NATCHEZ &045; As

headmaster at Adams Christian, John R. Gray had all sorts of tasks to perform and jobs to assign when the school term started in the fall.

Among them &045; find a girls’ basketball coach.

He had to find a boys’ coach, too, and he was looking for two people &045; maybe one, if the perfect candidate came along &045; with the season fast approaching. Gray found a boys’ coach in Kyle Smith, but the girls’ vacancy just wouldn’t go away.

So he decided he’d take the girls’ program himself and get it going before handing it over to someone else.

That’s when coaches, parents and fans realized they may have had the perfect candidate all along &045; Gray himself.

&uot;We just started winning, and the girls asked me to please stay on with them,&uot; Gray said. &uot;They didn’t want to change. I was enjoying it, and I made the decision I would finish up the year with them. I had no way of knowing they’d come together as well as they did. It got to be a real good relationship with the girls and myself.&uot;

The decision was one only the competition in District 3-AA regretted. The Lady Rebels came into the season with five new starters, a new coach, a new district and enough question marks to fill the school’s gym, but Gray helped mesh a team that surprised everyone by winning the regular season title and the district title and getting to state.

Gray’s efforts earned him the All-Metro Coach of the Year honor.

&uot;We had an extremely young team,&uot; shooting guard Katie Ann Swinny said. &uot;We all came out there, and we all knew basketball. We just came together. We had some rough times, but we got it together. After one game he told us, ‘I know we lost, but it makes me happy that y’all are this upset about it.’ He didn’t get down on us.&uot;

The Lady Rebels put together a 9-1 mark in district, won 25 games and had one of the better campaigns in school history in quite some time. The team had players capable of stepping into the starting positions and enough size to compete on their level, but it was mostly up to Gray of putting everyone in the right spots, convincing them they could play and meshing everything together.

Things started to click early, and it just picked up from there.

&uot;Every game we got better and better and better,&uot; said junior point guard Brittany Gamberi, who earned a spot on the All-Metro first team. &uot;Coach Gray with all his knowledge, experience and wisdom, we took it in.&uot;

For Gray, the decision to take the team turned out to be a good one for him and everyone involved as the team kept improving as the season went on. The veteran coach got his feet wet again in coaching last season when he coached the boys but ventured into the world of coaching girls after taking the boys’ program at Brookhaven Academy for so long.

The veteran coach figured it’s been 25 years since his last stint with girls’ basketball, and he had to make the adjustments.

&uot;I forgot how difficult it is as far as athleticism and how you go about disciplining for lack of playing up to your potential,&uot; Gray said. &uot;(Girls) don’t react the same way. Once I adjusted to that part, then I felt we got better. Once I found out how far I could push them, that got a lot better. There never was a doubt, and they never doubted me.

&uot;Coaching really helped me. It kept me motivated to look forward to getting out there with them. It made the job in my office easier. They had the year they wanted to have, and I enjoyed it. It was so unexpected. I had really good support from my parents. It was just a real good situation.&uot;

The team showed early it had plenty of size with Mattie Geoghegan, Genna Yelverton, Meghan Austin, Arianna DeLaSalle and even Swinny and a defensive specialist in Gamberi. But the Lady Rebels had to find their niche offensively, and they struggled early in the season in a 42-37 loss at Trinity that had no AC players in double figures.

But they began to pick it up each game, took a good Tensas Academy team into overtime on the road, avenged the loss to Trinity and turned it on in district. Then the Lady Rebels matched up against Gray’s son, Barry, and Brookhaven Academy and held their own.

&uot;We just didn’t have the ball handling, quickness and outside shooting to match up with them,&uot; Gray said. &uot;But 36 other teams couldn’t, either. If we would have had one more ball handler, we would have done much better. We want to get better on our passing game, our outside shooting and getting stronger. They’re really dedicated to the weight program.&uot;

The best part about the entire situation is all five starters return for next year, some for the next two seasons. Gray may have really shown the girls how you can reap the benefits of hard work in a program that didn’t have much history to go on, and now they’ve got that heading into next season.

But one thing the girls do want &045; Gray coaching, or someone named Gray.

&uot;We made him promise in the middle of the year that a Gray would be coaching us,&uot; Swinny said. &uot;Even if it would be one of his sons, he would be one of the assistant coaches. He’ll end up coaching us. I don’t think we’ll let him leave.&uot;

Said Gamberi: &uot;He better. We hope he’s the head coach. That’s what I want from him.&uot;