WS Chronicle

Basketball has been a way of life for Monty Gray as far back as he can remember.  He has made a name for himself in the coaching realm over the last 20 years.  His new venture as the new girls’ head coach at Forsyth Country Day (FCD) is the next step along  his journey.

Along with being the new girls coach at FCD, he will maintain his position as assistant principal at Lexington Middle School.  He says he is excited about his new coaching job especially after taking a year off from the game when he stepped down as Glenn head coach last year. 

“I am very excited and I know it definitely will be a challenge for me but I’m looking forward to it,” he said.  “My job as assistant principal is the priority because that is a calling for me.  I still have the itch for coaching after all these years, so this is kind of a scratch for that itch.”

He says he does not foresee any complications with handling both positions.  For him he says staying committed and keeping things in perspective will allow him to excel at both jobs.

“The distance between the schools is a little concern but my commitment is to Lexington schools and in the afternoons I will be able to come over and be with the team and carry out duties as head coach there as well,” said Gray.

Gray said he started out at Mt. Tabor under the “School of Muse” with head coach Andy Muse.  He says Muse gave him the opportunity to make decisions whether good or bad and learn from them.

After leaving Mt. Tabor, he landed at Reynolds as the girls’ head coach.  At that time Reynolds was coming off of a winless season in 2006-07.  In a short amount of time he was able to turn the entire program around going 25-4 in his third year.

“It was an opportunity to go over there and show that I could coach,” said Gray.  “It was a challenging situation and the team had not done well before, and I like challenges.  I don’t like comfort zones; I prefer to be pushed.  I think if you get comfortable, then you get stagnant and then there is no progress.”

He says once he arrived at Glenn High School, he was up for a different challenge as he was coaching the boys team.  He credits Brad Craddock, principal of Glenn, for giving him the chance to coach and teach.  Craddock also helped prepare Gray for his career in administration while at Glenn.

Gray says he really enjoys coaching either boys or girls because they both present different challenges.  He says his experience coaching both sexes has helped him throughout his career.

“Boys have egos and girls have attitudes,” Gray said of the biggest differences between coaching boys and girls.  “Boys think they already know what to do and on the girls side, being married helped me coach girls.  You have to be sensitive and understand things can be emotional sometimes.”

For Gray, he says when you have a plan and you have been successful with it, you don’t change it when talking about his expectations at FCD.  He says he will adjust his plan to fit his players but the core values remain the same.  He said as long as they are committed to working, everything else will work itself out.

“You have to have attainable goals that are realistic that you can reach in any type of profession,” he said.  “I am not exactly sure what the makeup of the team is but what I do know is that I am coming through the door 100 percent committed. Good things happen when people work hard.”

Gray says he knows it will take a little time to build the program to where he wants it.  He says running the middle school teams along with the varsity squad will allow him to build his program from the bottom up.

“Being able to coach the middle school  team is the most intriguing part for me because I will be able to go in at the lower level and put that foundation down and have coaches in place that understand my philosophy,” he said.  “By the time those girls hit 10th, 11th and 12th grade, you will be able to see the benefits of my work.”

Gray says he wants to promote FCD all over Winston-Salem and change the stigma the school has.  He said it’s a great place for academics and athletics.  As a local home grown product of the city he says one of his goals is to change the perceived culture of the school as well.