By Carl Holcomb
Moorefield Examiner
East Hardy High School senior Brayden Gregory has signed to play football at Bethany College in the northern panhandle of the Mountain State.
Gregory led the Cougars at quarterback to the first round of the state football playoffs throwing for 1,600 yards this season with 10 passing touchdowns in addition to being a part of three state quarterfinal appearances the previous three years of his high school career as a wide receiver and backup quarterback.
Gregory is quick and could play on defense at safety, if the need arises for the Bison.
Bethany College is the oldest institute of higher learning in West Virginia and was founded in 1840 by Alexander Campbell.
The Old Main academic building has a Gothic architecture and there are campus structures listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Bethany College is situated on 1,300 acres with Campbell’s former sheep farm estate included on the property.
The Bison Football team competes in the NCAA Division III within the Presidents’ Athletic Conference and led by head coach Brandon Robinson, who is entering his fourth season at the helm.
Bethany College finished with a record of 1-9 last season.
Gregory is excited about this opportunity to attend Bethany College to study pre-physical therapy and play football.
“The whole home nature of the school is small. It is more rural like here and I really like the coaches. They are a small, tight knitted group. They are all fresh as I am going in. I think it is stellar. It is a superb school and the first college in West Virginia, so they have made some nice improvements. [Advice] Keep your head down and keep putting your nose to the grindstone. Everyday is another opportunity, so take advantage of it. [East Hardy representation] It is great. Not a lot of kids have gone out of here for athletics recently, so it is just great to add my name to it,” East Hardy senior Brayden Gregory commented.
East Hardy High School Athletic Director and Football coach Devon Orndorff is glad to see Gregory succeed and move forward to Bethany College.
“I am very excited for him and glad he has this opportunity. One of the messages we convey to our athletes is how too many athletes invest too much in Division I or bust. I am sure social media has a huge influence on that and how they value themselves based on what level of college they play. The dream always should be just to get to be able to play one more snap of football, one more quarter of football, one more game of football. That’s why we value the playoffs so much here at East Hardy, not that it measures excellence towards a state championship which is always a goal. But it means we play one more quarter of football. He loves football so much and he has four more years or as many as he wants to play football to live out his dream. I am excited for this opportunity for him. He is an extremely hard worker and made us proud. I hope he does well. His leadership means everything and we put a lot of emphasis on leaders in our program and they don’t always have to be seen. He is one that has done a great job of that as he became an upperclassmen two seasons ago. He played his junior year as a wide receiver and had always been a backup quarterback. He was willing to step up and do that without complaining. He didn’t have that much statistics, but he led us in receiving in our first round playoff game against St. Marys. He acted like he had done it all season. I use that as an example of leading by example and one of the best we could have in the program,” East Hardy Football coach Devon Orndorff remarked.
