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JCHS alumnus and new Lady Greyhounds head basketball coach Takeo Gray addressed his team last Wednesday morning at JCHS. BRAD HARRISON/Staff
The messages have been pretty much non-stop for Takeo Gray. A 1998 JCHS graduate and former player and assistant coach for the Greyhounds, he was announced last Tuesday night as the Lady Greyhounds new head basketball coach.
The way that Greyhounds athletic director Chad Alligood recalls it, Gray applied for the girls head basketball coach position within seconds that the opening was recently posted.
“When you can hire a hometown guy like that, it’s definitely exciting,” Alligood said. “He checks all the boxes and is very excited to be here.”
But don’t take Alligood’s word for it. After all, Gray is home for Gray, who comes to JCHS after being on staff for Westside Macon’s girls and head coach Candice Roberson. That sense of home was built over time, first as a player for the Greyhounds and later as a boys basketball assistant coach under Dennis Woolfolk, now the principal at Jones County High School.
Woolfolk and Alligood were on hand Wednesday morning when Gray was introduced to the current Lady Greyhounds, a team coming off an Elite Eight berth under ChoRhonda Harris, who last month accepted the same role at Northside Warner Robins.
“I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else but here,” Gray said. “I played here, got my first coaching job here and coached under Coach Woolfolk. I’m just glad to be home.”
That draw of home, Gray says, is what makes taking the helm at JCHS exciting.
“I thought and prayed on it, and this is where I wanted to be,” Gray said. “Community support has always been good here.”
As for what fans can expect from Gray’s teams?
“Defense will be our backbone,” Gray said. “We may go through spells of not scoring, but defense will be our backbone.”
