Devin Acosta’s athletic resume speaks for itself.
He was an All-District selection for the McCamey boys basketball and football teams this year, also qualifying for regionals in golf.
Earlier in his high school career, Acosta was a regional qualifier in cross country.
His hard work made him successful in his athletic endeavors, but Acosta always knew that academics were the most important aspect in high school.
He’ll graduate as salutatorian in the school’s Class of 2022, showing that he gave the same consistent effort when he was away from sports.
Since his elementary school days, Acosta’s mother Amy encouraged him to shoot for straight A’s on his report cards and the motivation worked as he also found his own reasons to work toward the highest results.
“She’s definitely been a big motivation and encouragement, and knowing what I want for my future and knowing that my grades can take me a lot farther than athletics can, that’s what pushes me to do good in school,” Acosta said.
Even though his schedule was loaded by coursework and sports practices, Acosta still made time to participate in various extracurricular activities to make an impact in his community.
He was on the student council and served as president of the National Honor Society while participating in his school’s Fellowship of Christian Athletes (FCA) huddle and working on the yearbook, to name a few.
Acosta knew that he could serve as an inspiration to younger students by using his good standing as a student-athlete to make a difference and provide a strong example.
He has participated in FCA since the seventh grade and that helped him keep his faith strong by spreading God’s message through athletics and academics.
Acosta wants to continue helping others in the future, which helped him choose sports management as his major when he moves on to Wayland Baptist University.
His ultimate dream includes owning a sports complex and training facility, using the owners of Game Ready in Midland as inspiration.
The owners of the facility are former McCamey students who were taught by Acosta’s mother and have stayed close to the family.
“Seeing what they do and seeing how successful they’ve been, it showed me a way to make a career and still continue to do the things I love,” Acosta said. “In the future hopefully with that business that I plan to pursue, I will be able to touch the lives of other people through more than just sports for it to be guidance for them, whether it’s spiritually or mentally.”
McCamey athletic director Michael Woodard, who coached Acosta in football, has no doubt that the student-athlete can maintain his consistent work ethic at the next level.
Woodard said the impact Acosta made on the athletic department left a positive mark on all of his younger teammates and he’ll be the example for a long time.
“You just keep on them and you hope that they’ve learned and watched, and you bring it up,” Woodard said. “He set an example, they’ve seen it and we constantly see guys follow that example.”
Acosta will continue his athletic career at Wayland Baptist, signing to play college basketball Tuesday alongside his close friend Diego Castaneda.
Castaneda will run track at Wayland Baptist.
The duo has been going to school together since the fifth grade and they achieved their dream of signing to play sports in college by sticking together to help each other improve in various ways.
Acosta said he was drawn to the school in Plainview after he received a tryout invite from men’s basketball coach Clint Galyean.
After Acosta’s tryout, Galyean told the prospective player and his mother to go back home and pray about where he would want to take his next step.
That stood out to Acosta.
“It really made it feel like this is the place I needed to be,” Acosta said.
>> Follow Chris Amaya on Twitter at @OA_CAmaya
DEVIN ACOSTA
MCCAMEY
>> Academic Rank: No. 2 (Salutatorian) of 41
>> Sports: Basketball; Football; Cross Country; Golf; Track
>> Academic bio: 33 Lead Athletic Scholastic Athlete of the Year; Dave Campbell’s Chicken Express Community Hero; THSCA Academic All-State First Team (Basketball, Cross Country, Golf, Track) THSCA Academic All-State Second Team (Basketball)
>> Athletic bio: Football (First Team All-District Secondary; Second Team All-District Wide Receiver); Basketball (Second Team All-District); Cross County (Freshman/Sophomore); Golf (Regional Qualifer)
>> Activities: HOBY Youth Leadership; National Honor Society (President); Fellowship of Christian Athletes; Student Council; Yearbook; Youth Little Dribblers Coach
>> College and major: Wayland Baptist University (Sports Management)
>> Goals for the future: Own my own sports complex and training facility
>> Favorite subject: History; Anatomy
>> Favorite book: Heaven Is For Real
>> Favorite musician: J. Cole; Boys II Men; Luke Combs
>> Role model: My PawPaw
