As the home field lights shut off for the final time in Lisa Gray’s seven-year tenure as Chattanooga Christian School’s softball coach, she savored the moment Thursday night after the Lady Chargers swept a doubleheader with Lipscomb Academy to secure a spot in next week’s Division II-AA quarterfinals.
In July 2015, Gray restarted the CCS softball program, which had been shut down for two seasons. During her time as coach, the Lady Chargers have won 112 games, and in 2019 they advanced to the final round of the state tournament for the first time in program history. Now she hopes her final season ends with a fourth consecutive trip to Murfreesboro for the TSSAA Spring Fling, a goal that CCS will try to check off when it visits Brentwood Academy for a best-of-three series that starts next Thursday.
Gray recently let her team know that she would resign at the end of this season so she can spend more time with her 8-year-old daughter while her husband takes over as athletic director at Gordon Lee High School in northwest Georgia.
“The hardest moment for me was walking off the field Thursday night,” Gray said. “My daughter and husband and me were the last three at the field as we turned off the lights at 10 o’clock. We just kind of sat there. There were some tears because we knew that was our last game at CCS.
“It’s a bittersweet feeling. I want this to keep going because I don’t want it to end. But at the same time I know the girls will be great. I think they are prepared for the future. I feel like we are leaving the program better than we started it. I think that’s all you can ask for sometimes.”