The game of football is in the DNA of Gerald Brence, who has served as president of the NFF Gridiron Club of Dallas Chapter for more than a decade.

After graduating from Cordell High School in Oklahoma, Brence obtained his bachelor’s in education at Southwestern Oklahoma State University while playing football for three seasons. In 1981, he began his career as an English teacher and assistant football coach at Plano Senior High School outside of Dallas while earning his master’s in education from Texas A&M-Commerce. Plano Senior won two state football championships during his time as an assistant.

In 1992, Brence became the head football coach and athletics director at Plano Senior, where he posted an overall record of 120-70-1 during 16 seasons. He led the Wildcats to 11 playoff berths, highlighted by a win in the 1994 5A Division I State Championship. In 2007, Brence coached his final season at Plano Senior while being promoted to athletics director of the entire Plano Independent School District, a role he would remain in before retiring in 2019. He is a member of the Texas High School Coaches Association Hall of Honor. In 2021, he returned to the high school sidelines as an assistant coach at McKinney Christian Academy in McKinney, Texas.

Involved with the NFF Gridiron Club of Dallas Chapter since its launch in 2008, Brence has served as the outpost’s president since 2010, and he oversees the entire scholar-athlete banquet process from start to finish. As the only NFF chapter in North Texas, the Gridiron Club of Dallas covers a wide footprint and typically honors more than 60 high school scholar-athletes at its banquet each year with a high of 81 recognized in 2017. The chapter also honors local coaches, officials, collegiate scholar-athletes, journalists and other individuals who have made an impact on football and the region. In 2021, the chapter honored 61 scholar-athletes during a virtual banquet.

“Football has played such an important role in my life, and it’s an honor to pay it forward by recognizing all of the outstanding student-athletes each year at our NFF banquet,” said Brence. “All of our honorees are so impressive, not only on the field but also as scholars and young community leaders. It’s always an honor to meet these young men, and it’s great to see them go on to succeed in multiple areas of their lives.”

Brence lives in McKinney, Texas, with his wife, Beth, and they have three sons who all played college football: Ryan (Army), Beau (UNLV) and Collin (Baylor). Brence has written three novels as well as a non-fiction book about high school football titled “The 70-30 Split.”

Gary Peek is an avid sports fan having played football, baseball, basketball, and golf growing up in East Texas. In football, Peek contributed at both the running back and linebacker positions until his love of golf took over in early high school. He excelled at golf with his team winning the District Championship during his senior year at Pine Tree High School in Longview, Texas.

Peek passed on college golf opportunities to turn his attention to his education and future career, enrolling at Texas A&M to pursue a BS of Computer Science with a minor in Mathematics.

In 1990, Peek founded Breakaway International, a restaurant technology company to build solutions for the restaurant industry. Over the course of 13 years, Peek would expand the company internationally, buy a California-based competitor, Davis Systems, Inc., land a global contract with Domino's Pizza, acquire some of the assets of OpenTable.com, and end up serving over 15,000 restaurants using one or more of Breakaway's 14 software products in over 60 countries.

In July 2003, NTN Buzztime acquired Breakaway International where Peek served as SVP/General Manager of this new business unit now called NTN Software Solutions. In 2005, Peek seized an opportunity to buy back some of the original assets sold to NTN and spun off a new company, Intura Solutions.

In 2009, Peek sold his ownership interest in Intura and joined Yum! Brands, Inc., leading restaurant technology strategy in the international division, YRI. Over the next several years, Peek would take on various technology and business leadership roles at Rent-A-Center in Plano, Texas, F&I Express (Cox Automotive), global consumer products giant, Newell Brands, and most recently at StoneEagle, a software company in the automotive F&I vertical.

Peek is married to Cindy and has five children, Hayden, Bethany, Colin, Mallory, and Eryn. Gary and Cindy are active members of Frisco First Baptist Church in Frisco, Texas. Peek has served on several non-profit boards over the years including Mission Arlington (Mission Metroplex, Inc.), The Gentlemen's Society, Trinity Kids, Inc., and the NFF Gridiron Club of Dallas.

Peek’s interest in the NFF Gridiron Club of Dallas occurred in the spring of 2022 when his son, Colin Peek, was selected as the Scholar-Athlete of the Year by the organization. Peek met with Gerald Brence to discuss how he could help the non-profit organization and launched the NFF Gridiron Club of Dallas charity golf tournament in April 2023 to raise funds to provide college scholarships to the young men being recognized by the organization.

Peek holds a BAAS Business & Entrepreneurship, Texas A&M University-Commerce.

Scott Smith is a graduate of Highland Park High School and Baylor University where he was a four-year letterman as quarterback and defensive back for the Bears. He has won numerous coach-of-the-year awards and has led four different high school teams to 18 playoff games in 17 years as a head coach.

Smith has a distinguished 35-year career as a successful high school and collegiate football coach serving as head coach at Highland Park, Odessa Permian, Rockwall, Duncanville, Legacy Christian, and Garland High Schools. He has also served as an assistant coach at Baylor University, the University of Arkansas, the University of North Texas, SMU, and Howard Payne University.

Smith served five years as the Associate Head Coach and Offensive Coordinator at Houston Baptist University, now Houston Christian, where he helped establish the football program from scratch in 2013.

Smith has been a head coach at some of the best programs in the state — Garland, Duncanville, Highland Park, Odessa Permian and Rockwall — as well as serving as the athletic director for Rockwall ISD from 2009 to 2012. From 1996 to 1998, he had a 35-7 record at Highland Park, his alma mater.

He has had plenty of experience at the college level, working as an assistant coach at North Texas, SMU, Baylor, and Arkansas. He helped start the football program at Houston Baptist University in 2013, working as associate head coach, offensive coordinator, and quarterback’s coach.

Scott is married to the former Kelly Hudspeth, the daughter of Texas coaching legend, Tommy Hudspeth, and a former cheerleader at Sherman High School and Baylor University. Scott and Kelly have two grown sons, Shea and wife Lindsay, and Braden and his wife Bekah, who also coached high school football in Texas. They have five grandchildren.