Dylan Bridges epitomizes the word achievement. Bridges, a senior at Newsome High School in Lithia, excels at everything from school, to sports, to life.
Born in Fairfax County in Virginia, right outside Washington D.C. Bridges’ family moved to London during his elementary school years. The transition was difficult because not on only did he have to change schools at such a formative time in his life, but he also had to adapt to a new culture and customs. But he persevered and brought his family even closer together.
When the Bridges family moved back to the U.S., they settled in Michigan first, then relocated to Lithia, where they have been the last seven years. Throughout his changes and transitions growing up, Bridges always felt the close-knit comfort of his family.
“My family is the greatest thing I have in my life,” said Bridges. “My parents have been happily married for 25 years and I have two sisters: Allie, a graduate of Florida State University and Madi, an eight-grader at Randall. They are my support system and I don’t know what I would do without them.”
Bridges has an affinity for sports, especially basketball, where he has played on the Newsome varsity basketball team for the past four years and serves as team captain this year. Bridges has also played on a traveling basketball team. “I have traveled across the nation playing in basketball tournaments with my AAU basketball team, SEBA Select. Getting involved with SEBA gave me the chance to play against competition all over the United States.”
In addition to his athletic achievements, Bridges excels at academics. He currently holds an unweighted GPA of 3.82 and a 5.5 weighted GPA. He has been awarded an AP Scholar with Honor award, Principal’s Honor Roll several times as well as second place at the Distributive Education Clubs of America (DECA), which is a high school club focused on business and marketing, where he will compete in states in March.
Bridges remains busy with other club memberships including National Honor Society, Forensics club, SWAT club (Students Working Against Tobacco), Fellowship of Christian Athletes, FBLA (Future Business Leaders of America) and Relay For Life club.
Yet, through all of his accomplishments, Bridges remains grounded and focused on what’s important. “As I’ve gotten older it’s become clear to me that my father is my hero,” said Bridges. “He is a great leader, hard worker and always makes sure that he is involved. If I can grow up to be like him then I have done something right.”
Bridges’ future looks bright as he has applied to several different universities including University of Florida, University of Illinois and Florida State University. In addition, he is being recruited for basketball by Augustana College, Knox College, Depauw University and Washington and Lee University.
“I am not sure of my plans yet and will make that decision when basketball season is over. I plan on pursuing a degree in business. I would like to pursue a business career, but I’m not sure yet exactly what area of business I want to concentrate on,” said Bridges.
But, everyone that knows Dylan Bridges is certain that whatever he decides to do, he will achieve.
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