Adams Christian girls’ basketball coach John R. Gray won’t take any personal pleasure away from a Lady Rebels’ victory over Brookhaven Academy Saturday.

He’ll be happy for the girls on the team and their parents and immensely pleased the team beat the state’s No. 1 squad, but he will be more than a little upset.

&uot;There would be very little personal pleasure from my end to upset them,&uot; John said. &uot;The girls will be happy and I’ll be happy for them.&uot;

You see, John Gray hired the girls’ basketball coach at Brookhaven, but more than that, he raised him.

Brookhaven Academy is coached by Barry Gray, John’s son.

&uot;I had a dream the other night that we knocked them out of the state tournament,&uot; John said. &uot;That would be a bad family thing.&uot;

John’s trepidation at facing Brookhaven Academy goes even deeper. He coached and worked there for most of his adult life. The gym there is named after him, and both the boys’ and girls’ basketball coaches there were hired by him.

&uot;It’s going to be a unique situation, coming back to the gym named after him to face his son’s team,&uot; Barry said.

It’s so unusual it almost never happened. John retired from coaching after Barry’s senior year, instead moving into school administration at Brookhaven Academy and later at ACCS. He hadn’t coached since then until last year, when he filled in as the boy’s head coach when son Ricky Gray took a job at another school to be closer to his wife’s family.

Then this year, because new boys’ coach Kyle Smith had to spend most of his time with the Rebels, Gray offered to help out with the girls until a coach could be found. Apparently, the coach that needed to be found was Gray.

&uot;At no time was I planning on coaching,&uot; John said. &uot;I started with the girls and then after a while they said, ‘You can’t leave us. They made me promise a Gray would be coaching them next year, either me or one of my sons, so I guess I’ll have to do some serious recruiting or just coach them myself.

The whole family agrees that returning to coaching has been good for John.

&uot;He’s having a good time and he’s in the best physical health he’s been in for years,&uot; Barry said. &uot;He looks so much better now, everyone can see it. I know those girls are really appreciative of the time he’s spent with them.&uot;

John’s wife Marie said he looks younger and he loves what he’s doing.

&uot;He enjoys it, especially coaching the girls,&uot; Marie said. &uot;He’s coached girls before, but it had been a long time since he’d coached them. It’s different from coaching the boys.&uot;

For all the good it’s done John to get back into coaching, Saturday’s game likely won’t be fun for him or son Barry. But father and son might have it easy compared to one person who will be in the crowd: John’s wife and Barry’s mother Marie.

&uot;She used to walk out if the game was close when Barry was playing,&uot; John said. &uot;She would just leave the gym and go wait in the car. She couldn’t take it. I know she doesn’t want to see me lose and she doesn’t want to see him lose.&uot;

Marie said she finds it especially hard to watch her sons coach a game.

&uot;It’s harder for me to watch (our sons) coach than (to watch) John,&uot; Marie said. &uot;Their life depends on it, feeding their families depends on how they do. For John, it doesn’t really matter.&uot;

John said he’s just hoping his team can keep the game close enough Marie will have to think about leaving.

In the midst of the Gray family saga, there just might be one of the best matchups in the state.

Brookhaven is ranked No. 1 in Class AA and Adams Christian is No. 5 in this week’s Clarion-Ledger rankings.

The Lady Cougars (12-0, 26-1) are widely regarded as the best team in the state and the odds-on favorite to win the Overall Championship for the second consecutive year. The Lady Rebels (21-5, 9-1) are having their best season in years,

&uot;(John) told me before the season the goal was to get to 17 wins,&uot; Marie said.

The Lady Rebels have run right past that goal already and are starting to turn their sights to the postseason.

&uot;I think there’s an excellent chance we’ll play (the Lady Rebels) again (in the postseason),&uot; Barry said. &uot;The key for them is to make sure they win that district tournament, which won’t be easy. I think we can fight our way out of any bracket, but they need to take care of business.&uot;

In the meantime, Adams Christian has games remaining against Parklane tonight and then the Lady Cougars Saturday. As for facing Brookhaven, one of the Lady Rebels said Thursday she thinks the team is ready.

&uot;We’re not really nervous about playing them. We’re excited, but not nervous,&uot; AC’s Genna Yelverton said. &uot;We want to show we can stay with them. We just want to go out and scare them a little.&uot;

The game may be interesting from a strategy standpoint. Barry learned much of his offensive ideas from his father, he said.

&uot;He’s a really good mind on the offensive side of things, especially on ways to attack zone defenses,&uot; Barry said.

That knowledge may come back to haunt John. The Lady Rebels’ primary defense is a matchup zone and the team has used more pure zone defenses in its last few games.

John said he incorporates many of the things Barry does now on offense and some of the things he’s seen his other son Ricky do.

&uot;We’ve taken the system I ran back when I coached, added some things that Barry taught me he had picked up in clinics and such and added some of what Ricky does,&uot; John said. &uot;We incorporated those three coaches to make our system.&uot;

John also credits some of the defensive ideas he uses to Barry, particularly a 1-1-3 full-court press.

Whatever happens in the game, the Gray family should feel good about the whole experience.

After all, one of them has to win, right?