McCray wakes up Cougars, wins title

By DENNY DYROFF

What goes around comes around.
Four years ago, Downingtown East captured the girls’ team title in the Ches-Mont League and a girl named Gray from Coatesville was one of the top throwers in the state. The Daily Local News Girls Track and Field Coach of the Year award went to East coach John McCray while Tayvon Gray was selected as DLN’s Athlete of the Year.
This season, Downingtown East captured the girls’ team title in the Ches-Mont League and a girl named Gray from Coatesville was one of the top throwers in the state. As a result, McCray has been named the 2008 Girls Track and Field Coach of the Year and Gray – Kaleena Gray (Tayvon’s younger sister) – is sharing the Athlete of the Year honors with West Chester Rustin’s Nicole Powell.
In another similarity to the 2004 season, the top girls teams in the Ches-Mont were Downingtown East, Coatesville and West Chester Henderson. This year, East entered the season as the favorite but the Cougars were quickly offered a reality check when Henderson handed them a dual meet loss at the start of the season.
“I think the team got the wake-up call after the Henderson meet,” said McCray. “That was the turning point of the season.”
The Cougars won the remainder of their dual meets and finished in a three-way tie with Coatesville and Henderson for the regular-season top spot in the National Conference standings. East then took first place at the Ches-Mont League Championships to win the league title.
McCray completed his fifth year as the Cougars’ head coach with an impressive third league title. The Cougars also finished on top in 2004 and 2007.
“Coming into this season, I didn’t have any expectations because we had a young team,” said McCray. “We scored pretty well in the Ches-Mont meet because of our depth. We had a big team. We started the season with 86 girls and finished with 81.
“Another big reason we did so well was because of our coaching staff. George Read takes the middle distance runners and Pete Ramsey works with the distance runners. Matt McCarter takes care of the field events. I work with the sprinters and hurdlers with help from my two assistants – Dave Weidlich and Jim Rupert.”
McCray, a 1994 Downingtown grad who competed in all three jumping events for the Whippets, attended Kutztown University and began his coaching career as a volunteer at Kutztown High and Reading Central Catholic High.
In 2002 and 2003, he was the assistant boys coach at Downingtown High.
To contact staff writer Denny Dyroff, send an e-mail to ddyroff@dailylocal.com