Julliyan Gray to play basketball at Arizona Christian University
By FRED KRONER
Julliyan Gray was “That Kid.”
The Heritage High School senior is a throwback to an era that existed before laptops, before cell phones and before color television sets.
There was a time when youngsters played ball outside, starting early in the morning and continuing until late at night.
Gray is the modern-day example of that principle.
“I started playing basketball at the age of 5 or 6 years old,” Gray said. “I was always shooting baskets, no matter the weather.
“I was one of those kids you had to beg to come inside.”
These days, his inside time is still devoted to basketball. After playing for the Hawks, he recently committed to continuing his career at Arizona Christian University, in north-central Phoenix.
When he wasn’t playing basketball as a youngster, he was watching the game.
“I would always watch the Illini play with my grandma (Linda Jensen) and ever since then I fell in love with the game of basketball and knew that’s what I wanted to do after high school,” Gray said. “My grandma always loved the sport, so I always loved it.
“It was our thing. I always had the drive to do better and to work harder.”
The desire to play beyond high school was a goal for Gray for more than a decade.
“It had been a dream of mine and my grandmother’s since I was a little,” Gray said. “When she passed away, I knew I had to do it to honor her.”
His pathway wasn’t always clearcut.
“Towards the beginning of my sophomore year is when I started to think maybe It wasn’t possible for me to play basketball at the next level,” Gray said. “But after the end of my junior season is when I found that fire in me to keep going and keep pushing myself to do better.”
A multi-sport athlete during his four years at Heritage, basketball wasn’t always Gray’s sport of choice.
“There was a time where I favored baseball,” he said. “It was the end of my sophomore year. I was trying to find which sport suited me best. I wasn’t performing the best on the court and baseball has always been my second option.
“I played football my freshman year and didn’t really like playing it, so I didn’t play my sophomore year.”
His passion for basketball was resurrected halfway through his high school career.
“I didn’t really start working towards becoming a college player until the summer going into my junior year,” Gray said, “but once I knew what I wanted to do, it was easy to keep working and stay on track.”
Heritage boys’ basketball coach Corey White said he wasn’t always sure which direction Gray would take.
“As a freshman, I would have said that Julliyan would have been one of those players people talk about having the potential to play at the next level, but never panned out,” White said. “He would play well in a game and then miss the next practice and by team rule, sit out part of the next game.”
Then, Gray’s sophomore season was far from normal. Due to COVID-19, high schools played an abbreviated schedule in basketball.
“He missed a few games due to COVID protocols, so again did not make much progress,” White added.
By Gray’s junior year, he had earned a starting position with the varsity.
“The adjustment to the speed and length of the game was a little bit of an issue,” White said. “He showed flashes of what he could do, but was not very consistent.
“As a senior, he got himself in better shape and was one of our best cutters on the offensive end. Some nights, he was the most athletic kid on the court and used that to his advantage.”
Since playing for his first team as a fifth-grader, Gray’s position has changed.
He was primarily a power forward and center in his first year of organized basketball, but he had an advantage over others his age.
“I could always handle the ball and shoot the ball, even as a big man,” Gray said. “I was fairly undersized to be playing anywhere down low at that time.
“When I moved to Gifford the start of my sixth-grade year is when I really started to focus on being a point guard or shooting guard.”
He had playing time on both the seventh- and eighth-grade basketball teams as a sixth-grader.
“My favorite position to play is shooting guard,” Gray said.
As a senior, Gray was the Hawks’ second leading scorer, averaging 9.3 points per game, with a high game of 21 points on February 3 in a 54-53 loss at Okaw Valley.
As a junior, he averaged 7.6 points per game and topped out at 18 points on Dec. 27, 2021, in a 68-39 loss to IMSA.
He led Heritage in scoring in five games in each of his two seasons on varsity.
“I wasn’t always the best ball handler, especially in high school,” he said, “but I could handle the ball enough.
“My junior year I played a lot more of the small forward position because we had two pretty good ball handlers.
“Senior year, I was definitely more of a two-guard.
“One thing I have noticed the last four years about my game is that I get most of my points when the ball isn’t in my hands. I back-cut my defender a lot and can shoot the three-ball off of a pass very well. I feel like those are my best skills on the court.
“I am pretty athletic as well, so that helps me on the defensive end. I have long arms which helps with tipping passes and getting easy fast break layups off of steals.”
Gray was in much better shape for his senior season than for his junior year.
“The key to my devolvement was really hitting the gym and losing weight,” Gray said. “I was 210 pounds towards the end of my junior year, and at the start of my senior year, I was back down to 165 pounds.
“I loved everything about high school basketball. I will always remember the memories I made with my coaches and teammates. We all have sacrificed so much for the game of basketball. Everyone came back better for our senior season and that is all anyone can ask for.
“My favorite moments of my high school basketball career was just the time spent with all my friends on the court.”
He is thankful for the coaches he had at Heritage.
“A big part of my development has been Coach Corey White and Coach Shawn Miller,” Gray said. “They have always been the ones to push me to do better on and off the court, so they have been a huge factor in where I am today.”
For Gray, the recruiting process involved him actively getting his name out to college coaches.
“The recruiting process was a lot more than I expected,” he said. “It took a lot of emails and long nights of just looking for the right schools to email, and where I felt I would fit in best.
For more than a year, Gray was reaching out to coaches.
“I had been putting in recruitment forms and sending out emails to coaches since my junior season had ended,” he said. “I hadn’t heard anything back from any of them so when Arizona Christian University contacted me, I was super-excited.
“It was definitely starting to weigh on me emotionally.”
He didn’t hear from Arizona Christian until the last nine weeks of the school year. Gray knew time wasn’t on his side when it came decision time.
“I knew I had to make a decision fast,” he said. “After talking with the coaches and my parents, we all decided ACU was the right fit for me.
“Once I got that first offer, it just felt like a huge weight off my shoulders.”
He had no inclination that he was about to hear from Arizona Christian.
“The offer just came one day,” Gray said. “I remember it was a few days before my 18th birthday in the middle of April.
“I had been emailing coaches like crazy at this point and was just waiting for a response.
“I had been sitting in my room when they emailed me back saying they had a spot open. I remember running downstairs screaming ‘I got an offer,’ and the rest is history.”
The first step was getting the chance to play in college for the Firestorm.
White said that is only part of the battle.
“At the next level, he will need to make the adjustment again,” White said. “He has the ability to be able to compete, but he will have to set his mind to it.
“As long as he works hard and does not get into a negative mindset, I believe good things can happen for him.
“One of the things he will need to work on is his outside shot, but that showed much improvement this year.”
After hitting five three-pointers as a junior, Gray sunk 19 three-pointers (third on the team) as a senior.
Gray plans to be ready for his opportunity by the time he moves to Arizona.
“I see myself fitting in at ACU very well,” he said. “I plan on putting in a lot of work during the off-season to come back better than ever for my freshman year at ACU.
“The coaches haven’t said anything about what I need to work on, but I have a pretty good idea of what I need to get better for this upcoming season.
“My ball handling and passing will be the main focus for me this off-season. I expect to play the shooting guard position mostly and the point guard position some. That is where I feel most comfortable, and I think that is where they see me performing the best.”
Gray believes his best years in basketball are ahead of him.
“I feel like I will grow and develop nicely in college,” he said. “It is going to be a challenge and I will be working hard to get my minutes on the court.
“I think the fact that I am now in the position of having to fight for a spot will fuel me to work harder. I feel like once I get some more muscle and speed and actually prove myself, I will be a pretty solid guard for ACU.”
Gray had not made any college visits until hearing from the Firestorm.
“I had no offers anywhere else to play basketball, so I knew that I didn’t really have time to wait for another offer,” he said. “It was either ACU or nothing.”
Helping in his decision is that a cousin and an uncle live in Arizona.
“That was another factor of me deciding to go to school down there,” Gray said.
At Arizona Christian, located in north-central Phoenix, Gray is joining a program that was ranked first in the 2022-23 NAIA national preseason poll and lost 67-64 in the NAIA postseason quarterfinals.
Head coach Jeff Rutter has an 11-year record of 256-92 at the school, which has an enrollment of approximately 1,000 students.
Though Gray was one of the Hawks’ top baseball players this spring, striking out 59 batters in 34 2/3 innings, he has no regrets about deciding to focus on basketball.
“The appeal to basketball for me is the teamwork and bonding that is needed to have a team,” Gray said. “You spend most of your time with the guys during your season, so it’s important to have that bond and connection with your teammates.”
The trip, from his residence in Homer to ACU, is about 26 hours.
“It is going to be a pretty big adjustment,” Gray said. “I am ready and excited to take on the challenge and see what happens.
“I have family about an hour or so away from campus so that will help some, too.”
At ACU, Gray plans to major in Business Administration.
His future goals include more than working for a living.
“I hope 10 years down the line I will have a good paying job and I will hopefully be coaching kids and showing them that anything is possible if you put your mind to it,” he said.
From personal experience, he has one message to share.
“No matter what anyone says about you, you know what you’re capable of,” Gray added. “Keep pushing towards those dreams and one day they will come true.”
