VRHS_SportsProgram_2022.indd

WILDCATS

2022-2023

Steven Anthony Gray, A-Gray, has been by Head Coach Tim Bar ron’s side for all his life; the two were childhood friends and neighbors growing up. Both as players at Pebblebrook High School and college roommates at West Georgia, the two were inseparable. A Gray has spent the last 20 plus years coaching on and off with Coach Barron, from their first days at Alexander High School in the late 90’s to their transition to Heard County in 2002. The duo has been through everything together: coaching, kids, deaths, and friendship, but football was what remained the same. As Coach Gray’s kids began to grow older and to play sports and attend school, he stepped away from the game to spend more time with his family. He has been married to his wife Dawn Gray for 28 years. They have four children, Kayla, Jake, Ava, and Will, and they finish the starting line up with 5 dogs. As the kids started to grow up and time moved on, a surprise hit the coaching community in Georgia. Barron left Heard and Villa Rica had a new head coach and a new assistant…after more than ten years away from the sidelines, A Gray would now join forces with two generations of Barrons. In his first year at VR, he helped lead the way to the team’s first playoff win in years. After such a successful year, he was

looking forward to the next step for the program, when a routine doctor’s appointment became not so routine. After months of dealing with low back and leg pain, Anthony was diagnosed with a cancerous sarcoma in his left leg. He would undergo countless doctors’ visits and treatments, 4 week-long chemo treatments alone at the hospital, and 5 weeks of radiation treatments to his leg. With surgery scheduled in mid-September to remove the tumor and additional chemotherapy treatments to follow, he has one goal and focus in mind, to get healthy and back to the field at VR with the coaches, players, friends, and family he loves so much. During this tough time, the prayers, phone calls, and visits from friends, teachers, and coaches who are all directly linked to this school have been so greatly appreciated by the Gray family. VR is not about just winning football games; it truly is a community. On behalf of the football players, cheerleaders, band, coaches, administration, and touchdown club, we would like to dedicate this program and this season to Coach Anthony Gray. We love you and look forward to seeing you back on the sidelines. We are VR! ANTHONY GRAY