Gray Collegiate Academy has a grand vision for its football future

Adam Holmes crams into his 5-by-5-foot office, moving past the high stacks of papers as he makes preparations for that week’s game.

The Gray Collegiate Academy football coach knew he would face adversity after departing Orangeburg Prep for this upstart West Columbia public charter school, which opened its doors in August. But it was the process that would come from those early struggles that intrigued Holmes the most.

“I’m not going to lie, it’s been a challenge,” he said. “But it’s been a good challenge to do the things we have to do.”

Holmes’ makeshift workspace, which he shares with his assistant, is a borrowed secretarial office. It is one of a myriad of complications Holmes and the War Eagles confront on a weekly basis.

Gray Collegiate’s locker room and field are under construction. Equipment is locked away in a classroom during the day while the team, the vast majority of which are underclassmen, attend classes. The team buses to nearby Seven Oaks Park daily for practice and spends every Friday night playing on the road.

But Holmes has a grand vision for his new school and new home.

“It’s been a lot of trial and error and trying to find our spots here and there to get things done,” he said. “It’s a process, but we see the light at the end of the tunnel with all the good, young, talented players we have coming up.”

The process began in January, when Holmes and Gray Collegiate CEO Todd Helms started holding informational sessions for prospective students and their parents. Much like their football team, the Tuesday night meetings grew from their infancy into classrooms filled with upwards of 100 people, a far cry from the days when it was just Helms and his staff.

“There were several times where nobody showed up at the very beginning,” Helms said.

By the time classes began, the accelerated collegiate school had reached an enrollment of 400 students, 76 of which joined the football team. Those numbers have not come without scrutiny. Helms acknowledged some nearby programs have questioned whether Gray Collegiate recruited its players.

“There’s been some high schools around here, I won’t mention any names, that accused us of recruiting,” he said. “And that’s the last thing we’ve done. We have not recruited a single kid, we haven’t called a single kid individually. If a parent came to a parent forum and they liked what they saw, we’re certainly going to tell them what we’re doing and what we’re all about.”

S.C. High School League commissioner Jerome Singleton said there have not been any recruiting complaints filed against Gray Collegiate.

“I get those kind of calls all the time,” Singleton said. “But I have had nobody bring anything forward on the charter school that we just accepted.”

Helms and Holmes have more pressing concerns than such whispers. Foremost is registering the program’s first win, which they continue to seek through the season's first six weeks. The War Eagles have pieced together an inaugural 10-game schedule that features several Class A teams – including Great Falls twice – SCISA program Laurence Manning, two out-of-state schools and North Myrtle Beach Christian.

Gray Collegiate was admitted to the SCHSL by its executive committee prior to this season, but must play as an at-large team until the state undergoes reclassification again in 2016. In the interim, Gray Collegiate will not be eligible to compete in the postseason. Helms expects the War Eagles to compete at the Class 2A level once they join a region, he said.

In the meantime, it will be up to players such as junior linebacker Grant Robertson to transition the school into its next era. The Irmo transfer is one of 13 upperclassmen who dot the War Eagle roster, all of which were eligible to play this season because they enrolled in the new school prior to the first day of class. In the future, students interested in transferring to the program will have to sit out a calendar year, per SCHSL rules.

“We know we’re young and we know this year is going to be a building year,” Robertson said. “We’re just setting the stage for the years to come.”

Robertson will not be around when Gray Collegiate becomes postseason eligible. But he will be there for the planned new stadium, which will open next fall. The stadium is part of the school’s Phase II project, which includes the construction of all other outdoor sports facilities.

But for now, the youthful War Eagles will have the same routine every Friday night – get on a bus and drive a long distance to play a game and take another step forward for a fledgling school, and program.

“We have to go to everybody else’s stadium to play, but it’s a good learning experience for our kids,” Holmes said. “I think it’s only to make our program stronger down the road.”

This story was originally published October 2, 2014 at 8:32 PM with the headline "Gray Collegiate Academy has a grand vision for its football future."