This is a posthumous award. Walter passed away several years ago, before we could give this award to him personally.

Walter was deeply involved in the formation and development of organized youth soccer from its beginnings in 1967. Walter, along with a few other dedicated volunteers and soccer enthusiasts, started the Soccer Youth League of Georgia that year. Their first playing field was at the Old Southwest DeKalb Soccer Field. That first year Walter himself coached three teams.

Walter Gray was a “soccer purist.” He loved the game for its skill, and what he called its simple beauty. As I remember he defined that simple beauty as a combination of athletic ability, basic soccer skills, an attitude of sportsmanship and fair play, a sense of playing as part of a team while developing an individual style, and the love of a simple, straightforward approach to playing every game.

Walter taught the game that way, over the years, to team after team of enthusiastic youngsters. His teams were of many age groups, and the club name he used, “Comets”, became a byword for good youth soccer.

Walter was a highly involved youth coach, instructor and administrator. He practically spent every spare hour at the practice and playing fields. There were few days indeed when you went past the Old Southwest DeKalb Soccer Field and didn’t find Walter there with one or more of his teams. His views were definite, and he championed his view of soccer development throughout his career. One of the conditions that earmarked the early days of youth soccer in Georgia was that while not all to the adults who labored so long and hard to assure the development of the programs and laid the foundation of today’s youth soccer success agreed on the details, that were all of one accord on their common desire for youth soccer to succeed as a good, healthy, and positive emotional and character-building experience for the young boys and girls who played.

He was an ardent advocate and leader in developing a credible Junior Soccer Program in those early days, when all too few soccer volunteers either did not want to or did not know enough to teach the game to teenagers. There are more than a few young men now who rightfully claim to have been positively influenced by Walter’s dedicated efforts with his Junior teams.

It is with great pleasure that we recognize the contribution of Walter Gray by inducting him, posthumously, as a member of the Georgia Soccer Hall of Fame.