When it came time to trim the goats' hooves or to give them a bath, Vivian Gray would race to the front of the volunteer line on her family's 34-acre farm in Argyle, Texas.
Sure, it was important to make sure the goats looked their best for the upcoming livestock show. But little Vivian loved animals, and, to her, the chore wasn't really a chore at all.
"Wrestling goats was my main hobby when I was little," Gray said before recalling a story from when she was 8. "I almost got really hurt with a goat's horn. It got stuck on my shirt and was swinging me around. It was not a nice goat."
Gray's sister, Olivia, who is one year older, used a vacuum cleaner as a bat to get the goat to stop. The girls' father, Brandon Gray, said the goat was trying to break free but could not do so until Olivia intervened.
"He was head-butting Vivian, who was on the ground," Brandon said. "They are strong animals. It could have been a wreck."
Fortunately, Gray escaped with only a few scrapes on her back. No worse for the wear.
Gray, the No. 14 prospect in the espnW HoopGurlz Super 60 for the 2017 class, will lead Argyle to its third straight Texas state semifinal on Friday when the Eagles take on Liberty Hill at the Alamodome in San Antonio. The 6-foot-1 Gray has been Argyle's leading scorer the past three seasons. She averaged 20 points and nearly 9 rebounds a season ago and was named MVP when Argyle won the Class 4A title.
"She's the best player we've had since we came to Argyle," said Skip Townsend, who is in his fifth season coaching the Eagles, ranked 18th in the espnW 25 Power Rankings. "She has one of the top jump shots in the country, according to what college coaches have told me. She has beautiful form." Gray has used that jumper to average 22.1 points this season and is on pace to leave Argyle as its all-time leading scorer. Last Saturday, Gray had 36 points and 16 rebounds in a 66-50 win over Lincoln (Dallas) in a Class 4A regional final.
"Mainly, [opponents] try to put their whole team to try to guard Vivian, and she will still hit a turnaround jump shot," former teammate Madison Stapleton said. "I'm like, 'How did she do that?'
"Vivian gets beat up so bad in the post. They push her and shove her, but she stands her ground. For being so skinny, she is so strong. If you watch her dribble, she shifts herself into another gear. She dribbles through the entire team.
"I told her: 'I don't think you are human. I really don't.' "
Vivian's parents, Brandon and Lisa Gray, met at the University of North Texas, where they played defense for the Mean Green soccer teams. Brandon, who is 6-2 -- seven inches taller than his wife -- said Olivia and Vivian were in fifth and fourth grades, respectively, when they decided they wanted to try basketball. By middle school, nearly everyone at Argyle had heard about Vivian, but she was still a secret nationally.
That changed in December 2014, when her play flashed at the Naples Holiday Shootout in Florida. Gray was a sophomore at the time.
"Vivian had been kind of hidden because we live in a small town and the girls wanted to play with their school team year-round," Brandon Gray said. "As Vivian got taller, it added to her advantage.
"We knew what she was capable of long before others became aware. But last year, when we went to Naples, that's when it started exploding."
Now Vivian has scholarship offers from every Big 12 school. But she's keeping her options open for two big reasons.
Olivia, a 5-8 senior wing who averages 5.0 points for Argyle, has parlayed her defense-minded role on a state championship team into a Division II scholarship to Fort Lewis College in Durango, Colorado. Delaney Sain, a 6-0 forward who helped Argyle win the state crown last year, already is a freshman at Fort Lewis. Vivian said it was possible she could join them with the Skyhawks.
That would be an unusual decision given the other schools on her list are all high-major Division I programs -- Oklahoma State, Baylor, Rice, Texas and Oklahoma.
"In the back of her mind," Olivia said of her sister, "I think she really wants to come to Fort Lewis."
Vivian, who has a 4.0 GPA, has visited Texas, Oklahoma and Fort Lewis.
"I think it would be shocking to a lot of people if I made that decision [to go to Fort Lewis], which I haven't yet," said Gray, who is interested in studying business. "Delaney is one of my best friends, and I'm a family person. Those are the main reasons I would go to Fort Lewis."
The decision could get even more complicated after this summer, when she plans to join Texas Elite. The exposure that will bring could change everything.
In the meantime, Gray, 17, is busy being an exceptionally polite, yet goofy and clumsy, teenager.
She is so respectful that when someone curses on the court, Gray seems genuinely shocked. Gray's comical side includes a tendency to wear her sunglasses upside down. As for her clumsiness, there are too many examples to mention them all. Suffice it to say that there have been some noteworthy spills on the court and some stain-leaving spills at restaurants.
"When we go out to eat, Vivian has to spill something on herself," Stapleton said. "No matter what we eat or drink, it's going to end up on her clothes somehow."
Once the game starts, however, everything tends to smooth out. She plays the post in high school but probably will transition to small forward in college.
"She probably hasn't made even six 3-pointers in high school, even though she's a really good 3-point shooter," Townsend said. "She likes to mix it up inside, and her turnaround jumper from 10 feet is unstoppable.
"She was a bean-pole as a freshman, but she has come a long way since then. She will get more muscular as she matures.
"Last weekend, she took the ball coast to coast five times against good players. I think she will be a great [wing] in college."
