Upper Dublin rising senior was named Gatorade Pennsylvania Boys Track and Field Athlete of the year. (Photos provided by UDHS/Jaden Price-Whitehead)
Jaden Price-Whitehead – remember the name.
The rising Upper Dublin senior sets lofty goals for himself and then goes out and attains them. Price-Whitehead recently was named Gatorade Pennsylvania Boys Track and Field Athlete of the Year, the first in program history to earn that elite distinction. If you’re thinking Price-Whitehead might have celebrated
the accolade, you don’t know the UD standout.
“I found out the day they posted it because me and my family were actively keeping up with the decisions,” Price-Whitehead said. “I was happy, but if you would have seen me that day, you wouldn’t have known. I was kind of just mellow, acting normal.”
The honor came on the heels of a stellar indoor season this past winter that saw Price-Whitehead win the state championship in long jump with a leap of 24 feet, 3.25 inches. He also took third in the triple jump. His season-best long jump of 25-0 ranked as the nation’s number one performance among prep competitors in the 2020 indoor season. Price-Whitehead also won the long jump in the Emerging Elite division of the New Balance Outdoors Nationals in 2019.
But he’s hardly resting on his laurels.
“Entering indoor season, my goal was to hit 25 and then for outdoor, I wanted to hit 26, 27,” Price-Whitehead said. “The 25 – with what came – was the top of the nation, but really, I wanted to hit my goal because I know if I keep hitting the goals I set for myself I can eventually become a competitor for world championships.”
Price-Whitehead gave glimpses of his promise as a freshman when he advanced to districts in long jump.
“He’s shown a lot of natural talent, and he is very definitely a person that works hard and has realistic goals that he sets for himself,” UD boys’ track coach Floyd Dinkins said. “His father (Mike Price) is 100 percent behind him, so he gets a lot of support.
“It wasn’t surprising that this winter was as good as it was. The award was a very great honor for him to have achieved, especially since he lost his spring season.”
Price-Whitehead is matter of fact about missing the outdoor season.
“It wasn’t really difficult knowing I’d performed well enough that people started to realize I could really do something this year,” he said. “But without my outdoor season, it just shows that with my senior year I’m going to show what people missed for my junior outdoor season.”
Track and field has been part of Price-Whitehead’s life for a long time.
“I first started running with my church,” he said. “I slowly started to get better and better, and that’s when my dad realized that if we put forth enough resources and effort – I could really become good at track.
“We started with running 100 meters, 200 meters. I did all the running events, and my dad decided to put me in long jump and high jump one day.”
From the outset, Price-Whitehead excelled.
“From there, we just decided to keep practicing it,” he said. “As I got older, I got better and better and eventually got to where I am now.
“I have had a few coaches, but my dad has always been there for me. He’s always been my coach. Throughout the years, I’ve had jump coaches, my high school coach, and now I have a sprint coach to help with my running form.”
To say the father-son combination has been effective would be an understatement. As a sophomore, Price-Whitehead medaled at the state indoor meet and advanced to the state meet in outdoor track that spring.
At 5-9, 140 pounds, Price-Whitehead might not pose an imposing figure – until he goes into action.
“What Jaden lacks in size, he makes up for with his heart, drive and desire to compete and be the best,” Dinkins was quoted as saying in the Gatorade Player of the Year press release. “His work ethic is second to none, and he puts in the time to perfect his skills to be the best when it matters the most.
The sky’s the limit for Jaden, and I can’t wait to see how far he goes.”
Price-Whitehead – despite the COVID-19 quarantine and cancellation of meets - is continuing to put in the work.
“Right now what we’re trying to do is make sure I don’t lose any of my abilities and we’re going to keep training,” he said. “There’s one possible meet, but it’s questionable if it’s going to happen.
“If it happened, that would be great. I would be able to have at least one outdoor meet. If it doesn’t, I would just have to wait until next year.”
The Gatorade award recognizes not only outstanding athletic excellence but also high standards of academic achievement and exemplary character demonstrated on and off the field. Price-Whitehead, who is now a finalist for the prestigious Gatorade National Boys’ Track and Field Athlete of the Year, fits the bill on all counts.
In addition to his prowess in track and field, Price-Whitehead, who boasts a 3.67 GPA, is an active member of his church community and Upper Dublin’s Black Student Union. He has distributed food baskets for underprivileged families during the holidays and has volunteered locally on behalf of a youth track team.
“He is a very, very good person,” Dinkins said. “He works at his academics as well as his athletics. He’s very helpful and works with fellow teammates in terms of helping them to achieve and improve in their particular event that is similar to his.
“He’s the fastest runner on the team as far as sprints go as well as the best jumper. The other sprinters were always pulling at him to join them in a relay to help them to achieve, so he did.”
During the indoor season, Price-Whitehead helped the sprint relay qualify for the Meet of Champions. 
“You only get there if you reach certain achievements – you have to be first or second in your relay or you have to achieve a standard,” Dinkins said. “He joined them for one meet, and they achieved that goal and made it to the Meet of Champions. They all got medals, took pictures together – it was really good.”
Price-Whitehead has his sights set high.
“My aspirations in track and field are eventually to become a household name like Usain Bolt, just to be the type of person when you hear their name you think – ‘Oh, that’s the guy that does the long jump, that’s the guy that runs the hundred,” Price-Whitehead said. “I want to be that type of person just to be known as the best when it came to my event, and whatever I touched, I dominated.”
So far, the UD standout has made a habit of reaching his goals
- Log in to post comments
