NATHANIEL MATA, The Monitor
MISSION —Hanna High School graduate Jay Medina was a four-year multisport athlete whose hard work doesn’t end on the football field or baseball diamond.
His dedication to the Golden Eagles and his community extended to his work in the National Honor Society and in the classroom.
“Well the biggest thing is the determination — if you’re determined you can achieve anything — so if you’re determined to do your homework after you have a game or after you have hours of practice Saturday,” Medina said after receiving the award Tuesday evening. “Once you put your mind to it, it becomes easy.”
The road to senior year wasn’t so easy. He suffered a broken leg as a freshman which hurt his capabilities and playing time as a sophomore, but he used the middle two years of high school to come back as a driven, determined senior.
His senior year included honors such as the high school’s principal’s award, District 32-6A co-MVP for baseball and a selection onto the All-Academic State second team in football. Now he can add the 2018 Tom Landry Award of Excellence to his resume when he starts school at the University of Texas-Austin in the fall.
He said the most impact off-the-field work he had done was a charity run/walk for cancer patients.
“When it comes to National Honor Society, the biggest thing was the Mile of Hope for breast cancer patients,” Medina said before elaborating on his top athletic achievement as an Eagle.
“Also winning co-MVP in baseball was huge,” Medina added. “To earn that after I broke my leg. Just working as hard my sophomore year to come back was an accomplishment. It took a lot of positivity. I told myself every single day after I got hurt that I was just going to work hard to get back to where I was — and even better than where I was.”
He finished 19th in his class of 608 at Hanna and will study business at the school he’s always wanted to attend.
The soon-to-be business major will know how to stretch his scholarship award to help further relieve his family.
“I’ve always wanted to go to UT, ever since I was a little kid I have pictures of me wearing UT shirts and caps,” Medina said. “I will study management so I hope to one day get into the sports world.”
His mother Janice Medina said she was happy he is set to attend the “Hook ‘em Horns” school as he called it as a two-year-old, but also happy for the journey and path he took to get there.
“I’m extremely proud, I’m blessed,” she said. “I thank God for everything he accomplished. He has a heart of gold and he strived to do the best that he could. He studied hard, he just had a positive attitude for everything. Even though there were some downfalls during his high school years he still had that positive attitude.”
The Landry Award is named after the former Cowboys coach Tom Landry who was a native of Mission. He went onto coach at Dallas for 29 years, appearing in five Super Bowls, winning two. He embodied the principles of integrity, sportsmanship, character and teamwork.
Distance runners Valery Tobias of Edinburg IDEA Quest and Reyes Rodriguez of La Feria were also nominated for the award and also received a scholarship.