NORTH ROBINSON (Crawford County Now) — Almost 30 years ago, young Brett DeGray needed a way to continue his life in football.

His high school coach at Colonel Crawford, Mike Cauley, offered him that opportunity and DeGray turned it into a career.

As an assistant football coach for 27 years, DeGray has had both highs and lows. His longevity paid a huge dividend recently when DeGray was recognized as the Ohio High School Football Association Northwest District, Region 2 Assistant Football Coach of the Year.

“It’s a big honor,” DeGray said. “It’s nice to get recognized by your peers.”

DeGray has had accolades before, as a player at Colonel Crawford. He was a first team all-Ohio linebacker in 1992 and helped lead the Eagles to back-to-back North Central Conference championships. DeGray went on to play one year of college football at Ohio Northern.

After college, DeGray missed football and Cauley was aware of it.

“I started out with Coach Cauley,” DeGray said. “He knew I had a hole because football was done. He said, ‘Hey, I’ve got an opening. Why don’t you come on in and help us out?’ And then, it just turned into a passion.”

He stuck it out through Cauley’s tenure, then Jeff Dawson, Ryan Teglovic, and currently Jake Bruner, who was a freshman understudy when DeGray was a senior.

“Since 1999, Brett DeGray has coached Eagles football as a linebacker coach, freshman coach, jayvee coach, special teams coordinator, and since 2019 as defensive coordinator,” Bruner said.

It was love of football and loyalty to alma mater that sustained DeGray during his first decade of coaching.

“It was a little lean early on,” DeGray acknowledged. “My wife used to joke I’d coach a freshman game on Thursday and lose, coach a varsity game on Friday night, lose, and turn around and coach a jayvee game Saturday morning and lose.”

That joke wasn’t much of an exaggeration.

“Coach DeGray has been with the program through the ups and downs,” Bruner said. “From 1999 to 2012, the program saw only two winning seasons.”

But fortunately for DeGray, Colonel Crawford’s football fortunes have took a dramatic turn for the better.

“Since 2012, the program has had only two losing seasons,” Bruner said. “The last four seasons, the Eagles have won 81 percent of their games, including 13 wins in 2025 with a Final Four appearance.”

The icing on top of DeGray’s career has been the pleasure to coach his two sons. Payne, a senior, was the Division VI defensive Player of the Year and John, a junior, was an all-Ohio receiver who was also a defensive standout. Payne recently committed to play next year at St. Francis of Indiana.

Coach DeGray describes his future on the sideline as year-to-year.

“It’s been a fun run,” DeGray said. “I don’t know how much longer it’s going to go. We’ll see. I’m getting a little long in the tooth.”

As the Northwest District entry, DeGray is up for one additional award — OHSFCA state assistant coach of the year, to be named later in February.