BOYS TRACK & FIELD ATHLETE OF THE YEAR: Monroe’s Akileis Leroy

ALBANY – Akileis Leroy rarely ever has a chance to sit down and take a breather, but that is the way he likes it.

Leroy, the son of former Albany State great Antonio and brother to Antonio, Jr., was part of four different Monroe teams this year. In the fall, Akileis was a star on football team and during the spring he was part of the baseball, wrestling and track & field teams.

It is his performance in the latter that has earned him the 2016 Johnny Seabrooks Male Athlete of the Year award for track & field.

After a year away from competing in discus, Akileis came back better than ever. He took the Georgia High School Association Class AAAA discus title with a throw of 165-feet, one-inch.

The win brought him to tears, but he assures they were tears of joy.

“I shed a few tears,” he said with a smile. “It was emotional, but it was a good kind of emotional. It was a great moment. I worked so hard throughout my lifetime for this.”

Akileis picked up discus in middle school when the sport happened to catch his eye one day while at the football field.

“I was like ‘This looks pretty fun. I might try this,’ ” Leroy said. “It ended up being something that I got pretty good at and I just started working at it.”

In addition to his state title, Akileis, who also competed in shot put, brought multiple individual awards during the course of the regular season. He took first in shot put at the Westover Relays and L.C. Smith/Winfred Benson Relays. He also won the region title in both discus and shot put.

Leroy came up just short of a second title at the state meet. In shot put competition, he finished with a throw of 52-9, which was good for second place.

“I thought I had a better chance to win in shot put,” he said. “That is what I was working the hardest for. I worked hard for both of them, but I worked harder for shot put.”

Due to his participation in four different sports, many days Akielis had to run across the Monroe campus to go from one practice to another. He said he doesn’t mind having a full schedule because he doesn’t like to sit around with nothing to do.

“I don’t like to stay in the house 24/7,” he said. “I tell myself ‘OK, you’ve got to stay fit.’ Staying fit is something that is required. Going from sport to sport, People say ‘Man, how do you do that?’ It is just discipline really.”

When asked where he gets his motivation from, Akileis gave credit to the people closest to him.

“My teammates and coaches,” he said. “The people around me give me the push. They say ‘Keep going. We are going to need some points from you at state.’ ”

Leroy’s inability to sit still has paid off this far, but he had just a short time to process his accomplishments as he jumped into getting ready for the upcoming football season.