EDDIE GAINES ‘21 A Dream Come True: Eddie Gaines ‘21 earns appointment to West Point
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en years ago, an 8-yearold Eddie Gaines watched a YouTube video about the United States Military Academy at West Point and decided that that was where he wanted to be. Now, after having graduated with the Admiral Farragut Academy Class of 2021, Eddie was accepted to West Point and started on June 28th. Earning acceptance was the culmination of a long dream. When Eddie entered high school in New York, he started JROTC. He learned what the military could do for him, how he could serve his country, and it verified that was what he really wanted to do. It was one of the reasons he chose to attend Farragut. “My mom told me about Farragut first,” said Eddie, who is originally from Harlem, New York, and whose family relocated to the St. Petersburg area upon enrolling him at Farragut. “Then my personal lacrosse trainer at the time, who is an alumnus here as well (Kreg Brown ‘07), told me about it too.” Eddie started at Farragut in his junior year.
While at Farragut, Eddie was a member of the National Honor Society, and he took several honors classes, including Calculus, Physics, Spanish, Government, and Economics. “The academies like to see STEM-related courses,” he said. Outside of Farragut, Eddie volunteered his time with the Florida Dream Center, an organization that provides food pantries and aid to local communities that need it most. Eddie was very involved in athletics as well, and he was captain of both the BlueJacket swim team and the lacrosse team. He is particularly proud of having been on the 200 Free Relay team that broke the school record, along with his teammates Ben Crawford ‘22, Dylan Rice ‘22, and Dobromir Sokolowski ‘22, and of going to States. He is also proud of becoming team captain for lacrosse so quickly. “I’m not sure what Coach Morris saw in me, but he made me team captain the first time I came out for lacrosse when I was a junior,” Eddie said. He plans to try out for the lacrosse team at West Point. In his two short years at Farragut, Eddie reached the rank of chief in the Regimental Corps of Cadets, and it wasn’t long until he was applying to service academies. “It’s a lengthy process,” Eddie said. “After the preliminary and
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“It’s because of Farragut that I know I’m ready for West Point. This is a great school. It taught me a lot.”
