Johnathan Gray continues to put up massive, head-spinning, record-breaking numbers for
Aledo (Texas) High School's football team.
With 2,302 more rushing yards this season, he's moved from No. 21 all the way to No. 2 on the Texas career rushing list with 9,302. Last week he rushed 31 times for 265 yards and seven touchdowns in a 67-42 win over Birdville (Texas). He's passed such names as Cedrick Benson, Billy Sims, David Overstreet and Jacquizz Rodgers.
With 48 more touchdowns - 44 rushing - he's up to 183 for his career, an on-going state mark.
With 288 more points, he's up to 1,100 for his career, which has obliterated Ken Hall's previous No. 1 Texas mark of 899 and is No. 2 nationally.
Considering all that, Aledo football coach Tim Buchanan gave an unexpected answer when asked about his proudest Gray moment.
Johnathan Gray needs just just below
2,000 yards to be the state's rushing king.
Photo by Jim Redman
Must certainly be the one-man 323-yard, eight-touchdown show he put on in last year's 4A-2 state title game, a
69-34 win over ultra-athletic La Marque.
"To score three or four touchdowns against a team like that would have been unbelievable," Buchanan said. "Eight? Unfathomable."
But no, the 29-year veteran coach said, that's not it.
What about the 31-carry, 251-yard, four-TD game in the 2009 state title game, another Aledo championship, 35-21 over Brenham (Texas)? Or the time he rushed for 151 yards, caught passes for more than 200 and scored seven touchdowns – in just 20 touches – in a resounding win over Brewer (Fort Worth, Texas)?
No, no sir.
Well then how about being named
National Sophomore and
Junior Player of the Year by MaxPreps or breaking his own state record with 59 touchdowns last season, or the day he committed to the University of Texas, ending months of speculation?
Nope, nope and nope again.
Seems Buchanan was particularly moved by Thanksgiving Day practice last year during a water break. A 6-year-old boy walked over to say hello, a kid Gray never met.
"Jonathan squatted to a knee to get at the boy's eye level, shook his hand and just walked him around the field," Buchanan said. "Nobody else was looking. Nobody really noticed. But that's the kind of kid Johnathan is. Big heart. Enormous character."
{VIDEO_71d4cd97-0a0b-44d4-8f89-8607084446b0,floatRightWithBar}Nobody was around when as a freshman and sophomore, Buchanan was often alerted to Gray driving the weight sled 100 yards at a time after practice.
"It would be 5 p.m., 98 degrees out and he's pushing himself to get faster and stronger," Buchanan said. "That would be fine normally, but it would be the day before a game. We had to pull the reigns in on him back then.
"He's simply one of the hardest working kids we've ever had here."
And unquestionably, the most talented.
