Post by gp3 on Oct 30, 2020 15:04:04 GMT -6
PORTLAND – Gage Gleinig is a busy young man.
Yes, he’s the starting quarterback at Gregory-Portland, which has a nice ring to it. But he’s also ranked 26th in a 2021 class of 304, a member of the National Honor Society, Fellowship of Christian Athletes officer and trumpeter in the concert band. Junior class president for 2019-20, Gleinig also competes in UIL math meets.
This time next year, he’ll be in the Mays Business School at Texas A&M pursuing management studies.
“Ever since I was a little kid I’ve gone to A&M games,” Gleinig said. “I’ve never had another option for college. It’s always been a given that we’re going to go there. That’s always been the goal. Ever since I was in seventh grade, ‘Make good grades so you can get into A&M.’”
The “we” Gage referred to includes twin brother Gavin, who also plays varsity baseball for the Wildcats, is ranked among the Top 10 prospective graduates and plays baritone saxophone in the marching and concert bands.
They’ll room together in College Station, join the Corps of Cadets and march in the Fightin’ Texas Aggie Band.
“When we were younger, we’d fight,” Gage said. “But now, we never really disagree. I’m more outspoken and he’s quieter, but we’re both relatively common sense people. We get along. I know I can always rely on him and he knows he can always rely on me.”
Gage’s football teammates have learned the same thing. As a senior first-year starter who’s trying to garner all he can from the 2020 football experience for his teammates and himself, Gleinig understands the importance of working for dreams and building relationships. Though quite capable of toiling alone, he prefers the structure of a team environment.
“When baseball season was suspended, I thought, ‘I have six months until football season. I have weights in my garage. I’m going to hit those twice or three times a day. There’s nothing else to do,’” Gleinig recalled. “Once everything started warming up, I began meeting with the guys and throwing. I got so much better. I added 100 pounds to my squat, probably 25 to my bench and got a lot quicker, a lot faster.”
To Gleinig, sports’ greatest values come through commitment to a plan – a program that takes you where you want to go.
"I like the program. Show up every morning, lift, get after it, start your day off right. Come after school and lift, or come after school and practice. You come and you get the program and you get closer with all of your guys."
Gage Gleinig
“I like the program. Show up every morning, lift, get after it, start your day off right,” Gleinig stated. “Come after school and lift, or come after school and practice. You come and you get the program and you get closer with all of your guys.
“That’s why I want to go into the Corps. That’s the program, and it’s every day. You’re building and you’re getting better together. It’s the camaraderie and the teamwork. I love that.
“That’s really what drives me. More motivation than anything else is the camaraderie.”
That support will steel G-P as the Wildcats take on second-place Flour Bluff in a District 15-5A Division I contest Friday. Through four games, Gleinig has thrown for 509 yards and five touchdowns to go with 196 ground yards and two rushing scores.
Gregory-Portland's Gage Gleinig
Gregory-Portland QB Gage Gleinig
He didn’t have the benefit of an expressway to the high school quarterback job. One could argue he traveled over gravel roads. B-team quarterback in seventh and eighth grade, he played outside linebacker as a freshman before moving to the middle. A lineman during two years of youth football, his weight reached 190 in junior high; today he’s a much stronger and faster 163.
“My freshman year, I was playing more defense than quarterback and I got hurt in the first game of the season. My sophomore year, I was playing defense again and got hurt again,” Gleinig said. “I didn’t really play at all my freshman and sophomore years. Just last year, as a junior, I quit playing defense and focused on being the backup quarterback.”
Third on the 2019 depth chart behind then-senior starter Jeremy Barker and classmate Devon Mauch, the setbacks and waiting only fueled Gleinig.
“I feel it made me so much hungrier,” he said. “Right now, I’m loving it, because I haven’t gotten to play much. So, right now it’s maximizing it. That’s what drove me this off-season and through all the other stuff. I want to play. It’s my year to play.
“I have a lot of guys around me with a lot of experience. A lot of guys who know what they’re doing, a lot of good players. It calms me down. The first game I was nervous. I hadn’t started a football game in a while. But after that, I settled in and I feel good now.”
Strong work habits and investing in others have been modeled for Gage, Gavin and younger brothers Gunnar and Griffin by parents Jeff and Kristie. The A&M graduates were high school sweethearts at G-P, where Jeff played defensive back in the late 1980s.
The boys also treasure their grandparents, Manfred and Kay Gleinig and Larry and Donna Kalich.
“My family’s always been very encouraging. Gavin and I have been active since we were very little, either playing soccer or baseball or football. Just doing something, that’s always been big,” Gage said. “That’s really where I’ve met my best friends, and to this day, that’s where I find the most enjoyment, hanging out with them.”
And you can do that on gravel surfaces, the expressway, or any thoroughfare in between.
Great bio but we're only here for the gridiron stuff and if he would've saved GP football it would've been a great story.