A joyful Josiah Gray jumps into the spotlight for Rancho Cucamonga After spending more than two hours driving to Ontario last month to investigate whether Rancho Cucamonga might be able to challenge Vista Murrieta and Corona Centennial in the Inland Division football playoffs, I was rewarded by an unexpected discovery. There was a 6-foot-4, 260-pound junior offensive guard playing for Rancho Cucamonga whom I had never heard about. On pass plays and run plays, he was aggressively challenging Alta Loma players, pushing and driving forward and protecting and clearing out areas for teammates. He was displaying agility and technique, then coming to the sideline, removing his helmet and smiling as if he was truly having fun. There was something mysterious about him. How could someone so big and agile not have been mentioned by any of the recruiting experts? As it turns out, Josiah Gray has quite a story to tell. His father is Germaine Gray, one of the best defensive linemen produced by Rialto Eisenhower in the 1990s. Germaine played at USC. The son showed up as a freshman at Rancho Cucamonga with no tackle football experience. He hardly played that first year. He was second string last season as a sophomore on junior varsity. He was 5-11, 255 pounds. "My technique was real bad," he said. In the last year, he grew five inches while filling into his body. He didn't play much in his first two games this season, then was inserted into the starting lineup against La Puente Bishop Amat in Week 3. He hasn't come out since. Every game and every week, he gets better for the 9-1 Cougars, who begin the playoffs Friday night against Redlands East Valley. "It's going to be real exciting," Gray said of his first postseason of high school football experience. Have a lot of humility, practice hard and play hard. What I take away from these games is there's room for improvement. Coach Nick Baiz has a team filled with promising players similar to Gray. Against Alta Loma, his sophomore quarterback, Angel Matute, was handing the ball off to sophomore running back Aaron Manning. "Our whole team is like that," Baiz said. We have a bunch of young guys. Even the ballboy is young. It's Jacob Baiz, the coach's 11-year-old son. To see the proud father throwing the football in pregame warmups to his son is a reminder of how everything needs to be put into perspective. "I realize how blessed I am," Baiz said. It's win-or-go-home time. Weeks, if not months, of preparation and hard work are about to be called upon in the single-elimination playoffs. And one of those players who's going to be heard from is Josiah Gray, a 16-year-old who's about to lose his anonymity but hopefully will never lose his smile, because it's the sign of a teenager having fun and going places. Twitter: @LATSondheimer