High school football: Cooper "Lightning" Gray shows more than flashes of brilliance for Wadsworth

With Thunder momentarily halted, Lightning's show really lit up the sky. It hasn't stopped since, and the Wadsworth football team now has Thunder & Lightning, even when the weather is great. Five-foot-11, 170-pound running back Cooper "Lightning" Gray stepped in a year ago when 6-0, 220-pound Army recruit Gavin "Thunder" Madigan went down with an ankle injury and the Grizzlies still finished with an impressive 11-2 record. Both are now part of an extremely talented senior class that has been looking forward to this season since middle school. It continues tonight when Wadsworth (2-0) plays at Medina (1-1) in a non-league game. "I like the complement of Thunder & Lightning," Grizzlies coach Justin Todd said. "Gavin is 220 pounds and Cooper is 170, so it makes sense." The nickname was coined by Gray's father, Kirk, who played linebacker at Virginia Tech under head coach Frank Beamer. Kirk's brother Keith also played linebacker for the Hokies, as did their father Glenn, who spent a year at safety prior to concentrating on lacrosse. "The nickname is fairly fitting," Cooper Gray said. "Gavin as Thunder and me as Lightning kind of matches our run styles. "Gavin is a bigger running back, so he's more of a hit the hole and get tough yards guy. It's funny. Gavin, even when he's in open space, likes to take the contact. I'm more of a speed back. I hit the hole fast and get to open spaces. I try to make a move and get around people." Better still for the Grizzlies — and very scary for opponents — is the fact Madigan, who is projected as a running back or fullback by run-heavy Army, is nearly as fast as Gray, a sprinter for the Wadsworth track and field team who runs the 40-yard dash in 4.48 seconds. On top of that, Todd calls Gray, who bench presses 260 pounds and squats 465, "pound for pound one of the strongest players on the team," meaning he's not just a big-play back, but also capable of effectively running between the tackles. That was evident in 2024, when Gray averaged 7.9 yards per carry while rushing for 1,673 yards and 21 touchdowns. Adept at breaking a tackle, making a quick cut and bursting into the open field, he added 201 yards and three TDs receiving en route to honorable mention Division II All-Ohio honors and first-team All-Gazette and All-Northeast Inland District recognition. Also a standout safety, Madigan earned the same honors while rushing for 764 yards and finishing with 12 total TDs despite missing three full games and chunks of several others with his ankle injury, which occurred on his first carry of an eventual 37-36 overtime win over Nordonia on Oct. 4. Madigan unsuccessfully tried to return to that game, but Gray stepped up and rushed for 149 yards and two TDs. "He was excellent," Madigan said. "Even before I had to take a step back because of my ankle injury, he showed that he's a No. 1 back. He's one of the best running backs in Ohio. The numbers he put up were awesome. He was huge moving the chains and making big plays for our team." So far this season, Gray has 12 carries for 105 yards (8.8 average) and two TDs and three catches for 101 yards (33.7) and a score, while Madigan has 15 rushing attempts for 118 yards (7.9) and two scores. Those numbers would be greater, but both players sat for a decent portion of the first two games because the Grizzlies led by a wide margin. "We're all for the team," Gray said. "It's not, 'Gavin got this many carries and I got this many.' We compete as friends, but we're more like, 'Good job, good stuff.' We hype each other up and tell one another what we're seeing." On a team that also features a great quarterback in sophomore Brysen Hall, big-time recruits in wide receiver/safety Calix Lemp (Air Force) and linebacker Jacob Earnest (Pennsylvania) and a host of other talented players, that unselfishness makes Todd's job easy. "Both of those guys have been raised the right way," the coach said of Gray and Madigan, who have not yet played together on offense in 2025 but could as the season progresses. "They are much more concerned with how our team is doing than their individual stats. They're just great kids and great teammates. "(Gray) is extremely intelligent and goes about his business the right way. He grew up in a football family, so this is a kid who's been around the game his whole life. He understands it very well." In addition to Gray's dad, uncle and grandfather, older brothers J.R. and Brennan also played football at Wadsworth, while Aidan did not. Mom Brandy has been in charge of the chaos that sometimes comes with having four boys, but grades have never been an issue with her youngest son. Gray carries a 4.3 grade-point average and plans to major in biochemistry, with the ultimate goal of attending medical school and becoming a vascular surgeon. "He's super smart," Madigan said. Gray has been in steady contact with Ohio Wesleyan football coaches and also has heard from Penn and Yale. He would like to play in college, but not at the expense of his academic pursuits. "That's what's going to set up my life after football," the 18-year-old said. "I don't want to be behind other people in life because I didn't prioritize school over everything else." Though he wants to be a vascular surgeon and not a brain surgeon, Gray is certainly smart enough to know he needs his offensive line of Jordan Jones, Gabe Ludtke, Merit Fortner, Carter Raymond and Gavin Britton, as well as tight end Colton Leavitt. That's why he always makes sure to credit them when Thunder booms or Lightning strikes. "They're amazing," Gray said. "They're so much fun to run behind. It's not like their ego is huge, either. They're great guys, easy to talk to and very intelligent people." That team-first approach has the Grizzlies thinking big while also taking this season one game at a time. "We want to win each game, go 10-0 in the regular season, win the Suburban League (National Conference), advance as far as we can (in the playoffs) and," Gray said, "hopefully win the chip." Contact Rick Noland at (330) 721-4046 or rnoland@medina-gazette.com. Follow him @RickNoland on X.