Gabby Gray was one of the best high school volleyball players ever in Chattanooga as she earned All-State honors in her time at Baylor and was named Gatorade Player of the Year her sophomore year after leading the Lady Red Raiders to a state championship. Ironically, they won that state title on Gabby’s 16th birthday.
She set a single-season record for kills at Baylor with 705 and still has the career mark with 2,369 in her four years there.
After graduating from Baylor, she played one year at Western Carolina before finishing her college career at Tusculum, where she was a biology major.
Now fast-forward about eight years and Gray now has her first job as a high-school head coach after being introduced at Hixson shortly after noon on Wednesday.
Gray is currently the operations manager at Delta Athletics in Chattanooga where she teaches and coaches young volleyball players, but she’s fired up and ready to get things going with the Lady Wildcats.
“I’m really happy and proud to be Hixson’s next coach. I’ve never been a head coach before, but I’ve helped out at Baylor and Lakeview-Fort Oglethorpe in recent years. I feel like I bring a lot of excitement and enthusiasm and feel really good about the group of girls we have coming back,” she said later Wednesday afternoon.
“The first thing we’re going to do is get in the weight room. Learning how to train together and being one big family is one thing that’s always worked for me,” the 26-year-old Gray added.
Garrick Hall is Hixson’s athletic director. He’s like a kid at Christmas as he’s so excited about his most recent hire.
“We had five or six applicants for this job and had some good ones, but we all felt like Gabby was our best choice,” Hall said after the announcement had been made.
“Her excitement and enthusiasm about being a new head coach is contagious and we feel like it’s time to rebuild a once-outstanding program,” Hall added.
Sarah Lail was Gray’s coach at Baylor and actually was her coach from the time she was 11 until she graduated. The veteran Baylor coach was really happy to hear of Gabby’s hiring and had nothing but positive things to say about her time at Baylor.
“Good for her,” Lail said when informed of Hixson’s latest hire.
“Gabby was one of the best we’ve ever had at Baylor and still holds our kill record for a career and single season. She was almost impossible to stop and very few teams did, but she’s just a great human being and outstanding volleyball player. Those folks at Hixson are lucky to have her.
“Gabby was always so dedicated as a player where she always was finding ways to better herself. She was a great teammate and leader for us and I’m totally confident she’ll do well at Hixson,” Lail added.
Hixson graduates just four seniors from last year’s team and has some 20 who will be returning.
(Email John Hunt at nomarathonmoose@gmail.com)