Chaparral receiver Hickey headed to Valparaiso
This is No. 8 in a month-long series of profiles of Arizona high school seniors that signed with four-year colleges. Here's the full list (currently totaling 244) of players from within the state moving on to the next level.
SPOTLIGHT: 2/16/22
Heading into his junior season in 2020, Chaparral wide receiver Grady Hickey was stiff arming an opponent after making a catch in the Firebirds' scrimmage. His shoulder popped out and he tore the labrum for the second time in two years. He came back in time for Chaparral's first game, which he was only able to do because the Firebirds had to shut down for the first three weeks due to COVID-19. In that game against Brophy, Hickey attempted to hurdle an opponent and came down awkwardly on his heel and tore the plantar fasciitis in his foot.
With the shortened season, Chaparral played just eight games, including playoffs, while winning the 6A Conference championship, Hickey was in a boot for too long to be able to play. At the end of the season, he also had surgery on the shoulder prompting a six-month recovery.
The upside, of course, is he was still a junior and had one more year to showcase his skills. And do that, he did.
"I wasn't going to let this affect my senior year," Hickey said in an e-mail interview. "Even in my sling during off-season workouts, all the way up until May, when I was able to start lifting again, I was there with the team every single day. Once I was able to start lifting again, I got a trainer that was able to help my body with staying healthy. I was bigger and faster than I had ever been and I was also so hungry for a breakout year."
Last season, the 5-10, 175-pound athlete was named the 6A Desert Valley Region Offensive Player of the Year, and was also a First Team All-6A Conference selection as he led the Firebirds in receptions (with a school-record 106) and yards (with a school-record 1,426). That yardage total was tops in the state.
He went out and attacked (in multiple phases) from the start of the year.
Due to factors of no junior film, the college transfer portal, and the extra year given to college players, recruiting went slower than you would expect for a 6A player with those numbers. Last Friday, Hickey made his college commitment to Valparaiso University in Indiana. He had visited the weekend prior.
"When I got on Valparaiso's campus, I felt like they wanted me on the team," Hickey said. "The coaches and the players were both so welcoming to my mom and me and it just felt like a great fit. They also talked about how they were going to use me in their offense and it was how I was used at Chaparral, so that really intrigued me."
After growing up in Arizona, Hickey is ready to experience somewhere else.
"I'm excited to be going to a new environment than Arizona," Hickey said. "While at Valpo, it was great to see a new scenery and it's something I think I am ready for."
In the last three years that Hickey was at Chaparral, the Firebirds have gone 23-10 with a trip to the Open and back-to-back 6A Conference championship appearances (record: 1-1). The pattern for success begins with the selection of the captains, of which Hickey was one.
"I feel the best thing our coaches do at Chap is finding a group of leaders who truly buy in to what being a Firebird is," Hickey said. "Our captains happened to be our hardest workers and guys the entire program would look up to and follow. That is why we have had such great success."
He was given the nickname 'Grady McCaffrey'. It's after the Carolina Panthers' running back Christian McCaffrey who makes plays with both his hands (receiving) and his legs (running). There were three games Hickey either won or closed out with long runs (Saguaro, Pinnacle, and Williams Field). Being handed the ball in the backfield is not something new to him.
"When I started playing tackle football in fifth grade, I played running back," Hickey said. "That led up all the way until my junior year and some of my senior year. I just have great natural instincts in the backfield due to my experience."
Saguaro may have eventually won the Open Division and the gold ball that comes with being the true state champion, but Hickey and his Firebird teammates know that they came away victorious the last time they faced their Scottsdale rivals on the field.
I was there at Chaparral in late September when the 'Birds rallied in the second half to defeat the 'Cats. Hickey had an 89-yard run in the fourth quarter to increase what was then a one-point lead.
"I am definitely going to miss those big home games like the Saguaro game," Hickey said. "A game where you look up and you see almost all of Scottsdale there. The Birdcage screaming, and just nothing beats the intensity you feel in that moment."
Valparaiso took significant steps forward in the calendar year of 2021. The Beacons play in the Pioneer Football League (FCS) and went 4-2 in an abbreviated spring schedule in March and April. Valpo followed that up with a full season in September and finished 4-7. That included a 4-4 record in conference play and a combined 8-6 league mark for the two seasons. The 2022 season will begin at home against Indiana Wesleyan on Sept. 3. Once again, the non-conference schedule will be challenging as that game is followed by road games at Illinois State and Dartmouth.
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