Interview on Gardner-Webb Running Back, Narii Gaither

Narii Gaither is an All-American candidate, led the Big South Conference in rushing yards for 2 years in a row and is my cousin. I got the chance to interview him and ask him some things about himself, his future in football and some of his experiences being a college football athlete. 

Narii is a senior at Gardner-Webb University and is their starting running back. Gardner-Webb is a private Christian school, and a part of the College Sports conference, Big South. He is a business management major. When he isn’t scoring touchdowns and averaging over 6 yards per carry, he has some cool hobbies to do including snowboarding, skating and golfing.

 I’m just going to be rewording his answers to my questions in this article, not really a biography on Narii, but more of a get to know his ideas and experiences in life/being a student-athlete. 

The hardest part about going from high school football to college football, he says, is film study. Because, in high school he studied film, but it wasn’t very difficult and he said when he got to college, it was a different story. “Every team has their own star player,” and that meant the film was more challenging depending on who he was playing on that Saturday. But he realized that what you do in the gym, on the field and at home will help you succeed; in his words, “what separates you is the work you do”. That has definitely helped him adapt to the college game, because he is one of, if not, the best running backs in the Big South. 

He gets attention from the media after games, and so I asked him how he deals with the attention after games? He says that he always approaches humbly and gives it all to God and his teammates because without God, it’s not possible. This humble approach also translates to his success on the field, because when you have the right mindset and are always in control, you can lead your team to victory. 

I asked him if there were any teams he wanted to draft him when he declares for the draft. He said he would like for the Dallas Cowboys to draft him, but would be fine with anyone else drafting him because he said he is gifted to have this opportunity of playing in the NFL one day.