Gaines has “taken full advantage of his opportunities,” Elliott said. “And that’s what you would wish for every young man while they’re here, that they maximize every resource available, every opportunity, and not just focus solely on football.
“Football is important. It’s going to take the most time. But if they’re intentional, they can come away with an unbelievable experience. They can also have a great impact while they’re here. But more importantly, they’re preparing themselves for what’s next to make an even greater impact once they walk away from Grounds.”
Gaines said he feels like he’s “squeezed everything I could have out of UVA in terms of meeting people, the experiences, being part of clubs. I feel like I’ve done everything I could have done to maximize my opportunity here. And even this upcoming spring, my last semester here at UVA, I’m still gonna try to maximize and do even more. I’m extremely grateful for everything that I’ve been able to do here at UVA.”
His parents were Division I student-athletes at St. John’s University in New York—his mom in track & field, his father in football—and they instilled in Gaines a passion for learning. After his freshman year at Francis Lewis High, a public school in Queens, Gaines transferred to Episcopal High School in Alexandria.
He’d looked at several other boarding schools, but “Episcopal was ultimately the first and the only one I really went to in person and got to see and tour on my own,” Gaines recalled. “And when I set foot there, I was like, ‘Yeah, I gotta go here. I love this place.’ It was something totally different, me being a city kid. Me being from New York, all I know is the concrete jungle. And then going somewhere like Episcopal in Alexandria, Virginia, it was just a totally different community, just a different switch. So I was fortunate to go there, meet a bunch of different people, meet some of my best friends.”
He starred at safety and wide receiver for Episcopal and committed to UVA in December 2019. Gaines arrived on Grounds the next summer as part of a recruiting class that included wide receiver Lavel Davis Jr., and they immediately became inseparable.
“That was my guy,” Gaines said.
In January 2021, defensive end Chico Bennett Jr. transferred from Georgia Tech to UVA, and Davis and Gaines grew close with him. “We would always be together,” Gaines said, “just kicking it with each other. If you saw…