Gray named new head football coach at Eastern Wayne

By Rudy Coggins
Published in Sports on April 4, 2015 11:35 PM

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rcoggins@newsargus.com

They walked into the cafeteria and separated into sections based on their year in school.

Junior KK Best, sitting front and center, fidgeted in his seat -- anxious to hear the news about the new direction for Eastern Wayne's football program. A few seconds later, Best grinned and sighed in relief when he saw a friendly face.

Principal Gene Byrd officially introduced Phil Gray as the Warriors' new head coach early Friday morning. Gray succeeds long-time friend Bubba Williams, who resigned in February to become head football coach at Corinth-Holders.

"(Gray's) appointment to the head coaching position is in part because of his demonstrated coaching ability throughout his career," Byrd said. "He will provide continuity and stability for the program. He is dedicated to stressing discipline, order in the program, good behavior and strong academic performance by the student-athletes."

Gray is the seventh head coach in EW's 46-year history. During his three seasons as Williams' assistant and defensive coordinator, the Warriors manufactured two 11-win campaigns that included a pair of eastern 3-A regional championship appearances.

The players sat at attention as Gray revealed his expectations for the program. He reminded them they are students first, athletes second - and that he and the coaching staff will constantly monitor their grades, attendance in class and conduct on and off the field.

He also expects to maintain the recent winning mentality despite losing a large senior class -- loaded with skill-position players -- to graduation.

"You pray (to keep it going)," said Gray, a 1994 alum of New Bern. "It's going to be a little different with the change, but we're not going to go out there and try to keep up with what we did the last two years. We're going to go out, take every game one game at a time, build off of it and hopefully the success will keep coming.

"It should be the same Eastern Wayne team that people have seen and enjoyed for the past two years. It's going to be a challenge for me to be able and go out, make them happy and see that a product that's been produced can blossom, also."

Gray doesn't plan to deviate from Williams' spread offense or defense due to the returning players' familiarity with those schemes. Best is expected to remain a dual threat, but other positions will depend on the personnel.

Spring workouts start soon for the Warriors. Gray hopes the work ethic and success from the two previous senior classes, who also excelled in track, left a positive influence on the returning players when they toil in the weight room and begin preseason practice next August.

Eastern Wayne has experienced just 12 winning campaigns, including three with Williams-- who guided the program to just its second regular-season conference championship in 2010.

But putting a winning program on the field isn't Gray's main goal.

Upon his arrival from New Bern, he instituted a "giving back to the community" mentality. The athletes help build houses for Habitat for Humanity, spend time at the Soup Kitchen and also work with other charitable organizations within Wayne County.

That impressed Byrd the most.

"If you don't give back to the community, you look up into the stands and there's nobody there," Gray said. "Once you start giving back to the community and want to be part of the community, the people want to come and watch you play ... see you grow.

"When you give back to the community, you have something vested and the community has something vested in you."

Gray has scheduled the Warriors to participate in a summer 7-on-7 passing league, and has scheduled a preseason scrimmage with Corinth-Holders. He said the Warriors replaced Red Springs with Jacksonville White Oak, and added West Carteret to their 2015 schedule.

The Warriors haven't played West Carteret since 2007 and have never faced White Oak on the gridiron.