Jenna Gray of St. James Academy is The Star’s Female Scholar-Athlete of the Year

When Jenna Gray was 5, she punched someone for the first and only time.

A teammate on Gray’s youth soccer team had been regularly stealing the ball from her. Gray’s mom told her to poke her elbow out a little, stand up for herself. But Gray, who goes at everything in life with an all-or-nothing attitude, misinterpreted the advice and launched a full jab instead.

Talk to anyone who knows 18-year-old Jenna Gray — The Star’s Female Scholar-Athlete of the Year — and it’s clear her competitive drive never left. But she’s also more likely to fly to the moon than throw a right hook at anyone these days.

Gray’s athletic intensity has brought success: three volleyball state titles with St. James Academy, two individual state titles in the javelin throw, and a spot at Stanford to play volleyball. Her competitiveness, in sports and school, is mixed with kindness, a goofy sense of humor and even, sometimes, a humanizing burst of self-doubt.

She’s come a long way.

“As far as the whole package goes, she’s got it all,” said Nancy Dorsey, Gray’s volleyball coach and history teacher at St. James. “She’s beautiful and talented and smart, and everything a teenage girl looks at and says, ‘Oh my gosh, I hate you.’ But you can’t hate this girl.”

Sports have always shaped Gray’s life. Her older sister played volleyball at Virginia. Both parents were collegiate athletes. Gray grew up getting nailed by dodgeballs thrown by her cousin, Riley Pint, who was drafted for his 102-mph fastball by the Colorado Rockies on Thursday in the MLB Draft.

She got used to the bumps and bruises, and eventually specialized in volleyball. She’s coming off a senior season that included Kansas Gatorade Player of the Year and Prep-Volleyball National Co-Senior Player of the Year honors.

The intensity that makes Gray such a force on the court also makes her hard on herself. She didn’t play at her natural position (setter) this year, and was asked to hit instead. The transition was initially a struggle because it was so hard for Gray, the perfectionist, to believe she was perfect at it.

“I just have such high expectations, and sometimes it’s hard to meet them,” she said. “I was definitely capable of hitting, but I think I needed someone else to tell me that I was.”

Although Gray prides herself on how much work she puts into her pursuits, she’s also naturally gifted. She specialized in volleyball early in high school, but picked up the javelin her junior year to steer away from springtime boredom.

She now holds the Kansas Class 5A state record for a javelin throw at 162 feet.

“You see everyone doing these intricate routines, taking several steps,” Gray’s mom, Debbie, said. “And you see Jenna, about 3 feet from the line and just heaving it. You’re looking like, ‘What? How does she throw that far?’”

During hour-long rides home from late club volleyball practices, Gray hated wasting time. But in the darkened car, it was hard to see her homework. So her father bought her a camping headband with a lamp, which Gray happily strapped on before solving calculus equations at 60 mph.

Even with the homework strides, Gray started struggling with her hectic schedule. Despite her athletic success, she always put academics on a similar priority level.

“I remember one day in particular my junior year. I had several tests that week, and we had substate (volleyball) coming up,” Gray said. “I was so stressed out. My teacher called me in his office and asked me what was up. I just started bawling.”

That calculus teacher, Sam Rockford, saw one of his brightest students cracking under tremendous pressure.

But after that day? He saw a turnaround and a determination that helped Gray achieve a 98.66 grade-point average on a 100 scale, an acceptance to Stanford and, yes, an A in calculus.

“With students, especially at Jenna’s level, ultimately you’re defined on how you deal with setbacks,” Rockford said. “She’s so tough. I don’t think you get to her level of success without knowing how to deal with struggles.”

Even with anatomy tests and math equations regularly keeping her up until 3 a.m., Gray still found time to help others. She stood in line at 6 a.m. to sign up for a school mission trip to Alabama two years ago. She’s volunteered dozens of hours for the Special Olympics, an animal shelter and youth volleyball camps.

“I just don’t want to disappoint people,” Gray said of her desire to succeed in so many different avenues. “I want to make people proud.”

Despite the seriousness with which she dominates athletic or academic pursuits, Gray maintains a degree of silliness. As a joke, she’ll often wear T-shirts gleaned from truck stops — the kind dramatically plastered with bald eagles and American flags. She once waited 15 minutes under a giant pile of laundry, so she could jump out and scare her sister.

But even with her love for pranks and goofy T-shirts, Gray is laser-focused on the future — one that she hopes includes playing professional volleyball overseas after her Stanford career, then becoming a physician’s assistant.

They are goals she’ll pursue with the same competitive fire she always has, even in an unfamiliar setting.

“It’s definitely a worry that I’m going from being a big fish in a little pond to being a little fish in a big pond at Stanford,” Gray said. “But I have a lot of support, and I know the importance of that degree. To be able to thrive outside of sports one day, that’s the dream for me.”

This story was originally published June 11, 2016 at 9:37 PM with the headline "Jenna Gray of St. James Academy is The Star’s Female Scholar-Athlete of the Year."