Las Cruces mourns Coach Grays
it was an accident thanksgiving day morning that has the centennial high school football team … and all of las cruces gathered in prayer tonight. one of their own, assistant coach roger grays died yesterday, four days after the truck he was riding in went off a rain covered i- 25 in las cruces. so tonight… a town deeply divided by high school football rivalries stands as one. a social media message sums up why fans and players from all las cruces schools are putting aside their differences… … as the centennial hawks play for a state championship this weekend. it says: “in cruces, football is family.” and the proof is on facebook. the mayfield football page with thoughts & prayers from the trojan nation. on onate’s football page… the knights are spreading the word. and at las cruces high school.. prayers to coach grays’ family from the bulldawgs. and even here in el paso, the del valle football team’s facebook page is sharing the love and support for coach grays. the assistant coach at centennial also taught at desert hills elementary. we found this picture … saying the kids will miss him dearly. centennial’s head coach aaron ocampo posted this… “he had a contagious vibran spirit about him. his hearty laugh could be heard from across a room and would bring a smile to the face of anyone that heard it.” abc-7’s jamie warren is live at the field of dreams with our new mexico mobile newsroom. jamie? 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. 3:32:43 stan rounds “he’s one o those people that was able to to do well with younger kids as an elementary pe coach but then also do well with high school kids as a football coach and track coach” superintendent stan rounds tells me that special gift coach rogers had will be greatly missed. rounds describes grays as a mentor to many, especially those on centennial’s football team. 33:19:45 rounds 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 standup jamie warren here at centennial high school rounds says students and staff are in a grieving process with many counselors on hand sot :34:36:47 rounds our job as educators to help them learn how to deal with those grief things that occur and how to come to grips with a loss when we talked to centennials head coach earlier this week, he said despite tragedy, he knew grays would want everyone to keep going sot :17:01:09 aaron ocampo being a hawk is about striving through adversity and thats something that coach rog taught us every single day so we’ve got to push through right here at this time and coach rog wants it that way. the district and coach ocampo did not want any interviews with staff or students today. there are no memorials planned for grays just yet. right now the team is focused on winning him a championship. in lc, jw, abc-7 abc-seven got documents that shed new light on an
