• Roster
• |
• Schedule/Results
• |
• Stats
• |
• News
• |
• Archives

July 11, 2012

Photo Gallery

Texas Longhorn incoming freshman running back Johnathan Gray won the Gatorade Male High School Athlete of the Year in a ceremony at the Loews Hotel in Los Angeles on Tuesday night.

Gray became the fourth football player to win the Gatorade Male Athlete of the Year in the award's 10-year history. He was also named the 2011-12 Gatorade National Football Player of the Year and is a two-time Gatorade Texas Football Player of the Year and was the 2010 and 2011 ESPNHS Mr. Football USA player of the year, becoming the first person to win that award twice. He was also named the 2011 U.S. Air Force National Player of the Year and a prep All-American. Gray is also a three-time first-team all-state and all-area, and a four-time all-district performer. He earned first-team All-America honors from Parade Magazine, Sports Illustrated, USA Today and ESPNHS in 2011.

As a senior, the 5-foot-10, 202-pound Gray finished the 2011 season with 3,886 rushing yards and a state-record 65 rushing touchdowns on 347 carries. He also caught 26 passes for 517 yards and five TDs. He was a four-year starter who helped Aledo post a 56-4 record and three consecutive 4A state titles in four seasons.

Gray, from Aledo, Texas, set the national record with 205 career touchdowns, and ranks second nationally with 1,232 career points scored. He set state records in career carries (1,218) and 100-yard games (51), and became just the fifth high school running back in history to surpass 10,000 career rushing yards (10,889).

Gray is a three-time academic all-district selection, a three-year member of Aledo's Student Council, a three-year student representative for the AISD Health Committee and was an AISD Special Education pupil's mentor all four years of high school. He also served as an Aledo Youth Football mentor and is active in his church. Gray's father, James, was an All-American running back at Texas Tech (1986-89) and was drafted by the New England Patriots in 1990.

Gray bested basketball player Jabari Parker of Chicago's Simeon Career Academy for the boys' award. The female award winner was Breanna Stewart from Cicero-North Syracuse High in New York state.

The Gatorade High School Athlete of the Year program began in 2003. One male winner and one female winner are chosen annually from the program's National Player of the Year honorees in six boys' sports and six girls' sports. The National Player of the Year award selection process is administered by ESPNHS.

The award recognizes not only athletic excellence, but also high standards of academic achievement and exemplary character demonstrated on and off the field of play.