Orange Panther of the Week: Gray Crabtree

This week’s Orange Panther of the Week is lacrosse midfielder Gray Crabtree. In his four years at Orange, Gray played on the best lacrosse teams in school history, a period when the Panthers became the top program in all of Orange County. The Panthers captured its fifth consecutive conference championship in May. Over his last three years at Orange, the Panthers went 64-12 overall and captured the 2024 3A/2A/1A Eastern Regional championship. This season, Crabtree scored 22 goals and registered 21 assists as the Panthers reached the state quarterfinals for the fifth straight year. Crabtree scored a hat trick against Northwood in Pittsboro. Crabtree had his first hat trick of the year against a powerful Millbrook team on March 19. In his junior season, Crabtree scored a career-high 40 goals. That included a hat trick against Carrboro in the state playoffs. He scored seven goals against Southern Alamance on May 3, 2024 and played in the state championship game against Lake Norman Charter at Durham County Stadium. In his career, Crabtree came away with 75 goals and 30 assists. Orange lost just one conference game during Crabtree’s career. Gray graduated in June and though his time with Orange is done, his lacrosse career continues. He will start at Division III Mars Hill in February.