By Jeremy McDonald
Jeremymcdonald73@gmail.com
ST. PAUL, Ore.– St. Paul’s Jack Gregory has looked like he’s been playing Quarterback on a consistent basis for longer than the last four games for the Buckaroos.
With Noah Hockett getting injured in the opening week or two of the season, St. Paul were looking for a replacement for their returning 2A All-State Honorable Mention Quarterback. Week 1, against Heppner, saw Gregory and Max Mullen take snaps at Quarterback. Entering Week 2 against Lost River, Gregory started while Mullen took reps at Tight End and Halfback.
And with Gregory anchoring the offense, used his athleticism to help produce 22 first half points en route to a 37-0 home victory at the Rodeo Grounds on September 12. Over the next three weeks, Gregory has been the guy at Quarterback, leading them to wins over Regis (56-31), Santiam (22-6) and Colton (68-28).
Not bad considering Gregory was catching passes during their first game of the year against Oakland.
Gregory has credited those around them in his success as St. Paul prepares for the home stretch of the regular season.
“It’s been an awesome experience. Having Noah (Hockett) as my mentor, helping me and teaching me everything I know. Helping me learn the playbook from a different perspective as well as having the line, this amazing line that blocks for me all the time and these running backs that put it all out there all the time. To catch the ball, run the ball as hard as they can. Offense and defense, it doesn’t matter, we put in as much effort there as we can,” said Gregory.
“There’s multiple guys that could come out and fill this position. I’m not going to say some sole player. I can probably name two or three other guys out here that could come out here and play this Quarterback position and we’ll see the same kind of success that we’ve seen when they put me at Quarterback. Everyone around me has helped me build what I can do now and made all of this possible and made this such a great team experience.”
With three weeks left in the regular season, St. Paul are 5-1 on the year and are closing in on a 2A Special District 2 Title as they sit 3-0 in league play entering Friday’s home game with Sheridan. Wednesday was just another day in the lab for the squad as they’re preparing to go 1-0 on the week and trying to get to their peak for the playoff push here in a few weeks.
“Just getting better every day helps every team across Oregon, America, everywhere. We practice to get better every day, every position, every player can improve and can get better at everything. So, being able to get better together, mesh and figure out where certain guys play and how I have to do things differently and how other guys have to do things differently with everyone’s play styles, it’s going to factor into these next three weeks and really help all of us,” said Gregory.
Photos By Jeremy McDonald
