N. Hollywood Gives Gray a Big Welcome : Prep football: Roster grows by nearly 30 players for first spring practice under new varsity coach.

Gary Gray barely has begun his new job as football coach at North Hollywood High and already he can see signs of improvement.

On Monday--six days after being promoted from his position as B team coach--Gray conducted the team’s first spring practice and more than 80 players showed, about 30 more than last year.

Gray, who coached the B team to 7-3 and 1-8 records the past two years, replaced James Lippitt, who has been on a stress-related leave of absence for the past month.

“Basically (Lippitt) was relieved of his duties for personal reasons,” Vice Principal Dave Smith said. “He has not been back to school since the day he was relieved, and that was about a month ago.”

Gray, 40, is the third coach in as many years at North Hollywood. Last fall, Lippitt’s team suffered through an 0-10 season. Fred Grimes, now an assistant at Chaminade, resigned after posting a 5-4 record in 1990.

The Huskies’ roster dwindled to 21 players at one point last year. “I was really nervous as to whether or not we were going to make it to homecoming,” Smith said. “But to Lippitt’s credit, he was able to keep the team together.”

Said Gray: “We can’t do any worse than last year. We were approached by a lot of kids after Lippitt was relieved who said, ‘We really want to play for you.’ ”

For the past three seasons, Gray also has coached girls’ track.

“There may be some people with better football experience, but he seems to be the popular choice,” Smith said.

Gray, who teaches English as a Second Language, played one year of football as a junior at Reseda High in 1968 before an injury sidelined him.