Gnadenhutten senior Grady Kinsey was named 2025 Ohio Mr. Football by the Ohio Prep Sports Media Association. Kiney set an OHSAA report with 133 profession touchdowns, ranks second in whole factors (840), is third in profession dashing yards (8,607) and third in single-season touchdowns (50). (Photo Provided by OHSAA)
GNADENHUTTEN — With Athens’ Joe Burrow a uncommon exception, rural Ohio merely doesn’t produce Mr. Football winners.
Grady Kinsey has efficiently cracked that code in 2025.
Kinsey, a record-breaking working again from Gnadenhutten Indian Valley, in southern Tuscarawas County, is the newest recipient of the award after a vote from the Ohio Prep Sports Media Association.
He turned the primary East District nominee to win since Zanesville’s Ronald “Buster” Howe turned the inaugural Mr. Football winner in 1987.
Only Burrow, who received the Heisman Trophy at LSU and earlier than turning into the Bengals’ No. 1 choose within the 2020 NFL Draft, had received the award from the East or Southeast Districts since Howe.
“It’s just such an honor,” Kinsey stated. “If you go on and look at the people who have won this award before me, it’s like (Burrow), (NFL Hall of Famer) Charles Woodson (of Fremont Ross), Cade Stover (of Lexington). There are really some guys there.”
Joining uncommon firm
Kinsey was chosen over Shelby senior quarterback Braden DeVito, who was second within the voting, and defending Mr. Football winner Matt Ponatoski, of Cincinnati Archbishop Moeller. Kinsey and DeVito, whose Whippets reached the Division IV state finals, are Air Force signees. Ponatoski was nonetheless dedicated to Kentucky as of Dec. 4. Other nominees included Powell Olentangy Orange senior quarterback Levi Davis, Akron Archbishop Hoban junior linebacker Brayton Feister, Liberty Township Lakota East senior working again/defensive again Ryder Hooks, Cleveland Glenville senior linebacker Cincere Johnson and Pickerington Central senior quarterback Rocco Williams.
“A huge congrats to Grady,” DeVito advised the Mansfield News Journal. “We are going to Air Force together and if someone else were to win it, I’d want it to be him. We have a good relationship and he is an awesome guy who has a great mind for the game and a great mentality. I am excited to be future teammates with him and I am super happy for him.”
Kinsey discovered of successful the award by way of his coach, Matt Lancaster, and IV athletic director Zach Golec, who visited his dwelling simply exterior of Tuscarawas to tell him of the information. Kinsey was below the impression they have been visiting about his upcoming signing day.
They had far completely different intentions.
“I was still kind of bummed out because we lost (to Glenville),” Kinsey stated. “I just wasn’t in a good mood. And Mr. Golec was like, ‘Grady, I completely lied to you.’ And I’m like, ‘what?’ Then he said, ‘Grady, you are the 2025 Mr. Football winner.’ I was like, ‘no way.’ It was a huge surprise. It was pretty funny, actually.”
A humble celebrity
Kinsey, a famend team-first persona, stated the award displays the work that his coaches and teammates put into successful. In his case, it was a rigorous dedication to weightlifting and offseason pace coaching at Plus 2 University, in New Philadelphia, that he felt helped him take a much bigger step in his improvement.
“It’s one of those things where I wish I could split it up and give it to my whole team — the whole line, the coaches, everybody,” Kinsey stated. “Because it’s a kind of issues the place there are occasions the place individuals really feel prefer it’s not attainable to win (Mr. Football) out of a Division IV college, and Indian Valley at that. I imply, it’s not too terribly recognized for (statewide) soccer success earlier than.
“Sometimes you feel bad, because you feel like you’re taking the brunt of all the attention and congratulations,” Kinsey added. “But it’s a blessing for everybody. … We have a bunch of guys who, if they were somewhere else, would be featured running backs.”
It nearly echoed the message that his coach, Lancaster, emphasised. He admitted that he didn’t suppose it could be attainable for a participant from a rural college, in an Ohio pool with loads of big-city blue bloods, to win an award that often goes to gamers destined for Power 5 faculties.
“And that’s a testament to him and how good he is, and his consistency with what he has done over the years, and then the state championship last year for a small public school that he brought to T County,” Lancaster stated. “Then we get back to the Final Four this year. It’s just a testament to him. But the best thing about him, I’m telling you, is his humility. When you interview him, he’s going to say it’s not all about him.”
It’s that humility amidst the hoopla that has drawn him to teammates, coaches and a Braves neighborhood that reveres him. Kinsey, who grew up throwing hay on his household farm, can also be concerned in his church group, assists with Indian Valley youth sports activities and ranks third of 123 college students in his senior class. He has a 4.25 GPA and is a member of the National Honor Society.
Despite his fame, particularly on the native degree, he by no means let it get to his head. Considering the fashionable local weather of social media and extra publicity than ever, it’s no small feat.
“If you talk to anybody who has ever met him before — whether it be a teacher, a freshman student, or an elementary school student, one of his teammates or someone he goes to church with, or opposing coaches — people love him because he’s that guy,” Lancaster stated.
“He’s so humble and down to Earth and lives his life with service to others. And that is hard to believe from a kid that has accomplished so much. … He epitomizes what we want to see in our student athletes.”
Fast and ferocious
It’s in stark distinction to his ferocious, highly effective working model. At 5-8, 205 kilos with 4.4 pace within the 40-yard sprint, one Tuscarawas County media kind described him as “a rolling ball of razor blades.”
Consider this: He broke his personal college single-game dashing report with 324 dashing yards in 2024 in opposition to Garaway, then did it once more with 364 per week later at Ridgewood. Both received playoff video games that season.
In 2025, he ran for 334 yards in opposition to Uniontown Green and tormented the Pirates once more with a 388-yard effort through which he averaged 14.9 yards per carry. He added one other 300-yard exhibiting within the regional semifinals in opposition to Plain City Jonathan Alder.
But it was play at inside linebacker in his remaining marketing campaign, for a much-improved Braves protection, that turned heads within his personal locker room. He posted 120 tackles, together with three sacks, and broke up eight passes.
He prevented a number of lengthy runs in his group’s 34-0 win in opposition to 12-1 New Lexington within the regional finals that saved lengthy runs when the sport was nonetheless doubtful.
“That is where he made his biggest improvement from last year,” Lancaster stated. “Last year he didn’t read his keys very well, got distracted in defense. This year he dedicated himself to be a better linebacker because he knew that is what the team needed. We needed to improve defensively. We were in a lot of shootouts last year and he committed to make himself better.”
‘Once-in-a-generation’
He ranks first in Ohio High School Athletic Association historical past with 133 profession touchdowns, ranks second in whole factors (840), is third in profession dashing yards (8,607) and third in single-season touchdowns (50). His 3,278 dashing yards in 2024 rank ninth.
Kinsey stated the choice to work with Plus 2 within the offseason, with a direct deal with bettering his pace, was the distinction in turning into an elite runner. It got here at the price of a promising wrestling profession, which he ended after his sophomore 12 months, however the payoff made the selection worthwhile.
The reward was a state title, a Division I scholarship and the state’s most prestigious particular person award.
“It’s the speed,” Kinsey stated. “And I think that is kind of the consensus on football in general. The difference between a lot of D-II (college) guys and lot of D-I guys is just one can run. You can be the same guy, as far as making great cuts and being able to take on contact and just winning physical battles. If you can’t run, you just can’t run. In developing football players, your priority needs to be to get fast, quick.”
It’s that pace and self-discipline together with his coaching he hopes results in much more success at a regimented program like Air Force.
“It’s my next goal, my next venture,” Kinsey stated. “My goal is to be ready to go play on a college football field and eventually take carries and be a productive running back in Colorado Springs.”
One factor is for certain: His title received’t quickly be forgotten within the Tusky-Port-Gnaden hall anytime quickly.
“He’s a one-of-a-kind and a once-in-a-generation player,” Lancaster stated.