Virgil Carl Gray (born March 7, 1984) is a former

arena football Arena football is a variety of gridiron football designed to be played indoors. The game is played on a smaller field than American or Canadian football, designed to fit in the same surface area as a standard North American ice hockey rink, an ...

defensive back In gridiron football, defensive backs (DBs), also called the secondary, are the players on the defensive side of the ball who play farthest back from the line of scrimmage. They are distinguished from the other two sets of defensive players, the ...

. He played

college football College football is gridiron football that is played by teams of amateur Student athlete, student-athletes at universities and colleges. It was through collegiate competition that gridiron football American football in the United States, firs ...

for the

University of Rhode Island The University of Rhode Island (URI) is a public land-grant research university with its main campus in Kingston, Rhode Island, United States. It is the flagship public research as well as the land-grant university of Rhode Island. The univer ...

Early life

Gray attended

Therrell High School Daniel McLaughlin Therrell High School is a public high school located near Interstate 285 and Greenbriar Mall in southwest Atlanta, Georgia, United States. Three schools operate at the Therrell campus: *D. M. Therrell School of Health Scie ...

Atlanta, Georgia Atlanta ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Georgia (U.S. state), most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. It is the county seat, seat of Fulton County, Georg ...

and was a student and a standout in

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

and

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appro ...

. In football, he was a three-year

letterman Letterman may refer to: * Letterman (sports), a classification of high school or college athlete in the United States People * David Letterman (born 1947), American television talk show host ** ''Late Night with David Letterman'', talk show that ...

, and as a senior, he served as a

team captain In team sport, captain is a title given to a member of the team. The title is frequently honorary, but in some cases the captain may have significant responsibility for strategy and teamwork while the game is in progress on the field. In eithe ...

and was an All-City selection. Gray graduated in 2002.

College career

Gray continued his football career at the

. As a freshman in 2002, Gray red-shirted. Gray would play the next 4 seasons for the Rams, lettering each season, and was named a Second-Team All-

Atlantic 10 Conference The Atlantic 10 Conference (A-10) is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference whose schools compete in the National Collegiate Athletic Association's (NCAA) NCAA Division I, Division I. The A-10's member schools are located most ...

selection as a senior in 2006.

Professional career

af2 years

In 2008, Gray signed with the

Lubbock Renegades The Lubbock Renegades were an expansion member of the AF2. The team played its home games at the City Bank Coliseum, which was the former home of the Intense Football League, IFL/National Indoor Football League, NIFL team, the Lubbock Gunslin ...

af2 The AF2 (often styled as af2, and short for arenafootball2) was the Arena Football League's developmental league; it was founded in 1999 and played its first season in 2000. Like its parent AFL, the AF2 played using the same arena football r ...

. Gray played the competition of the 2008 season with the Renegades to a 9–7 record, and a berth in the af2 playoffs where they lost in the first round. In 2009, Gray signed with the

Spokane Shock The Spokane Shock were a professional indoor American football team based in Spokane, Washington, that played their home games at the Spokane Veterans Memorial Arena. The team was initially a member of arenafootball2 (af2), the Shock won divis ...

after the Renegades folded. The Shock finished the season 15–1 and won, what happened to be the final,

ArenaCup The ArenaCup was the af2's championship game. For the league's first five years, it was held at the arena of the higher seeded team. However, the 2005 ArenaCup was the first to be played at a neutral site in Bossier City, Louisiana. The 2006 Ar ...

Milwaukee Iron

In 2010, Gray was assigned to the

Milwaukee Iron Milwaukee is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. Located on the western shore of Lake Michigan, it is the 31st-most populous city in the United States and the fifth-most populous city in the Midwest with a population of 577 ...

, who had joined a number of other af2 teams in forming Arena Football 1.

Arizona Rattlers

In 2011, former Shock teammate

Nick Davila Nick Davila (born May 22, 1985) is an American former professional football quarterback who played in the Arena Football League (AFL). A four-time ArenaBowl champion, and three-time AFL MVP, he played for the Arizona Rattlers from 2010 to 2016 ...

, convinced Gray to join him on the

Arizona Rattlers The Arizona Rattlers are a professional indoor American football team based in the Phoenix metropolitan area that competes in the Indoor Football League (IFL). The Rattlers were founded in 1992 as an expansion team in the Arena Football League ...

Pittsburgh Power

Gray signed with the Power on September 14, 2013. In his first season with the Power, Gray missed 7 games due to a high ankle sprain but still finished with 42 tackles, 23 pass breakups and 11 interceptions returned for 297 yards and 2 touchdowns. Gray also returned 15 kickoffs for 344 yards and 1 touchdown.

San Jose SaberCats

Gray was assigned to the

San Jose SaberCats The San Jose SaberCats were a professional arena football team based in San Jose, California. The SaberCats had been members of the Arena Football League (AFL) since 1995 (the year in which the team was founded); and until 2015, they belonged to ...

on September 29, 2014.

Guangzhou Power

Gray was selected by the Guangzhou Power of the

China Arena Football League The China Arena Football League (), often abbreviated as the CAFL, was a professional arena football league that played its games in the People's Republic of China. It featured players from the now-defunct Arena Football League (AFL) and other ...

(CAFL) in the fifteenth round of the

2016 CAFL Draft The 2016 CAFL season, the first season in the history of the China Arena Football League (CAFL), began on October 1, 2016. On November 6, the Beijing Lions defeated the Qingdao Clipper to win the first China Bowl. Draft The league held its ...

Baltimore Brigade

On March 21, 2018, Gray was assigned to the

Baltimore Brigade The Baltimore Brigade was a professional arena football team based in Baltimore, Maryland, that played in the Arena Football League (AFL) from 2017 to 2019. The team's home arena was the Royal Farms Arena. The franchise was owned by Ted Leonsi ...

Coaching career

On March 7, 2017, Gray was named to the Baltimore Brigade coaching staff as an assistant coach.

References

External links

Rhode Island Bio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gray, Virgil 1984 births Living people Players of American football from Atlanta American football defensive backs Canadian football defensive backs Players of Canadian football from Georgia (U.S. state) University of Rhode Island alumni Rhode Island Rams football players Spokane Shock players Milwaukee Iron players Arizona Rattlers players Omaha Nighthawks players Pittsburgh Power players San Jose SaberCats players Guangzhou Power players Baltimore Brigade coaches Baltimore Brigade players Hamilton Tiger-Cats players