Charlie Obaugh RV & Outdoor Center Student Athlete of the Week: Adam & Gage Groves

WAYNESBORO, Va. (WHSV) - Adam and Gage Groves are two brothers who shine on the track at Waynesboro High School and make a positive impact on their teammates and school.

“In the name, student-athlete student comes first athlete comes second so you always want to be a really good student before you’re a really good athlete because you’re not gonna really go as far as like college or something if you don’t have really good grades, that has to back it up as well,” said Adam Groves, a Senior at Waynesboro High School.

The Groves brothers are both standout distance runners for Waynesboro High School, they led the school’s cross country team to states this year and have both become decorated runners in indoor and outdoor track.

Growing up the two primarily played basketball before Adam started running track, Gage then follow suit during their sophomore year.

“I started because of him and you know I do it for myself but he’s where I started and it’s nice knowing that I’ve gotten better and grown with him,” said Gage Groves, a senior at Waynesboro High School.

The brothers are always pushing each other to improve on the track.

“It’s been really fun you know being able to have someone to train with every single day. You know some people don’t have a lot of people to train with or there are different gaps as far as talent and he’s been really motivated to get better with me and then try to catch up to me as well, it’s kind of like a competitive thing,” said Adam.

The Groves Brothers are both hard workers and have been a big part of their team’s success both during meets and behind the scenes.

“If you just tell them hey I need you to do this for me, I need you to work on this, they definitely don’t give you any attitude about it they just go out and they’re trying to figure out how they can improve themselves, how they can help each other, how they can help our team,” said Waynesboro Cross Country Head Coach Julie Stevens.

Gage Groves said that the biggest key to his success since starting track has been the consistency with how he approaches the sport.

“It takes a lot of consistency you just have to put in a lot of time and stay with it, it’s not something that just comes overnight,” he said. “My favorite part is just the grind, just putting in the work every day and going out here with my brother and friends and having fun with it but then when it’s time to race it’s serious. That’s what I enjoy about it, you can have fun with it but there is also a time when you need to be serious and lock in.”

Adam Groves has been one of the best distance runners to ever attend Waynesboro High School, he is committed to run at Coastal Carolina University in the fall. He said that he has worked to elevate himself in his senior year.

“Right after my junior outdoor season I had like a mind switch where I was like ‘I’m gonna give it all I’ve got for my last year’ and I started training really consistently and running very consistent mileage weeks, upper 40s to 50s as far as miles for the week,” he said. “I did that the entire summer and had my debut cross country race for my senior year and I blew it out of the water, I never thought I could run that fast and it just gave me a lot of motivation for the rest of the season.”

Both brothers are great students with well above 3.0 GPAs, they also both volunteer their time to peer mentor students with special needs. It’s something that Gage has discovered a passion for and hopes to pursue a career in.

“My coach Matt, he teaches the kids and helps them out and I’m always around them and I loved it so I told coach that I have a free block so I can come here and help out as much as I can,” said Gage. “Seeing the kids learn and get better and also just continue advancing in their education is something that I like to see and I have fun with them as well.”

As they prepare to graduate both brothers have left a big impact on their younger teammates.

“You can’t really teach discipline so like I try to lead that by example. The kids will look at me and see that that’s someone they want to me and that’s the biggest thing to me is trying to see their progression increase as the season has gone, it’s been awesome to see,” said Adam.

Coach Julie Stevens said that the Groves brothers’ leadership has been crucial for her team and will be felt in the program for years after they graduate.

“Their enthusiasm has just kind of trickled down to all of our younger runners, they’ve got so many of them going out for runs on the weekends to the point where I’m sometimes having to say maybe we should step back a little bit,” said Stevens. “They’re just great kids, it’s definitely going to be a loss for our program but I think they’ve trained the younger ones enough that we’re still going to see their impact in the years to come.”

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