Gaskill siblings promise to give East Fairmont a competitive boost for the next several years

FAIRMONT,WV — When East Fairmont’s Michael Gaskill took to the track at the meet in Charleston May 21, he was forced to focus quickly.

A competitor two spots ahead of him in the high jump leaped 21 feet, setting the bar high for Gaskill.

Gaskill’s first jump only reached 20-08, but he was able to go beyond that on his next attempt for the championship win.

“I knew I had to beat him because I didn’t want to get second place again,” Gaskill said. “I knew what that felt like. I came out in the next jump and jumped 21 feet and a quarter inch, and I still felt like I needed to go farther, but it ended up holding up.”

Gaskill did not start in track until his sophomore year, but he quickly gained a love for the sport.

His affection for track continued this past winter when he encouraged his basketball teammates Andrew Slusser, Aaron Fansler and Mason Weese to join the team.

“I basically told them that track was going to be pretty good this year,” Gaskill said. “I told them they would be successful, and they decided to come out and they were.”

What was most noticeable to East Fairmont coach Ken Hibbs was how much Gaskill had grown from his sophomore year to his junior season.

“He is a little smarter,” Hibbs said. “What I mean by that is about midseason he got injured a little bit. We held him back and he only participated minimally, and he matured enough to know what was important at the end of the season and he was certainly able to do that.”

With Gaskill being in his third year, his competition likely thinks they are getting off the hook when he graduates, but he also has three siblings waiting in the wings.

His younger sister Morgan (14) and brother Shaine (13) compete in track at the middle school level.

This was the first season for both siblings, but they are already succeeding with Morgan winning the high jump on a couple of occlusions as well as the 4x400 and Shaine winning both the 4x100 and 4x200.

The Gaskill family is from Fairmont, and their mother Shelly is a driving force toward sports.

“I like to see them succeed in everything,” Shelly said. “If they want to do it then I will try to make every effort to make it happen.”

The siblings cannot always be at each other’s meets, but do their best to check up on each other.

They also run together at East-West Stadium to practice for their meets.

Their youngest brother Skylar (11) is in Fairmont Little League and has been playing since he has been 5.

Skylar doesn’t run yet, but both Shelly and Hibbs agree that their is a strong possibility he is running in the future.

“We are looking forward to having Morgan next year at the high school and Shaine the year after that,” Hibbs said. “They have both had good seasons in middle school.”

As with most siblings there is friendly competition between them, but the goal is the same for all of them.

Win.

“Mickey kind of led the way and showed them what it was like to excel at an individual sport,” Hibbs said. “That kind of got Morgan and Shane interested, and they have some of the same physical traits that he does and they are both competitors as well. I think they kind of look up to him and try to be able to do the same thing.”