NEW PALESTINE — It was like it never happened.
New Palestine senior running back Grayson Thomas had a phenomenal final season in helping lead the Dragons to conference, sectional and regional championships.
His numbers were some of the best in the state. He ranked No. 4 in the state in rushing yards (2,304), tied for No. 6 in touchdowns (33) and was eighth in scoring (198).
A great year, regardless.
Then, you put in the fact a year ago he suffered a serious knee injury in the second round of his junior postseason, those numbers and that season are even more impressive.
With that comeback and those numbers, Thomas is The Daily Reporter Hancock County Football Offensive Athlete of the Year.
“It doesn’t matter whether you’re coming back from being hurt from a catastrophic injury that he had last fall, even if you are 100 percent healthy and you never had any of those injuries, he still had an unbelievable season,” New Palestine head coach Kyle Ralph said. “For someone that had no setbacks at all throughout the entire offseason and season, that year would be considered absolutely phenomenal. With the adversity he went through and then to come back to have that type of season makes it even more special. It speaks volumes to our offensive line, first of all, and, second of all, to the type of player Grayson is and what his talent level is.”
On Nov. 4, 2022 against Greenfield-Central in a sectional semifinal game at Kelso Stadium, shortly after he put the Dragons ahead 7-0 with an 11-yard touchdown run, Thomas suffered a right leg injury that would need two surgeries to repair a medial collateral ligament (MCL) and anterior cruciate ligament (ACL).
Typical recovery time for those type of injuries can range from nine to 12 months, but Thomas is not a typical athlete.
After all of his recovery and rehabilitation, he was cleared to begin full practice when official workouts opened to start the preseason.
“He’s one of the best running backs I’ve coached against,” Greenfield-Central head football coach Travis Nolting said. “(After having the) injury it shows how tough he is and how much heart he has. An injury like that there are people that never recover from something like that. To come back and have the year he had and be the workhorse for them he was, it speaks volumes about the young man’s grit and how good of a player he really truly is.”
Thomas went from wondering if there’d be a senior season to having a memorable one, both individually and as a team.
“I think a big key to this season, there was a sense that leadership this year was more important than even other years, at least to me,” Thomas said. “It was my senior season and we had a really sophomore-heavy team. We had a ton of sophomores play for us. To those guys, a lot of them were coming off of playing freshman football. There’s definitely a game-speed change there. Being able to lead them and get them prepared for the season was definitely my intent this season. It felt like more my purpose to lead than other season.”
That young team got a first-hand look at what Thomas did to make sure he had a season. And then, they got to see an up close view of the senior all-star in action for the next 14 weeks.
Thomas had gone over 200 yards rushing in a single game just twice in his career, once as a freshman and once as a sophomore.
He did it four times this fall. In the second game of the season at Decatur Central, he carried the ball 22 times for 233 yards and four touchdowns.
“I think (my season) went awesome,” Thomas said. “I couldn’t have asked for a better season, especially after the whole injury situation and not being sure whether I’d get back or not. I’m super blessed to have the season that I had.
“(I thought) Week 2 was my defining game as far as being back from my injury. I felt perfectly comfortable in the first game against Westfield, but as far as running the ball that night, I wasn’t really tested too much. I knew there’d be bigger challenges in the season and then Week 2 against Decatur (Central) I had, at the time, my career high in rushing. That really felt like a landmark as far as being back, in my mind.”
That individual record didn’t last long.
Two weeks later against rival Mt. Vernon, Thomas went for 285 yards on 31 carries. He scored two touchdowns in a 63-39 win over the Marauders.
Thomas, a four-year starter, finishes his high school career second on the school’s career rushing yards (6,202) and touchdowns (93) lists. He also is second all-time in yards from scrimmage (6,317) and points (544) and third in single-season rushing yards (2,304).
“I got the opportunity to play my freshman year and from then to now it’s really just about running hard,” Thomas said. “With the great running backs in the past, Charlie Spegal, Luke Canfield, DuRon Ford, everyone that has played running back at New Pal, there’s always an expectation of them. It’s always been in my mind to hold up that expectation. The big numbers are nice, but really, to me, it’s about running hard and doing what I can each game.”
“The thing with him, and he has done this for a long time, we’ve had some years where we’ve struggled up front and we’ve played against good teams, good competition,” Ralph added. “He’s a lot better than people give him credit for at getting what we call, hard yards, yards after contact, yards when you think he should go down and he ends up getting two more.
“He doesn’t run out of bounds. There’s times when you feel like he’s trapped on the sideline and he makes a cut back inside and gets five more or eight more yards. He has a knack for getting those hard yards. When you got a running back that refuses to be tackled, refuses to go down, you make other teams physically put you on the ground that’s a pretty special characteristic. He is really good at that. It’s third-and-2, he gets hit at the line of scrimmage and he gets the first down by a yard and a half. That stuff is what we’ll be miss the most. He’s a great running back for sure, guys that have that knack, ability, are uncommon.”
Thomas had touchdowns in 13 of 14 games and had multiple TDs in 11 of 14 contests. He averaged 164.6 rushing yards per game, had 12 100-plus rushing yards games and averaged 6.7 yards per carry.
He scored five TDs in a game twice. He did it in a 35-7 regular season win over New Castle and also, fittingly, in his final appearance at Kelso Stadium in downing Mooresville, 39-6, for the regional title.
Thomas gives credit to his coach and teams he’s played on for being ranked so high on numerous New Pal all-time lists.
“(A lot of) credit goes to teams I’ve played on and the opportunities that coach Ralph has given me,” Thomas said. “All the records are nice, but I couldn’t have done it without all the moving parts around that allowed for me to do stuff like that. There’s definitely a lot of people that allowed for that to happen.”
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2023 Daily Reporter All-Hancock County Football Team
Offensive Player of the Year: Grayson Thomas, New Palestine
Defensive Player of the Year: Jake Hinton, Greenfield-Central
Coach of the Year: Kyle Ralph, New Palestine
Offense
Pos: Name;School;Ht.;Wt.;Cl.
QB: Dallas Freeman;Greenfield-Central;6-3;170;11
RB: Joliba Brogan;Mt. Vernon;5-9;185;11
RB: Mark Kube;Eastern Hancock;5-11;165;10
RB: Grayson Thomas;New Palestine;6-0;190;12
WR: Kyler Kropp;New Palestine;6-1;189;12
WR: Eli Manship;Eastern Hancock;6-0;170;10
TE: Kayden Ruble;Eastern Hancock;6-3;225;11
OL: Brock Brownfield;New Palestine;6-3;249;10
OL: Brayden Flener;Greenfield-Central;6-1;300;12
OL: Reese Hill;Greenfield-Central;6-4;280;12
OL: Logan Hoskins;Eastern Hancock;6-0;250;12
OL: Ian Moore;New Palestine;6-6;311;12
ATH: Kirk Knecht;Greenfield-Central;6-1;165;12
Defense
Pos: Name;School;Ht.;Wt.;Cl.
DL: Zach Blevens;Greenfield-Central;6-3;215;11
DL: Payton Foley;Greenfield-Central;6-2;200;11
DL: Shawn Taylor;Mt. Vernon;6-4;180;12
DL: Michael Thacker;New Palestine;6-0;271;11
LB: Jake Hinton;Greenfield-Central;6-4;205;12
LB: Gabe Johnson, Eastern Hancock;5-11;170;11
LB: Garrett Ranes;New Palestine;6-1;224;10
LB: Josh Ranes;New Palestine;6-0;219;10
DB: Dylan Bowman;Eastern Hancock;6-0;166;12
DB: Mason Hiatt;New Palestine;6-0;181;12
DB: Caden Jacobia;New Palestine;5-9;188;10
DB: DJ Johnson;Mt. Vernon;6-0;185;11
DB: Cameron Volz;Eastern Hancock;5-7;135;12
Special Teams
Pos: Name;School;Ht.;Wt.;Cl.
K: Jake Wells;New Palestine;6-0;169;11
P: Aaron Redmon;Eastern Hancock;6-3;159;12
R: Tre Jones;Mt. Vernon;5-10;160;12
Honorable Mention: Eastern Hancock – Elijah Edon, Jacob Wickard. Greenfield-Central — Braylen Benavente, Connor Dotson, Cooper Hinton, Cash Looper, Kody Smith, Lane Wadle, Boston Willard. Mt. Vernon – Domanic Barnett, Tyler Dover, Tyler Etherington, Rylan Vinard. New Palestine – Micah Clark, Alex Guhl, Gavin Neal, Abe Walling.
Note: Story on Defensive Player of the Year, Jake Hinton, and final statistical leaders appeared in the Saturday, Dec. 30 print edition and is also available online at greenfieldreporter.com
