- November 23, 2024
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FPC's boys track team is dedicating the rest of this season to the memory of fallen teammate Curtis Gray. Photo by Ray Boone
A silhouette of Curtis Gray jumping with angel wings and a halo. The shirt costs $20, and the profits will go to a scholarship in Gray's honor. Courtesy photo
FPC's Curtis Gray competing in the triple jump at the district meet on April 9. File photo
Carmen Gray didn’t know what to think when her 18-year-old son suddenly announced that he wanted to transfer to Flagler Palm Coast High School.
It seemed odd, out of place. Curtis Gray, who was midway through his senior year, had been at rival Matanzas High School for 3 1/2 years, where he played football and ran track for the Pirates.
But she decided to trust her son. She knew he didn’t come to this conclusion easily.
Curtis wanted to improve his grades and rededicate himself to running track, and after much personal reflection, he transferred to FPC before the start of the 2019 spring semester in January in what was ultimately “the best decision for him,” his mother said.
* * *
Curtis was already familiar with some of the Bulldogs’ track team members. He and sprinter Jacob Miley, who transferred from Matanzas before the start of the fall semester this school year, had been friends since seventh grade.
They had the same friend group. They played pickup football and basketball together. They hung out at each other’s houses and spent summers together. And they grew closer when the two enrolled at Matanzas their freshman year.
But still, Curtis was the new kid. Most of the team barely knew him, only catching glimpses of his wide, bright smile and smooth dance moves over Snapchat or at previous football games or track meets.
Shawn Gordon, a distance runner and one of the Bulldogs’ senior leaders, didn’t know what to expect of the 6-foot, 160-pound, lanky athlete who stood before him.
He was shocked by Curtis’ friendliness, his outgoing personality.
By the end of the practice, Curtis was friends with most everyone on the team — and his new head coach was just as impressed.
“He seemed eager to work hard and get better,” Bulldogs coach David Halliday said. “Whatever I asked him to do he did, and he was always pushing his teammates to do better.”
Curtis competed in the 200-meter and 400-meter dashes for the Bulldogs this season — until February.
Curtis got into a car crash. He wasn’t seriously injured, but it was enough to keep him from competing. Unable to work out, he fell behind and out of shape.
But the coaching staff found out that Curtis had triple jumped as a sophomore at Matanzas. It was a weak spot for an otherwise talented squad. Eager to help his team in any way he could, he decided to try it. Curtis worked tirelessly with Bulldogs jumps coach Alex Giorgianni over the coming weeks, rediscovering his technique and raw athletic ability.
And on March 9, Curtis leapt a season-best 42 feet and 5.25 inches to earn a silver medal at the Five Star Conference Championship.
“I wish I had 100 kids like him,” Giorgianni said. “He sparked something in me that I hadn’t had in a while. It’s inspiring to work with an athlete who had that kind of desire.”
Curtis, like his teammates, had his sights set on reaching the state track meet on May 3 and 4 at the University of North Florida. But after finishing fifth at the 4A District 1 meet April 9, he just missed out on qualifying for regionals.
Despite the sting of defeat, despite falling short of his goal, he showed up at the Bulldogs’ next practice, ready to encourage his teammates, to remind them of all their sacrifices and work, to remind them that although his season was over, theirs wasn’t.
“He’s the ultimate team guy,” Giorgianni said. “Whatever he had to do to help the team, he did it. You don’t really find a lot of kids like that.”
* * *
Carmen Gray couldn’t help but feel a twinge of excitement. She had just arrived in Columbia, South Carolina, on the morning of Friday, April 12, and couldn’t wait to see her family. She was visiting her mother and father, who had been having health problems.
Near the end of a long day, Carmen FaceTimed her son Curtis.
His pearly white smile burst in front of the camera.
“Hi Mom!” he said. “Hi Ma Carmen!” a boy shouted in the background. Curtis was at a friend’s house.
She looked at the time. It was 11:09 p.m.
“Curtis, it’s time for you to go home,” she said.
“OK, mom,” he replied.
At around 2 a.m. on Saturday, April 13, Carmen’s phone flashed and buzzed beside her. It was her daughter, Destiny Gray.
As a parent, she knew something was wrong. She could feel it in her bones. But she hoped for the best.
Curtis had gotten into an altercation with 17-year-old Marion Lee Gavins Jr. outside Coin Laundry at 4845 Belle Terre Parkway at 12:30 a.m. in Palm Coast.
Curtis had been shot.
Emergency medical technicians rushed Curtis, who was bleeding profusely from a wound in his abdomen, to Halifax Health in Daytona Beach.
At 3 a.m., Carmen received a call from the doctor.
He said those three dreaded words that no mother ever wants to hear: “I’m so sorry.”
Curtis died not long after undergoing emergency surgery at the hospital.
Carmen hopped into a car and drove nearly 100 miles to an airport in Charlotte, North Carolina. She was back home in Palm Coast later that Saturday morning.
“Your mind is going 1,000 miles a minute at that moment,” she said. “Just not being there. Just missing those last moments. I was helpless.”
* * *
Halliday remembers waking up at 5 a.m. that fateful Saturday. He can’t recall why he awoke. But he struggled to fall back asleep. He tossed and turned for the next couple of hours before finally dozing off.
But a call from assistant track coach Alex Giorgianni woke him again.
Giorgianni had seen posts on social media. He’d received text messages from concerned kids.
A phone call from Flagler Schools’ Dr. Earl Johnson 15 minutes later confirmed his worst fear: Curtis was dead.
“I couldn’t believe it,” Halliday said. “I didn’t want it to be true.”
Halliday originally had a practice planned for 8 o’clock that evening — a rare opportunity presented because there was a free weekend separating the district and regional meets.
“I was already proud of him when he was alive. I’m extremely proud of him now.”
Carmen Gray, Curtis' mother
He contemplated canceling it, but concluded that they needed to see each other face to face.
He gathered his team together at 7:30 p.m. Parents and school counselors also attended.
There were a lot of tears, a lot of hugs, a lot of reassuring “I love yous.” The athletes were given the option to go home, but they all stayed. Every single one of them.
And then, they practiced.
Under the lights at FPC High School, the Bulldogs ran for their fallen friend.
“They were on fire,” Halliday said.
In his 25 years of coaching, Halliday has never experienced the loss of one of his kids. It’s new territory for the Bulldogs’ longtime coach, and it’s one he’ll struggle to navigate as he leads his team with a heavy heart.
“I had always felt fortunate that I never had to help my team get through something like that,” he said. “That all changed on Saturday.”
* * *
The Bulldogs are memorializing this season in honor of Curtis.
The athletes who qualify for the state meet will wear a special jersey with Curtis’ initials on the back. The Florida High School Athletic Association recently approved it for competition.
The track program is also selling a T-shirt that has a silhouette of Curtis jumping with angel wings and a halo along with the hashtag #LongLiveCurt on the back. The shirt, designed by Emily Ung, costs $20, and the profits will go to the creation of the Curtis Gray Memorial Scholarship, which will be awarded to a senior on the track team at the program’s banquet after the season ends.
“The kids and I wanted to be able to do something,” Halliday said. “We thought this would be more long lasting.”
Now more than ever, the Bulldogs will be hunting for a state title.
“I can see the goal better,” Jacob Miley said. “Before, I was doing it for me. Now, I’m doing it for him, and I can’t let him down. This season has to be for him. He wouldn’t want us to be grieving. He’d want us to keep going.”
* * *
Carmen Gray feels like she’s in a bad movie. Like she’s waiting for the director to yell “Cut!” and for the scene to be over.
She should have been helping her son pick out colleges. Instead, she was looking for a place to bury him.
She’ll see him for the last time on Saturday, April 27. Curtis’ viewing will be from 10 a.m. to noon at Parkview Baptist Church in Palm Coast. A community memorial service will be held from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. on Sunday, April 28, at Central Park in Town Center.
“Nothing can prepare you for this at all,” Carmen said. “There’s no words in the human language that can describe the pain associated with the loss of a child. It’s something you feel with every fiber of your being. There’s an immense sadness knowing that I’m not going to see him again.”
* * *
The past few weeks have been the worst of Carmen Gray’s life.
The thought of never seeing her only son again — his laugh, his white smile, his singing gospel and old 1950s tunes throughout the house, his spontaneous dancing — is almost too much to bear.
But what has helped her through the pain has been the outpouring of love and support from the community.
She was amazed at the number of lives Curtis touched during his 18 years on earth.
“Every parent hopes that they’re doing a good job in raising their children,” she said. “But every now and again, a parent will be so blessed to have a child who leaves a legacy behind.
“I was already proud of him when he was alive. I’m extremely proud of him now.”
