LITTLE ROCK — Greg Childs stepped on the Warren Elementary School playground for the first time as a second-grader, and the new kid in town didn’t receive a warm welcome from the group led by Jarius Wright and Chris Gragg.
“I wanted to beat him up,” Wright said. “He was the new kid to the school, and I was kind of the popular kid. I got all my friends to chase Greg at recess.” Childs was already tall, and pretty fast. “The thing was, they couldn’t ever catch me,” he said. “We did used to bully him a little bit, but it was all in fun,” Gragg said. Childs, who lived in tiny Banks and attended school in Hermitage before transferring to Warren, said all the chasing might have been a positive thing in the long run.
“Jay [Jarius] always thinks he’s the reason that I’m fast, because of those days,” Childs said.
B onding commenced thereafter, and it only continued to grow through hugely successful years at Warren High, where they went 35-3 over their last three seasons. Now, 14 years later, Childs, Wright and Gragg are still fast friends and top playmakers for one of college football’s most potent offenses.
The Warren Trio, as folks in south Arkansas like to call them, will lead the No. 14 Razorbacks’ fast-break attack into today’s 6 p.m. game against New Mexico at War Memorial Stadium in Little Rock.
Wright and Gragg combined for three touchdown catches in the Hogs’ season opener, while Childs, a preseason All-SEC pick, caught two passes in his first action since major knee surgery last fall.
The three will begin heading their separate ways after the 2011 season, with Childs and Wright hoping an NFL future awaits and Gragg having another season with the Razorbacks.
“It’s still really the Warren Trio, and it will always be,” said Tenita Gragg, Chris Gragg’s mother. “If it was up to the parents, they’d all be drafted to the same NFL team and we’d keep this going.”
THE BEGINNING
Chris Gragg and Wright have known each other so long they don’t even know when they first met.
“We played every sport together, and we were in the same classes,” Gragg said. “We were like brothers.”
“Chris’s mom is like my mom,” Wright said. “My mom is like Chris’ mom. When we were young, me and Chris took summer vacations every year together.”
Disney World, Six Flags, Astroworld, it didn’t matter. The Graggs and the Wrights traveled together.
Tenita Gragg recalled a trip to Space Camp in Huntsville, Ala., around Chris’ eighth birthday.
“They have rockets and things they can ride,” she said. “Jarius was taller than Chris at that time. Chris couldn’t go on one ride because he wasn’t tall enough, so Jarius didn’t ride either.”
Wright developed into a quarterback, throwing passes to Gragg and then Childs, his leadership skills already on display. Wright moved to receiver, but his leadership never waned, as evidenced by his selection as a team captain for the 2011 Razorbacks.
Childs said the bonding between the three began during football games on the playground.
“Jay would play quarterback and they’d be like, ‘Throw it deep,’ and I was tall and lanky,” he said. “They’d be like, ‘Uh-oh, he’s about to maul somebody back there in the defensive backfield.’ From then, we were always cool.”
RAZORBACKS
The departure of Coach Houston Nutt and the ensuing coaching search complicated the desire of the three to play for the Razorbacks. A couple of other SEC schools and Texas Tech came at them hard before Bobby Petrino was hired as Arkansas’ coach in December of 2007.
Petrino headed to Warren with assistant Tim Horton as soon as he was hired.
“As we were pulling into town, Childs was going on a visit to Mississippi State, so I waved to him,” Petrino said. “That was all I got to see of him, but we passed each other on the road.”
All three stayed with their Arkansas commitments and quickly began building their reputations in Fayetteville under the stated goal of becoming the best receiving corps in the nation.
“They make sure each other is doing the right thing, and they always try to outcompete each other,” fellow Arkansas receiver Joe Adams said. “As long as they’re trying to outcompete each other, I think they’ll make it far.”
“I think that the commonality is they are all great friends,” quarterback Tyler Wilson said. “They have a good core to themselves. They’ve got the right character. The things that make great players — the want to win, all the different characteristics — they’ve got the good stuff.”
Childs ranks ninth in Arkansas history with 1,855 receiving yards and eighth with 15 touchdowns. Wright is fifth with 1,925 receiving yards and tied for ninth with 14 touchdowns.
Gragg, who switched to tight end as a freshman, sustained a season-ending broken leg in fall camp as a sophomore and is just hitting his stride as a key target. Three of his 13 career catches have been for touchdowns, and he entered the season averaging 21.8 yards per catch.
Arkansas offensive coordinator Garrick McGee praised the athletic ability of all three, then recalled the time Childs came in to address the offense before last year’s game at South Carolina, just a few days after he sustained a torn patella tendon against Vanderbilt.
“He talked about how the reason he came here was because Jarius and Chris were going to come to school here,” McGee said. “They were tight. They wanted to play together, and he was just really disappointed that he wasn’t going to get to play.”
CIVIC PRIDE
Warren, a town of 6,000 in the heart of Bradley County, loves Childs, Gragg and Wright.
“I watched them play here in high school, as we all did,” Warren Mayor Bryan Martin said. “I call them the real deal.”
The pride extends from the residents of Warren to the families of the three, who will be sitting in close proximity of each other tonight at War Memorial Stadium.
“They were all good as little bitty boys,” Jeanette Wright Hooper said. “Jarius was always fast, and they’re all really competitive. I’m really proud of all three of them, how good they’ve done and all they’ve accomplished in three-and-a-half years.
“The people in town, they feel these boys have put Warren on the map. That’s what I’ve heard them say. They’ve got something to brag about.”
Sports, Pages 21 on 09/10/2011