Hebron Academy could have another alumnus to cheer for on autumn Sunday afternoons if Jose Gumbs’ dream continues to become reality.

Gumbs, a 2007 Hebron graduate, was signed by the New Orleans Saints as an undrafted free agent on Sunday, shortly after the completion the NFL draft.

The 24-year-old native of Queens, NY was a hard-hitting safety for Monmouth University, a Football Championship Subdivision school located in New Jersey which frequently plays the University of Maine.

Gumbs will be the first Hebron alum in an NFL training camp since Sean Morey, a 1995 Hebron graduate who was drafted by the Patriots in the seventh round of the 1999 draft. Morey played 10 years in the NFL for the Patriots, Eagles, Steelers and Cardinals as a special teams player and retired in 2010.

“It’s exciting to see a person who works hard be successful,” Hebron football coach John “Moose” Curtis said. “He’s had a dream and that dream has taken him right to New Orleans.”

Gumbs followed his older brother, Greg, to Hebron from Queens, New York via the “Run to Daylight program, which places inner-city youth into boarding and other private schools.

Greg also played at Hebron and was a linebacker at Bates 2006-08.

In three years at Hebron, Jose starred as a tailback and free safety, earning All-New England and All Evergreen League honors.

While athletically gifted, Gumbs was a “real student of the game,” according to Curtis.

“He’s a very determined athlete,” Curtis said. “He worked very hard to make himself as good an athlete as he could. I saw a lot of him in the weight room. I know a lot of the times I went to his dorm he was up in his room watching game film.”

He was being recruited by a number of Division I and I-AA schools, but when he injured his knee and missed more than half of his senior season, he didn’t get any scholarship offers.

He ended up at Monmouth on the recommendation of his Pop Warner coach, Geoff Bigley, who attended Hebron and helped place Gumbs there through “Run to Daylight.”

Gumbs walked on at Monmouth and ultimately earned a full scholarship with his dominating play at safety. He led the team in tackles all four years and was the Northeast Conference’s Defensive Player of the Year as a sophomore. He capped his career by being named Third Team All-American after finishing his senior year with 75 total tackles, two interceptions, nine passes defended, three blocked kicks and a conference-leading four fumbles forced.

The 5-foot-10, 210-pound Gumbs worked out for a number of NFL teams prior to the draft, including the Saints, Falcons, Jets and Chiefs, running a 4.44 40-yard dash. Teams expressed interest in drafting him, and the Chiefs even called him during Round 5 to say they planned to select him. But the phone didn’t ring again until after the draft was over.

“We all thought that he was going to get drafted and when he didn’t it was like Déjà Vu,” Bigley said in an email to the Sun Journal. “However, he had a number of teams offer him a FA contract after the draft and he chose the Saints.”

Bigley said NFL Films is following Gumbs for a show called “Hey Rookie, Welcome to the NFL,” which will air on NFL Network in the fall. The show chronicles the journey of several rookies from draft day to training camp and beyond.

Gumbs could not be reached for comment Monday.