The Many Shades of Gray

Joel Gray, known by many at FCHS as Coach Gray, has coached a variety of sports over the years, including football and baseball. Gray has been working and teaching at FCHS for 19 years, most recently as an Oceanography/Science teacher.

Gray studied Geology at The College of William and Mary. During his time as a student there, he made a lot of memories that he likes to implement into his teaching, as he believes in helping students learn by example.

“If you’ve had me for Earth Science, you know my ‘Earl Stories’… ‘Earl and the Chicken’ is my personal favorite,” he said. These stories are about his experiences in college, including about how his college teachers treated him and his social life while there. “If you haven’t had my Earth Science class… too bad,” Gray added.

He originally started teaching in 1989 at Hampton High School. In 1995 he then changed schools and went to Bluestone High School in Mecklenburg County for eight years. Gray also coached at Goochland County High School for 12 years. He is currently teaching and coaching baseball and football at FCHS.

Gray said he likes being a high school teacher because he gets a summer break which gives him about two and a half months off of school every year. In his time off he likes to be outside playing golf, relaxing, spending time on the lake, and trying, as he says, to keep his “girlfriend happy,” and play Call of Duty WarZone.

Although Gray has coached at many different schools over the last 34 years, one of his favorite memories is coming home to Fluvanna after winning the state championship game for baseball in 2019, and seeing 500 people at the entrance of the stadium cheering for the team. Other highlights he noted include winning the state championship game at Goochland in 2012; watching the Flucos beating Powhatan in football under Coach Mike Morris; watching former Fluco Kevin Ward throw a perfect varsity game as a freshman; watching former Fluco Andrew Ward strike out 21 players from Spotswood High School in 2019; and watching former Fluco Jacob Critzer hit a game-winning, walk-off homerun in the state semifinals in 2019.