When the NFL draft gets underway Thursday evening in Nashville, Ali Gaye will have a big group of supporters back home rooting for him. And while they’re rooting for the player Gaye has become, they’re rooting even more for the person he’s always been.
The Edmonds-Woodway High School graduate is Snohomish County’s top hope in this year’s draft, which takes place Thursday through Saturday. And Gaye’s community in Edmonds and Lynnwood is ready to celebrate hearing his name being called.
“Ali is one of my all-time favorite human beings,” Edmonds School District athletic director Angie McGuire said. “He’s just a special person. As good as he is on the field, he’s even better off the field. I got to know him really well when he was in high school and he’s just an impressive person. He’s really humble, a super hard worker and a strong leader. He’s just a great person to be around.”
Gaye, a hulking and athletic defensive end who spent the past three seasons at LSU, is hoping to become what’s believed to be just the third player from Edmonds-Woodway or its predecessors to play in the NFL — and the first to make an impact. Woodway High School graduate Jeff Mickel, a tackle, was selected in the sixth round of the 1989 draft and played one game with the Los Angeles Rams in 1990. Edmonds-Woodway grad Keith Grennan, a defensive end, played one game for the San Diego Chargers in 2008 as an undrafted player.
“I would have never imagined this a few years ago,” Gaye said in an interview with The Draft Network. “Now it’s here and it’s getting closer and closer. I see that it’s very much possible now. It’s right in front of me.”
But long before this moment, Gaye was just a kid trying to find his way in a new country. A native of The Gambia, Gaye and his family moved to Lynnwood when he was 12 years old. At that point his athletic background was in soccer, and he never set foot on the football field until he was in eighth grade. He tried out all the sports, but football was the one he gravitated toward.
“He was a big guy who could move really well for his size,” Edmonds-Woodway football coach John Gradwohl said. “He also had a really good, positive spirit about him. He loved sports, he loved being on teams, he was just a positive guy with a great attitude.”
Gaye went on to become a three-time All-Wesco selection and sign with the University of Washington, though he never played for the Huskies. He subsequently embarked on a twisting college journey that included stops at two junior colleges before landing at LSU.
But it’s Gaye the person as opposed to Gaye the player that those in the community talk about most.
“I think you could talk to all of his friends and teachers and the people who got to know him, and they would all say that he’s genuinely a nice and giving person,” said Gradwohl, who continued to help guide Gaye during Gaye’s path through college. “It made it easy to want to support him. Not that we don’t support all our student athletes, but it’s just really easy with him because he’s such a great young man. I’ve been fortunate to maintain that relationship since his high school career. He went from being a student athlete, to being kind of a nephew, to now being more of a friend.”
McGuire remembers how when Gaye was a senior at Edmonds-Woodway he befriended McGuire’s son and even attended her son’s sixth-grade graduation.
“Ali went out of his way to attend,” McGuire recalled. “He walked in by himself, sat in the back and recorded my son’s speech on his phone. He didn’t need to do that — what senior in high school does that for a sixth grader? But that sums up who Ali is, he just really cares about people and makes them feel special.”
As for the NFL draft, Gaye’s evaluations are all over the map, with projections ranging from late in the third round to being an undrafted free agent signing. At a mobile 6-foot-6 and 263 pounds, he has the physical profile scouts salivate over. But his modest production during his final collegiate season is likely the reason for the volatility in his ranking.
However, those back home believe that Gaye the person is the reason why teams should take a chance on Gaye the player.
“In my conversations with him and other people, I don’t know how the draft is going to wash out,” Gradwohl said. “What I do know is that he’ll find a team. I’m confident that no matter what happens, when the draft is all said and done he will sign with somebody, and the team that gets him is going to be extremely happy. They will not be disappointed.”
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