In a time when most athletes are pushed toward focusing on one sport, Lumpkin County High's Taylor Guthrie decided to go a different route. A completely different route.

A child of a coach, Guthrie has been involved with athletics since the age of 5 when he first started playing basketball. Two years later he picked up soccer and baseball. He added football to the mix at 8 and track once he reached middle school. A broken leg while playing soccer made him give up that sport when he was 9, but aside from that, he's been playing the other sports ever since.

"My parents always encouraged me to play a lot of sports," Guthrie said. "Just being able to play sports helps build bonds with friends."

It also helps in another area.

"You gain athleticism when you're constantly competing," Guthrie said. "It helps with each sport when you're getting stronger and faster in all of them."

It didn't hurt that he was pretty good at each one too.

As a starting quarterback for the football team, the 6-foot-4, 175-pound senior had 855 yards passing, 391 yards rushing, and helped lead the Indians to their first win over North Hall in what Guthrie called "a very long time."

"Beating North Hall is going to stay with me for a long time," he said. "Beating them my senior year will be a good memory down the road."

As a starting point guard for the basketball team, Guthrie averaged nine points, seven rebounds and two assists per game.
Once basketball season ended, he decided to play not one, but two sports. He ended both in spectacular fashion by hitting a game-winning home run in his final at bat and placing seventh in the triple jump at the Georgia Olympics.

"I wasn't able to quit," said Guthrie, who finished his high school career with four letters in football and basketball, two in track and
one in baseball. "I couldn't chose one, so I played them all. I didn't really like one more than the other."

He claims basketball is the sport he excels in the most, which is why he is hoping to walk-on next year when he enrolls at nearby North Georgia College & State University.

Focusing on just one sport is something he's not quite comfortable with.

"It's going to be tough," he said. "But I've got to do it."

Guthrie didn't have to do that at Lumpkin County, and his coaches were thankful to have an athlete of his ability.

"There's a reason he plays four sports," said Dustin Allen, who coached Guthrie in baseball and football. "Coaches allow him to do that because he's very coachable and very athletic. He knows how to communicate and tells you where he's going to be."

Allen needed that type of communication in the spring because Guthrie wanted to play both baseball and track, two sports with conflicting schedules.

"With track and baseball being in the same season, for a young man to be as responsible as he was is the reason we allowed him to do that," Allen said. "It's very unique, and I also think it's very difficult."

Guthrie wouldn't have wanted his high school career to play out any other way.

"I got tired some times, but I love competing, so I pushed through it the whole time," he said.

That's just the type of teenager Guthrie is.

"He had to be going to be himself," Allen said. "There's no way he could sit at home and play video games and not sports. It's not him."

Now, he might have to do that. Aside from the possibility of continuing his career through intramurals, Guthrie is resigned to the concept that his playing days might be over. That's a pretty harsh reality for an athlete used to playing sports 12 months out of the year.

"It's kind of mixed emotions," Guthrie said. "It hasn't really sunk in, and it feels weird not having practice to go to."

After a high school career like his, it should.