To say that Josh Honeycutt was raised in an athletic family is a bit of an understatement. Honeycutt will compete in the triple jump in Eugene, Ore., at the U.S. Olympic Trials with his sights set on earning a place on the U.S. Olympic Team bound for Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
“He grew up in a house where we like to consider ourselves champions,” Josh’s father, the Rev. Phil Honeycutt, said.
Gina Honeycutt, Josh’s mother, was a standout athlete at Cherryvale High School and her father was a member of the University of Kansas’ track and field team and even roomed with Hall of Fame basketball player Wilt Chamberlain during his time as a Jayhawk.
Phil is also an outstanding athlete. After starring at Humboldt High School, he went to Pittsburg State University to continue his basketball career.
Josh remembers the way his parents complemented each other in how they instilled their values in him.
He credits his dad with pushing him to try to be the best at everything he does and that if he was going to be the best, he needed to put the work in.
“My dad pushed me a lot,” Josh said. “When I played basketball, he’d also make sure I was making so many shots, like 100 shots, before I’d come inside. I had to do 300 jumps with the jump rope in a row before I could come inside. He just instilled that work ethic in me and he taught me not to give up and how to win.”
His father focused on making sure his son was as strong at the end of an event as he was at the beginning.
“We would play one-on-one to 10 points and he would let me get up by 9, then he would just post me up and beat me down,” Josh said. “That taught me how to finish games. It is not just about how you do at the beginning, but it is a full competition and it is how you finish. He taught me to have the heart of a champion.”
That was all part of the plan for Phil, demonstrating to his son values that he hoped Josh would be able to lean on later.
“My wife would probably say I pushed him too much,” Phil said, as Gina nodded in agreement. “I wouldn’t let him win and that was so he would know the cost of what it takes to win.
“Some people enjoy a game, simply because it is just a game. I always told him if it was just a game, they wouldn’t bother to keep score. Then when he did get a taste of winning, he knew what it took to be a winner and stay a winner. To be a winner, you have to put more into it than the normal person.”
While Phil pushed their son to be all that he could on the athletic fields and courts, Gina gave Josh the balance he needed away from competition.
“She made sure that everything else in my life was in order,” Josh said. “When I had a C on my report card in the seventh-grade, I couldn’t play football.
“She would make sure that I was doing other extracurricular activities such as the school play, choir or the piano, because she wanted me to be well-rounded and not just a dumb jock. She wanted me to know that there was more to life than just sports and she taught me to try and be excellent in everything, not just sports.”
Josh loved participating in the fine arts while in high school and still credits music and theater with teaching him many of the lessons that made him such an accomplished athlete.
