Football Coaching Staff

Mike Gravier

Head Coach Mike Gravier leads BC Football Program

Head Coach

1st Season

Phone: 276.326.4308

 

The list of football coaching legends at Bluefield College includes the likes of B.E. "Mullie" Lenoir and Tony Lotito, who together amassed an 83-22-2 win-loss record over a 12-year span during the infancy of BC football.

And as the new football program begins at Bluefield College begins, Coach Mike Gravier will lead the Rams. 

In June 2010, after an extensive feasibility study and a tremendous show of support from alumni and friends, the college announced the revival of its football program and embarked on the critical search for the right person to lead the resurgence.

"Hiring the right coach, someone who identifies with the college's mission and has a passion for transforming young men's lives through the game of football, is critical to the success of this new program," said BC president, Dr. David Olive. "I'm convinced we have found that person in Mike Gravier."

Gravier helped launch a football program as an assistant coach and offensive coordinator at Malone University in Ohio in 1992. Two seasons later, he became the head coach of the young program, where during a four-year span he amassed a 30-12-1 win-loss record, three Mid-States Football Association (MSFA) championships, a MSFA Coach of the Year honor, and two National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) national tournament bids.

"Mike brings an excellent understanding of the game and effective coaching style to Bluefield football," said BC's athletic director, Pete Dryer. "In addition to his experience and success on the field, we are excited to have a football coach with strong character, a passion to live out his faith in Jesus Christ, and a desire to serve and mentor student-athletes."

Coach Gravier began his career with five years of coaching at the high school level after playing football and earning his bachelor's degree from Grand Valley State University in Michigan and while earning his master's degree from Western Michigan University.

He spent the next six years as an assistant coach at Kalamazoo College in Michigan, Western Michigan University, Southeast Missouri State University, and Michigan Technological University, before beginning his six-year stint with Malone.

He was called back to his alma mater to coach in 1998 and spent two additional seasons as a high school coach in Georgia before devoting his career in 2001 to faith-based ministries, including Christian Outreach International in Florida, where for three years he served as director of sports ministry.

Today, while last serving as an assistant coach for football at Concord University in Athens, West Virginia, Gravier is the director of OperationSHARE for Heaven Sent Ministries in Princeton, West Virginia, but now he is ready to turn his attention to Bluefield College.

"I'm very excited and humbled," said Gravier about the opportunity to lead the new BC football program. "It's always an honor to be the first person chosen to lead a football program. It's a role I don't take lightly, and I look forward to the challenge. We will play an exciting brand of football. We will play fast. We will be very aggressive, and I believe we will win."

Starting a new football program, Coach Gravier said, will be a special endeavor. Like the players from 1941 who hold memories from the last game played, players on the new BC roster, he said, "will someday share stories about the first touchdown scored, the first win, or the first championship." Those firsts, he added, "are something only the new players can experience."

Coach Gravier said in reviving BC football he wants the new players and fans to remember why the program was dropped in 1942 and to honor the young men who joined the war effort and risked their lives to secure our freedom.

"I've enjoyed reading all of the stories about past teams and past games," said Gravier. "We will use that past as part of our future. It is my desire to honor those former players in some way. If any are still living, I want them to visit and be a part of our team. If they are no longer with us, their families are always welcome."

Coach Gravier acknowledged that a new football team will, no doubt, boost the Greater Bluefield economy, offer an additional source for gridiron entertainment to an already football-hungry community, and give more local student-athletes an opportunity to continue their football careers at home in front of family and friends. But, the impact he's looking forward to most is the one that will involve his players in community outreach.

"We will be involved," the coach said. "Whether it's reading to kids at a local elementary school, holding a football camp for kids in the community, or serving hot dogs to people at an event in the park, our players will be a vital part of the community"

In line with the Bluefield College mission, Coach Gravier said he hopes to develop players both academically and spiritually. In addition to what the student-athletes will gain in the classroom from professors, through a mentor program with leaders in the community the coach said he wants to develop the players' career and leadership skills. The purpose, he said: to develop the whole player.

"We want to show our players what it means to be a good football player, but also what it means to be a leader in the community, a good husband, and a good father," said Gravier. "Football will be a small part of their college experience, and hopefully the other things they learn they will carry with them through the good and bad times of life."

Gravier will begin recruiting players now to begin club play for Bluefield College in the fall of 2011. The team will begin intercollegiate play, most likely in the NAIA's Mid-South Conference, in the fall of 2012.

"I'm very excited about this opportunity," added Gravier, "and I will do everything in my power to make this a very successful program, both on and off the field, one that the school and community can be proud of."

 

Stacey Hairston

Coach Stacey Hairston leads the Rams Defense

Defensive Coordinator

1st Season

Phone: 614.205.2853

Coach Stacey Hairston comes to the Bluefield College Football program with an extensive pedigree of coaching at both the professional and collegiate level. 

Hairston, who will join the BC staff as defensive coordinator, played collegiate football at Ohio Northern University, before being signed in 1989 as a free agent in the NFL with the Dallas Cowboys. After a season with Dallas, Hairston spent the next two years, 1990-1992, in the Canadian Football League (CFL) as a defensive back and special teams player with the Saskatchewan Roughriders, before returning to the NFL to play defensive back and special teams for the Cleveland Browns, where was an integral part of the number one ranked defense in the NFL in 1994.

"Stacey has worked hard for everything he has," said Coach Gravier. "As an NCAA Division III athlete trying to make it at the professional level, he had to work hard and be determined. He approaches coaching the same way. He is determined to help our guys be successful, to help them reach their full potential."

Hairston began his coaching career as an assistant football coach at his alma mater, Ohio Northern University, where for seven seasons, 1996-2003, he coached defensive backs and special teams. In 2003, after a short stint as interim head coach, he was promoted to co-defensive coordinator and co-special teams coordinator, a position he held until 2008.

A member of the Black Coaches and Administrators Association, the American Football Coaches Association and a former vice president of the NFL Players Association, Hairston became an assistant coach for the Edmonton Eskimos of the CFL in 2008, where he coached defensive backs until being called to Bluefield this spring.

 

Mike Compton

Coach Mike Compton brings experience to Offensive Line

Offensive Line Coach

1st Season

Coach Mike Compton joins the Bluefield College Football program as an assistant coach in charge of the offensive line.

Compton, a Richlands, Virginia, native who played collegiate football at West Virginia University, where he was a three-year starter at center from 1990-1992, a two-time All-Big East Conference recipient in 1991 and 1992, and a consensus All-American in 1992.

While in college, Compton also won the Red Brown Cup Award as WVU's most outstanding athlete in 1992 and the Ideal Mountaineer Award in 1990 and 1992.

"Coach Gravier has been charged with the task of starting a football program and bringing in the right people to get it going," said Athletics Director Pete Dryer. "He has brought in two individuals in Mike and Stacey that will assist in launching this program in the right direction."

After college, Compton took his talent to the NFL, where he played as an offensive lineman eight years for the Detroit Lions, three years for the New England Patriots, and one year with the Jacksonville Jaguars. During his time with the Patriots, Compton won two Super Bowl rings.

"Throughout Mike's experiences in college and in the NFL, he's learned how to prepare himself to be successful," said Coach Gravier. "Having the career he's had doesn't just happen. It takes hard work. I know that Mike will do a great job using his experiences to mold our players into successful young men."

Compton began his coaching career back home in Tazewell County as an assistant coach for football for two seasons at Tazewell High School, where he was in charge of the offensive and defensive lines and the punting unit. He left Tazewell in 2008 to become the head coach for football at Patrick Henry High School in Glade Spring, Virginia. There, he began to rebuild that program that had struggled for years.

Compton will help assist in building a quality offensive line for Bluefied College Football and assist Coach Gravier and Hairston in other roles throughout the program.