Friendship between Briarwood QB, center ‘hard to find’

The photographs prove the friendship. 

One that exists is of the duo standing on the field at Bryant-Denny Stadium in Tuscaloosa, both of the boys’ heads barely reaching Alabama head football coach Nick Saban’s shoulders. They weren’t even teenagers.

Another shows the same two boys standing in gold pants and white jerseys, posing after a 21-17 win at Class 4A No. 5 Madison Academy Oct. 28. Their teenage years are almost over.

Briarwood Christian School senior quarterback William Gray and senior center Conner Hutson have known each other since first grade and have played football together since third grade when they were members of the Cahaba Valley Lions. Hutson has been Gray’s center for all 10 years since.

There are great memories, they said. There were the championship game appearances as fourth- and sixth-graders. There were the football camps in Tuscaloosa. There were the trips to college football games in West Virginia, since Hutson is a Mountaineer fan, and in Alabama.

“I would always tease him about how West Virginia would beat Alabama, even though I knew that wasn’t even remotely possible,” Hutson said. “The amount of time and everything we know about each other, I would say we are best friends. When you’re friends with someone for 10 years, you have some pretty great stories to tell about them.”

There were also some trying times. Hutson has had two knee surgeries. He tore his ACL his freshman year, missing the season. Last season, as a junior, he had surgery on his patellar tendon, which kept him out the majority of the year. 

“I just saw him a lot and encouraged him to keep rehabbing and keep with football,” Gray said. “I was just there for him.”

Hutson said Gray definitely helped during that process.

“William is the ultimate encourager, and he knows how to fire me and other people up,” Hutson said. “He definitely kicked my butt about getting back on the field.”

So much time together on and off the field helped Gray and Hutson become one of the best quarterback-center duos in the area. Rarely are they not on the same page when the football is snapped. 

“I know exactly how his snaps will be, and I trust our exchanges 100 percent,” Gray said. “It also just feels normal and comfortable with him up front because we’ve been doing it so long.”

Hutson said the quarterback-center connection never goes away.

“He gets used to the placement and speed of the ball, so it helps William to not have to worry about where the snap will be every play,” Hutson said.

Briarwood had one of its most successful seasons in recent memory, due in large part to Gray and Hutson. Now that the season and their football careers are over, focus shifts to life after high school. Gray will attend the University of Alabama. Hutson will be pre-med at Auburn University. Both said they will stay in touch through text messages and seeing each other in Birmingham.

“It’s important to me because of the special relationship and friendship I have with him,” Gray said.

Hutson agreed.

“It is very important that we stay in touch because a friendship like that is hard to find again,” he said.