Senior offensive lineman Thomas O’Grady hasn’t had the typical college football experience. Currently on the starting roster and one of the team’s captains, O’Grady transferred to a community college after redshirting his freshman year, only to return to Emporia State the following year.
The summer of O’Grady’s freshman year, he moved to Emporia and lived with a few of the upperclassman players so he could participate in the team’s summer weights program. According to O’Grady, several of his teammates told him that there was a chance he wouldn’t be redshirted that fall, like incoming freshmen in ESU’s football program often are.
Despite his teammates’ thoughts, O’Grady was redshirted. As a redshirt player, O’Grady was part of the scout team that helped the rest of the team run plays during practice.
Encouraged by how well he was holding his own among his teammates despite being redshirted, O’Grady was inspired to transfer to a community college.
“I thought to myself ‘maybe I can go to a community college and make a Division 1 roster,’” said O’Grady.
The following season, for his sophomore year, O’Grady transferred to Butler Community College, which is a program that has had past successes in helping athletes improve and make Division 1 teams.
“It was both an eye-opening and humbling experience,” O’Grady said. “Guys from all over the country came to this small town in Kansas to try and earn their way onto this team with dreams of moving on to a bigger school.”
O’Grady stayed at Butler for a year, where he watched his teammates receive offers to larger programs and deliberate on where they would transfer. However, O’Grady knew exactly where he wanted to go.
“I missed my teammates, coaches and the culture that came along with ESU football,” O’Grady said.
He returned to ESU for the 2015 season, hoping to make a bigger impact than in the past. O’Grady began to get minutes, serving as the offensive line’s sixth man, and went into the 2016 season planning on making the starting roster.
His progress was sidelined for several weeks when he suffered an ankle injury, which momentarily stalled his starting roster hopes.
After facing setbacks his junior year due to his ankle injury, O’Grady was inspired to make the most of his senior year, and his final football season.
“I have always taken pride in being a hard working guy so I kind of went into the offseason with a ‘no regrets’ mentality,” O’Grady said.
His work during the offseason proved to be enough and O’Grady earned a spot on the starting roster for his senior year. He was also appointed one of the team captains.
Now, after citing it as one of his reasons for returning to ESU, O’Grady has his own impact on the football culture.
“Senior leadership is vital for a team to be successful,” said Anthony Koehling, the offensive line coach.
According to Koehling, younger players always look up to the upperclassmen and a football program’s culture is usually based on the actions of the senior class.
“He’s the type of guy who has always had the leadership characteristics that it takes to be successful,” Koehling said. “He has a positive attitude, great work ethic, loves his teammates and this program. Those are traits that make Thomas a great captain.”
