North Crowley football’s Ray Gates named 2023 Fort Worth-area Coach of the Year

It’s high school football awards week at the Star-Telegram, and we’re starting things off by announcing our 2023 Fort Worth-area Coach of the Year: North Crowley’s Ray Gates.

North Crowley, with a record-setting offense that averaged 56 points, won 14 consecutive games prior to a loss to Duncanville in the Class 6A state semifinal. The Panthers ended the regular season as Dave Campbell’s Texas Football’s No. 6 Class 6A team.

Before Gates took over the program, North Crowley had a 7-4 record in the 2021 season. In Gates’ first year as head coach in 2022, the Panthers immediately made a jump and secured a 12-1 record but were eliminated by Prosper in the regional round.

North Crowley made another leap in the 2023 season, winning 14 games en route to the Class 6A D1 state semifinal. The Panthers avenged their playoff loss to Prosper with a 35-7 regional-round win.

“The first year we were able to lay a foundation of what we wanted to build and then this year, I think we took a step forward,” Gates said. “It’s kind of like the process of building a house.”

North Crowley, once again, further established it belongs in the conversation regarding the most elite high school football programs in Texas. Gates said the team is “moving in the right direction” and that they’ve gotten to a point where the North Crowley brand is well known.

“Our goal was to make sure that our logo, that our brand, means something,” Gates said.

Of course, the 52-10 loss to Duncanville was hard to swallow for North Crowley, a team that had scored 40 or more points in 13 of 14 games and 60 or more in six games.

What’s the next step in North Crowley’s journey? Gates said one thing he doesn’t want to see is complacency, and added the team must continue to strive to exceed expectations rather than meet them.

The last time North Crowley won a state championship was in 2003, when the school was in Class 4A. If the Panthers, in Class 6A, are to win a state championship again, they’ll have to match the firepower of the biggest and baddest Texas high school football juggernauts.

“We’re coming in and trying to prove ourselves,” Gates said. “We haven’t won a state championship. So, we still have that to fight for.”

Gates, after the state semifinal loss, asked the team what they thought about facing Duncanville, the eventual Class 6A D1 State Champion. His players told him they needed to get bigger, faster and stronger in the off season in order to compete at that level.

“Whatever we have to do to get that one more step,” Gates said. “That’s what we’re going to be fighting for. Just being so close, yet feeling so far away. From the way our last game ended, I think it’s going to serve us well in moving forward.”

One of the players that has been at the forefront of North Crowley’s emergence is junior quarterback Chris Jimerson Jr., who has grown with the program in Gates’ two years at the helm. After his breakout sophomore year, he followed it up by winning the District 3-6A Most Valuable Player Award.

“It feels great to play under coach Gates,” Jimerson said. “Coach Gates has a great system. Coach Gates brings a lot of great energy to the team, which makes us get fired up. It makes us want to do more.”

Gates credited his assistants for buying into the process and ensuring their vision comes to life in terms of the game plan. He added the staff does as much off the field as on it, saying they ensure students have rides, check grades, call parents and meet with teachers.

“It’s very important to have great assistant coaches,” Gates said. “You can’t accomplish what we accomplished with mediocre coaching. Everyone on our staff understands the importance of the vision of our team and where we’re going.”

Offensive coordinator Eli Reinhart said it’s “unbelievable” being around Gates and seeing how he motivates the team on and off the field.

“Seeing how he is with the kids and the relationships,” Reinhart said of Gates. “I’ve learned so much from him in our time together, and he’s such a great player’s coach. He takes care of all these kids, but at the same time, he holds them to a standard.”

What will Gates remember most about the 2023 North Crowley Panthers? Gates said the team “galvanized the 817” as a predominantly African American school, bringing the community together over football.

“I turned around at one point and I looked at those stands, and I saw it packed,” Gates said. “We had more people than Duncanville. That was the moment where everything came full circle for me. .. I think this group was the one that got our community – not just North Crowley but all of Fort Worth – excited about football again.”