He once starred in 'High School Musical.' Now he stars for the Red Sox

You might have seen an old video making waves on social media the last week or so.

The grainy footage shows a scene from a high school production of the movie "High School Musical," highlighting one of the more famous numbers from the 2006 hit film: Lead character Troy Bolton, played by Zac Efron, dribbling around a basketball singing "Get'cha Head in the Game."

Only Bolton wasn't played by just any high-schooler.

The post seemed to suggest that the teenager was Red Sox star pitcher Sonny Gray.

It couldn't really be, could it?

"Yeah, when I was in high school, I was in the drama class," Gray told me recently. "I did multiple musicals, but that was probably the one that gained the most traction."

For those who don't know the basic plot of "High School Musical," Troy Bolton is a star basketball player who breaks social norms and cliques by trying out for, and getting the lead role in, the school play. Gray says he was pretty much living that same character arc at Tennessee's Smyrna High School.

"I was in high school, playing high school football," he told me. "It was literally like real-life Troy Bolton, except instead of basketball, it was football."

Gray wasn't just playing football, he was a star: As quarterback, he led his team to back-to-back state titles his junior and senior years. And like in the movie, when Bolton had to juggle a championship game and the pressures of being there for his teammates with the pressures of being there for his fellow actors, Gray's senior year championship run -- in a small town obsessed with high school football -- nearly ran into his own showtimes.

"We were going through the playoffs around the same time we were prepping for the musical," Gray recalled. "We had drama class during school, and after school, I'd go to football practice. When football practice was over, we'd have drama rehearsal. We played in the state championship game on Saturday, we won, and then Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday of that following week, we had the four shows."

Gray seemed to enjoy the acting life during his early years, fondly remembering his late drama teacher Shannon Williams. He talks about performances almost like you'd think he'd talk about pitching.

"I'm thankful for it," Gray said. "I can't sing, and I didn't know anything about it, but it got me on stage and out of my comfort zone. It got me doing something I was very unfamiliar with and I actually really, really enjoyed it. It was beneficial to my life."

He even draws a comparison between what he did then to the sport he plays now.

"There's so much other stuff that goes into [plays]," Gray said. "Like a baseball game, there's so many people behind the scenes. Changing the set, doing the lights. You have everyone doing their individual parts to make it work."

Gray also told me he acted in "Grease" and "The Best Christmas Pageant Ever" at Smyrna High. These days, while going 16-4 with a 2.82 ERA for the currently, surprisingly, postseason-bound Red Sox, he doesn't have much time for acting. The Emerson Colonial Theater will have to wait. He still very much enjoys taking in shows, though.

"My family has season tickets to 'T-Pack' [Tennessee Performing Arts Center] in Nashville," Gray, who still has his home and farm in Tennessee, said. "When I was here in New York, I would do musicals a lot. My wife and I, one of our first dates was flying to New York to see 'Wicked.' I think those are cool. The live-action is better. Just a real person doing a real thing in real time."