For former Leominster Blue Devil standout football player Noah Gray, staying in the present has always served him well. Gray, who ESPN NFL Draft analyst Mel Kiper Kr. projects as a potential middle round draft pick, is coming off a stellar four-year career at Duke. For his career, Gray, who played tight end for the Duke Blue Devils, caught 105 balls for 948 yards and eight touchdowns.
Gray said keeping things in the present has been the key to his success.
“I guess for me in my mindset, it was always focus on the now and being here in the present,” Gray said. “I think if during my junior season, I started thinking about the NFL and the next step, instead of playing against Boston College the next week, that would have affected how I played.”
Gray said it wasn’t until after his senior season ended that he began to think about the NFL and playing on Sunday afternoons.
“I think as soon as this season was over, that’s when I kind of digested everything and was like, I think I’ve had a good enough career to say that playing football a little bit longer was in the realm of possibility,” Gray said. “I talked with my coaches and other mentors and they kind of guided me through the next steps and I love football. I’ve been playing it since I was six years old, tackle football that is, and it’s something that has always been something in my blood. I’ve never missed a year and it’s just been so much fun to me, and to play it at the next level and playing for as long as I possibly can is something that I am really interested in doing.”
Gray was born in Laconia, NH and after a couple stops including a year in Leominster, Gray and his family settled in Gardner. Gray played youth football all around Central Mass. including Marlboro, Gardner, Leominster and the AYF Nashoba program.
But when it came time to go to high school, Gray said Leominster High had a great appeal for a variety of reasons.
“If I’m being completely honest, it was kind of a mixture of a really historic football program and other factors,” Gray said. “When I showed up to Leominster, I got to meet Steve Dubzinski for the first time and he kind of made it seem like it was a big family at LHS with the sports culture. And I had a lot of friends from when I played Leominster Pop Warner and youth basketball, which got me connected with some of those Leominster guys like (Anthony Dandini).”
Academics also played a role.
“And in terms of academics, I thought Leominster would be a good fit for me,” Gray added. “I thought it was a very diverse teaching core there with a lot of different classes that I could take and participate in that would eventually help me down the road. And that was correct because I met some great teachers and faculty at Leominster High School and I was so fortunate to have had them and I wouldn’t go back and change a thing. It was nice to be involved in the Leominster community even though I lived in Gardner.”
Gray admitted his academic start at LHS wasn’t as clean as he would have liked, but a stern conversation with Mrs. Blanchflower, whose son Rob was drafted by the Pittsburgh Steelers in 2014, made quite the impression.
“My freshman year I was in class with Mrs. Blanchflower, Spanish 1, and I had never taken Spanish before, and I was kind of like a class clown,” Gray said. “I thought I was funny, I thought classes didn’t really matter all that much. And with Mrs. Blanchflower, it got to a point where she realized clearly I didn’t care and she told me I needed to stay after class and she needed to talk to me. So I stayed after class and I walk in, cocky and high on life, the best thing that ever happened, the best thing that got put on Earth, and she goes off on me.”
Gray said Blanchflower didn’t mince words.
“I’ve had a son who has been through this so I understand what it takes and I understand that you are a good football player but it’s not going to mean anything if you don’t do the little things right,” Gray said recalling Blancflower’s words of wisdom. “You just can’t come into class and act like you don’t care about this.”
Gray said that was a major turning point for him.
“That lesson, to do the little things right and how that was connected to all my bigger goals in the future wasn’t going to come through if I didn’t change,” Gray said. “I told this story to (Duke head football coach David Cutcliffe) when he was recruiting me. I only spent a year with Mrs. Blanchflower and we may not have talked every day, but that kind of lesson outside of school, those kinds of lessons that I learned throughout my four years at LHS from the teachers and faculty, those are what resonate with me for the rest of my life and I’m forever grateful. Those people guided me, taught me some lessons, and allowed me to go to Duke with a better mindset about the whole process.”
Gray entered LHS as a wide receiver, catching balls thrown by Neil O’Connor. For his sophomore season, Gray moved to quarterback.
“I played a bunch of different positions and coach Palazzi felt that would be a good fit for me and I wanted to help the team as much as possible,” Gray said. “My entire football career, I’ve always been a team player and I wanted to do what it takes to benefit the team and playing quarterback was going to do that.”
For Gray’s senior season, coach Palazzi came to Gray once again with a position change in mind.
“My senior year, coach Palazzi came to me and said I know you’ve been to camps as a tight end, I know that’s what you are going to Duke at, maybe it’s best for the team if you kind of move over to tight end,” Gray said. “And ultimately he was right. So halfway through my senior year, coach put Pat Gallagher in at QB, and he has a hell of a rest of the year, and it benefitted the team overall.”
Gray said it was a tough transition, but one that was worthwhile.
“It was definitely difficult, I mean I had never blocked anybody in my life,” Gray said. “I had to do those extra drills to get myself in the right kind of shape but I’m grateful for it. That second half of my senior year at Leominster kind of prepared me a little bit for what I was going to have to experience at Duke. Getting that early transition, getting comfortable catching passes, running routes, learning how to run block from coach Murph, some of those things did translate when I got to Duke and I was able to build upon that.”
“Obviously it was very difficult because at the collegiate Division 1 level, those guys are extremely big, extremely fast, and extremely smart and you need to be able to play without even thinking,” Gray added. “So all that came with time and preparation. But the foundation at LHS with some really good coaches helped me translate it over to the next level.”
Gray said that work that he put in is the foundation for anyone looking to play football after high school.
“If you want to play football at the next level, you really need to keep your head down and work as hard as possible,” Gray said. “It doesn’t really matter what level, Division 1, 2, or 3. I’ve talked to a lot of different friends of mine who played at every single level possible, whether that’s the NFL, CFL, all levels of college. One constant thing is that the amount of attention to detail that you have to have, the amount of preparation you need is crucial.”
Every day is long when you get to college, especially if you are playing college sports,” Gray added. “It doesn’t matter the level that you are at. You’ve got to wake up early in the morning, go to class all day and practice at night, or the opposite. You’ve got to do homework, study for upcoming tests and quizzes you’ve got to take, and then after that, you’ve got to go do your filmwork, look at the upcoming opponent. You are constantly getting better and you’ve got to do extra work beyond what the expectations are. It’s just that preparation, keeping your head down and working as hard as possible, and not letting other things distract you. That’s going to lead to a more success career, a more fun career, and a more accomplished career.”
As for the student part of Duke, Gray, who earned his Political Science degree back in December, said it was an enormous challenge.
“I knew coming in it was going to be a lot harder than I had previously dealt with,” Gray said. “Fortunately for me being part of the football program, we had academic advisers there that laid out the foundation for us throughout the next four years. I was able to sit down with them and lay out what it was going to take to be as successful as possible. I also had tutors, I had mentors, I had people that had gone through it and were able to talk to me about the things I needed to be doing in order to stay on top of my academics but also play football.”
Gray said getting through Statistics was a unique challenge that he overcame.
“There were a lot of classes that were hard,” Gray said. “Statistics is hard in high school, and I never took it in high school, but when I got to Duke, it was something that I had to take for my major. I had to put a lot of time and effort into and I had a tutor basically every single day, and after the tutoring session, I had to go home and do a lot of extra work on my own for me to prepare for class the next day.”
Gray said that work ethic goes both ways.
“It’s the same thing as on the football side,” Gray said. “You just need to attack everything, make sure you are doing your assignments on time, making sure you have a clear-cut schedule with clear-cut deadlines, that’s all going to help you out.”
Gray also said once he realized he couldn’t do it all on his own, he started to see improvements with his grades.
“Never be afraid to ask for help,” Gray added. “For me, my freshman year, I had a horrible GPA sitting at about a 2.7. After my freshman year, I was like, what am I doing here, what am I doing wrong. And I didn’t ask enough questions, I didn’t go to my teachers enough for help or ask my academic coordinators for mentors. Constantly asking questions, looking to other people, that’s what’s going to help you be successful in college.”
“You’re really not going to get through college sitting in your room, by yourself, and not asking any questions,” Gray added. “Group work, being involved in a community with the common goal of being successful academically, that’s what got me through Duke and thankfully I got my GPA up to a 3.2. It’s a big credit to everybody that I was able to surround myself with because once you go to college, you are going to be around some incredible people who will change your life forever.”
Gray is currently in Fort Lauderdale, FL at XPE Sports working out preparing for his Pro Day back at Duke on March 29th.
“It’s seven days a week where I am constantly doing something,” Gray said. “Whether that is speed work or strength work or prep work for your interviews. Just trying to stay on top of all things football and making sure your body is going to hit peak performance by the time I hit my Pro Day on March 29th.
After that, Gray will wait to see if his name is called when the NFL Draft starts on April 29th. Gray said he will keep that weekend low key.
“I’m just going to hang out with my family, have some grandparents come to the house barbeque and grill out and hang out,” Gray said. “Nothing too crazy. My family and I have shared a lot of great moments in my football history so getting my family together for this moment, whether I get drafted or go undrafted and get picked up by a team, regardless of the situation, it’s going to be extremely exciting and I’m very fortunate to be here and I’m so appreciative of my family and friends who have supported me throughout the way.”
No comments:
Post a Comment