Centennial Head Football Coach Steps Down

By Mike Blum

ROSWELL, GA -- North Fulton high school football has a third head coaching vacancy, as Centennial’s Lenny Gregory has resigned to take the head coaching job at Collins Hill High School.

Gregory is returning to Gwinnett County after a long stint as an assistant at Grayson, which won a state championship in 2011 with Gregory serving as the team’s defensive coordinator. He served two years as Centennial’s head coach, compiling a 13-8 record.

The Knights went 8-2 in the regular season in 2016 and tied Johns Creek for first in Region 7-AAAAAA before losing 20-16 to Northgate of Newnan in the first round of the state playoffs.

There are also coaching vacancies at Johns Creek and Northview high schools. Matt Kemper left Johns Creek after two seasons to take the head coaching job at Roswell after John Ford accepted the same position at Buford. Northview’s Chad Davenport stepped down after seven seasons there following a 2-8 record in 2016. The Titans had made their first two playoff appearances in school history the previous two seasons.

Gregory told the Gwinnett Daily Post that he had a "great time" during his two seasons at Centennial.

The Knights are coming off one of their best seasons in school history. They won eight games for just the fourth time, the first since Mike Cloy was head coach from 1997 to 2004 during the first eight seasons for the school’s program. The Knights went 27-7 between 2001 and 2003 including a 10-0 regular season in 2002, but Cloy was forced out after the team went 4-6 in 2004.

The Knights went through three head coaches over the next 10 years with just one winning season before going 8-3 in Gregory’s second season as head coach. Centennial graduates a relatively small senior class, with most of the team’s front line players returning for the 2017 season. Among the key losses are quarterback Casen Conway, the region’s Player of the Year, and linebacker Jacob Gregory, the coach’s son and the team’s top defensive player.

The Knights return all-region players Malcolm Gallagher (DB), Blaine Mason (WR), Cal Dickie (RB) and Nick Croawell (DE), and will also welcome a highly touted quarterback to the program as a freshman next season.

Gregory will take over a Collins Hill program that has won at least 10 games four times since 2001, including a state semifinal appearance in 2010. The Eagles reached the quarterfinals in 2015 after going 5-5 in the regular season but dropped to 2-8 in 2016. Kevin Reach, the head coach for Collins Hills’ semifinal and quarterfinal appearances, left after this past season to take the head coaching job at Monroe Area.

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