Comment on Bucksport two-way lineman earns rare LTC Player of the Year award

Top individual awards in football usually are reserved for quarterbacks and running backs, but not in the Little Ten Conference and not this year. David Gross, a senior two-way lineman from conference champion Bucksport High School, swept three of the top awards Sunday at the annual LTC postseason banquet held at Jeff’s Catering in Brewer. Gross was chosen as the winner of the Art Greenlaw Player of the Year Award, the Bob Carmichael Defensive Lineman of the Year Award and the George “Toogie” McKay Offensive Lineman of the Year Award as well as being selected to the All-LTC first team on both offense and defense. Gross previously won the Carmichael Award in 2017 and the McKay Award last fall for his work in the trenches for coach Joel Sankey’s Golden Bucks. This fall he was the undisputed leader of a dominating front on both sides of the line of scrimmage that propelled Bucksport to a 9-1 record and its first LTC championship since 2013. On offense the Golden Bucks averaged 39.5 points per game and produced a pair of 1,000-yard rushers in freshman Jaxon Gross, David’s brother, and sophomore Josh Miller. On defense Bucksport yielded only 27 points with four shutouts during its 7-0 regular season and finished the fall yielding 7.5 points per game. Gross was one of four Golden Bucks linemen to earn first-team All-LTC honors on offense along with guards Gavin Billings and Dawson Eaton and center Owen Gaudreau.