Byron Gray, Head Coach
Byron Gray enters his fourth season at Riverdale Ridge after being named head coach in March 2018. He is a driven leader of teenage men and women with over 20 years of experience coaching and managing basketball programs. His strong emphasis on skills development, fundamental play, and teamwork lead his teams to strong showings in competitive play. Coach Gray's passion for teaching and mentoring young people is evident in everything he strives to accomplish.
After barely missing the state playoffs in a covid-shortened season last year, Coach Gray will lead a seasoned group of Ravens that lost one senior to graduation into 4A Long’s Peak League play. He previously spent 2 years as the boys basketball head coach at 3A Stargate School in Thornton, Colorado and 14 years as a boys varsity assistant/JV coach at 5A Legacy High School in Broomfield, Colorado. He also spent 2 years coaching the 14U and 12U boys club teams for BC Denver. He enters the 2021-2022 school year with 54 career wins as a varsity head coach in 5 seasons.
He is a native of Monroe, Louisiana where he graduated from Ouachita Parish High School while taking part in the basketball and football programs. He was a football walk-on at Grambling State University under the legendary coach Eddie G. Robinson. Coach Gray has been fortunate to be around coaching mentors who taught him powerful lessons on becoming an effective coach in Herschel West (member of the 1961 NAIA Champion Grambling College basketball team, head coach at Ouachita High), Larry Wright (member of the 1978 World Champion Washington Bullets, assistant coach at Ouachita High), Mike Vallery (head coach of State Championship football teams in Louisiana and Texas, head coach at Ouachita High), Lonnie Porter (winningest college basketball coach in Colorado history, head coach at Regis University), and the aforementioned Eddie Robinson (College Football Hall of Fame coach).
Coach Gray is a member of the National Association of Basketball Coaches, a Gold Licensed Coach with USA Basketball, and a member of the Colorado High School Coaches Association.
For more info and to get added to RRHS Boys Basketball contact list email Coach Gray at rrravensbbasketball@gmail.com