Writing a New Script : Editor-Turned-Coach Leads North Hollywood to 2-0 Start in Bid to End Losing Tradition

Perhaps the most unlikely football coach in the Valley to have an undefeated team is North Hollywood High’s Gary Gray.

His college degree is in English and he has never taught a gym class. Football experience? He played one year of B ball at Reseda High as a junior, rarely getting his uniform dirty.

“I was the best bag holder they ever had,” Gray said. “And that’s the truth.”

For the next 20 years, his closest tie to football was the UCLA season tickets he still owns.

Only five years ago, he served as an editor for the Daily News, working long hours into the early morning. He rarely found time to enjoy his family. After 16 years in that business, he quit and “took a $20,000 pay cut to go into teaching.”

He’s 41 years old and began coaching two years ago.

So this is the man North Hollywood officials hired in May to rebuild their lackluster football program?

After the 1991 season, the team seemed to need a veteran and a prayer, not a novice. The Huskies were winless in 10 games. Worse still, they managed only one touchdown and were outscored, 348-11. The football team, 22 players at one point, was an embarrassment to the student body.

“(The players) really had to band together last year just to survive the taunts and jeering they got from the students,” Gray said. “I think they were somewhat embarrassed to mention that they played football.”

North Hollywood has not been to the playoffs since 1988. In the past three seasons, the Huskies have gone 7-22.

That was then, this is now.

As if by magic, the Huskies are 2-0 and 52 players will suit up tonight to face visiting Verdugo Hills in a nonleague game in front of rejuvenated--and burgeoning--fans. North Hollywood is averaging 18.5 points a game and its defensive starters have yet to be scored on.

Why the turnaround?

“Basically, it’s the coaching,” said Jimmie Crist, the quarterback who threw for the team’s only touchdown last year.

Seems logical. But, considering Gray’s background, hardly probable.

Gray, who still checks in at his high school playing weight of 135 pounds, never envisioned himself a football coach. He graduated from Cal State Northridge with a degree in English. Written words and literary works seem better suited for this bespectacled man with a graying beard.

But don’t stereotype Gray. He broke all the rules when he walked away from the newspaper business in 1988 and landed a job at Verdugo Hills High teaching English as a Second Language.

A year later, when he transferred to North Hollywood, he found himself coaching the B team with Jon Lewis, another newcomer to North Hollywood and the coaching profession. Gray and Lewis wanted to “help out” Fred Grimes, who coached from 1986-90 and was having trouble finding assistants. With no other options, Grimes gave them the B program. In two years, Gray and Lewis turned a 1-8 B team in 1990 into a 7-3 team last year.

“Bottom line,” Grimes said, “we needed bodies. I knew (Gray) was a good teacher, and his best (attribute) was that he works well with kids.

“I told him and Jon Lewis, ‘You don’t have to know a whole lot, just be a good listener.’ ”

Grimes, now an assistant at Chaminade, proved a good instructor for the two aspiring coaches.

“I was around Fred, picking his brain as much as possible,” Gray said. “He was my mentor for the first year. Pretty much everything that Jon and I have done with the players is what he taught us.”

When Coach James Lippitt was fired in March, Gray thought he would throw his name into the hat--never really expecting to get the job.

Gray long has been a student of the game and characterizes himself as a “football nut from the very beginning.”

“I kind of liken our team now to the UCLA Bruins of the 1960s and ‘70s--three yards and a cloud of dust,” Gray said. “Sort of a gutty little team. Nothing fancy. Not explosive. Just grinding it out.”

After two games, the Huskies’ leading rusher is Crist, with 64 yards in 11 carries. North Hollywood has gained only 328 yards (170 rushing), but the defense--which currently ranks as the best among those from area City Section teams--has given up an average of 107.

The Huskies recorded three safeties in their 20-6 opening victory over Narbonne. One week later, North Hollywood shackled El Camino Real, 17-0. A year ago, the Conquistadores--like so many others last season--blitzed North Hollywood, 31-0.

“We realized right off that we would have to come up with a really strong defense to stop what was happening last year,” Gray said.

Gray is quick to credit defensive coaches Vince Digiacomo and Andre Lyons--who coached with Lippett last year--for the success of the defense.

“The emphasis from the early part--from spring ball on--was defense,” Gray said. “We sat down with Vince and Andre and came up with a 52 defense with variations.

“We decided from day one that we were going to have to be aggressive. We were going to have to do a lot of blitzing and dogging and keep the pressure on. And we’ve stuck to that and the kids are quite proud of it.”

For 14 returning players from last year’s hapless team, pride is a new feeling.

But then so is having seven coaches instead of four. And having only two players--Tai Takapu and Martin Castellanos--instead of nine playing both offense and defense. And having an organized practice instead of one riddled with chaos.

When school officials went looking for a football coach in the spring, they were looking for a responsible, organized individual--someone players would respect and follow. A leader.

The instant results they got were totally unexpected.

“To tell you the truth,” Gray said. “I think they are just as surprised as everyone else that we’ve won two games.”