Elizabeth Forward's new basketball coach comes with plan for success
(Photo: Gerald Grayson, seen here coaching McKeesport's girls basketball team in 1998, has been selected to coach Elizabeth Forward's boys team. Bob Donaldson/Post-Gazette.)
"Being repeatedly told how great he was even before he got to high school is what Gerald "Puddin" Grayson says made him so humble.
It's fair to say that none of the athletes he will tutor as the new coach of the Elizabeth Forward High School boys basketball team will come to him with the hype and expectations Grayson did as something of a youth football legend for the McKeesport Little Tigers a half century ago.
Grayson won't let any of the Warriors pull any me-me-me antics with him. If "Puddin'" could make it through his youth with his humility in tact, he isn't about to let those he coaches carry any.
"You're going to have a hard time playing for me if you're selfish," Grayson said. "If you're selfless, you can make mistakes but you'll get no trouble from me. We're going to have a selfless team. When you have a selfish team, that's when you have something to worry about."
Grayson, 64, was hired by Elizabeth Forward late last month. It is the first boys varsity head coaching job for Grayson, who coached the McKeesport girls team from 1985-98. Grayson and the Swin Cash-led 1998 Tigers won the WPIAL Class AAAA title."
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