Community mourns the loss of Centennial Football Coach Roger Grays

The Las Cruces community is remembering the life of Roger Grays. Grays was an assistant football coach at Centennial High School and a physical education teacher at Desert Hills Elementary School.

He died Monday after the truck he was riding in rolled off Interstate 25 on Thanksgiving morning.

Grays was affectionately known as Coach Rogers.This was his third year with the Las Cruces School District and in that short time, he touched many lives.

“He’s one of those people that was able to to do well with younger kids as an elementary P.E. coach but then also do well with high school kids as a football coach and track coach,” Superintendent Stan Rounds said.

Rounds tells ABC-7 that special gift Coach Rogers had will be greatly missed. Hedescribes Grays as a mentor to many, especially those on Centennial’s football team.

“A program that has been built from scratch and now on the verge I hope of winning a state championship. He was part of that,” Rounds said.

Rounds says students and staff are in a grieving process at Centennial High School and Desert Hills Elementary School. He says there are many counselors on hand.

“Our job as educators is to help them learn how to deal with those grief things that occur and how to come to grips with a loss,” Rounds said.

When ABC-7 spoke with Centennial’s head coach earlier this week, he said despite tragedy, he knew Grays would want everyone to keep going.

“Being a hawk is about striving through adversity and that’s something that Coach Rogers taught us every single day,” Aaron Ocampo said. “So we’ve got to push through right here at this time and Coach Rogers wants it that way.”

The district and Coach Ocampo did not want any interviews with staff or students on Tuesday.There are no memorials planned for Grays just yet.Right now, the team is focused on winning him a championship.