 300 hurdles. At states several weeks ago, he PRed with a 39.25. I think showing that drop of almost 10 seconds throughout four years of training really shows the type of program that we have. Only the really talented ones are going to drop those big times early on.
“McGee is a great hurdler and a tremendously hard worker. He’s talented, but his work ethic totally trumps his talent where we saw that progression, PRing at the end of every year. Last year he didn’t even qualify for districts in the 300 hurdles or the 110 hurdles. This year he made it in both the 300 hurdles and the 110 hurdles. Our 300 hurdles was the main focus at districts, so the 110 was kind of a warm-up race. He won the district title in the 300 hurdles and got eighth in states. I think one thing that gets overshadowed is – the strength of our district and the strength of our league is a real testament to how good all of our sister schools are on the state level. CB West won the 4x800 state title. McGee not only winning the league title but also the district title is a huge testament to how great a hurdler he was the entire year. Before the state meet, the only time he lost a 300 hurdle race this entire season was to his teammate Chris Cardamone, who ended up getting second at leagues and second at districts and then made it to states.
“I think when you look back on the season and how good of a hurdler Kyle McGee was – before states, he did not lose to any non-CB South athlete, period. The teams we go against and the invites we go to that is a big, big deal. I’m totally sad to see him go, of course, but going to St. Joe’s – he’s going to a great track program. We have alumni there, we know people he’s going there with, but going in, he could be their top hurdler or at least their top three hurdler. You have a league and district champ walking in there – I know he’s going to do great things when he gets to St. Joe’s. The underclassmen below him this year definitely learned from him – how his work ethic paid off in the end. Hopefully, we’ll see this culture continue throughout the years.”
About Kyle:
Favorite food: Chicken
Favorite movie: Reservoir Dogs
Favorite music: Hip Hop
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