Up here in SacTown they do a little better job with Friday Night Lights as people do get into it a little bit. Not like Texas, of course, but they sometimes show some spirit. There are some good teams around SacTown like Jesuit, Granite Bay, Cordova, Nevada Union, Elk Grove and Grant. Today we are talking about Grant High.
For many years Grant did not have "Friday Night Lights" as they had a little too much gang violence. Or put another way I imagine the "white" schools were scared to come play Grant on a Friday night in Del Paso Heights. Shoot, most white people were probably scared of going to Del Paso Heights on a Saturday afternoon! Anyway, for many years Grant has been one of the premiere local high school football teams. It's a primarily African American school with a heavy dose of Pacific Islanders these days. Not a lot of white boys at Grant! Except the coach... like the White Shadow!
This year marked just the third year of Cali having state wide "championship" games. Well, actually just bowl games where some committee subjectively decides who is the "best" in each division. This year they picked 5 teams from Nor Cal and 5 teams from So Cal to meet, in So Cal, for the state "championship" in 4 levels plus the "Open Championship." Though Grant was 13-0 I think everybody expected Concord De La Salle to be picked for the open game. DLS is a private school, has produced countless pro athletes, is home to many children of the rich and famous, and frankly has been a national power house in football. I believe at one time they won about 125 games in a row even though they played a tough national schedule! No way they would pick little old Grant High from the ghetto in SacTown... or would they?
Well, the selection committee DID pick Grant to play in the state open championship game against So Cal powerhouse Long Beach Poly... the school that has produced more NFL players than any school in the country and ranked #2 in the whole country! All week the "experts" gave Grant no chance against mighty Long Beach Poly. The SacTownGuy, himself, gave Grant no chance against the mighty Long Beach Poly. Grant High has produced one above average NFL player in recent years (Dante Stallworth) and one drug addicted could have been an NFL star (Onterio Smith) and that's about it. Poly famous alum include NFL'ers DeSean Jackson, Willie McGinist, Marcedes Lewis and the list goes on and on. Plus, Tony Gwynn and Snoop Dog to name other famous alum of this 5,000 student school! Little ol' Grant has about 2,000 people at it's Del Paso Heights campus. Why even play the game....
So Cal won the first 4 bowl games this year. No doubt the open championship would be a clean sweep for So Cal. The experts were saying the open championship should have been Poly against some other So Cal powerhouse... not little ol' Grant. I mean Poly was voted in 2005, by Sports Illustrated, as the high school of the CENTURY! That's not so bad.
I turned the game on about 7:00 and watched the pre-game festivities. I watched the hype and the build up. If Vegas put odds on games this would have been Poly by 28. I figured I would watch for 10 minutes, Poly would be up by three touchdowns and I would turn it off....
The game finally started and Grant looked ok. Their defense was stronger than I expected. Their offense didn't do much until all of a sudden the Grant QB dropped back to pass and dropped a bomb for a TOUCHDOWN! Then the extra point... wait, did the kicker (who is also the QB) just do a straight on TOE-JOB like he was Tom Dempsey? Didn't they stop kicking like that in 1974 or so!? The dude put it through the uprights and it was seven nil!
The defensive battle continued and then Grant dropped another TD on them. The kicker missed his second toe kick and it was thirteen to NOTHING. Poly stole one to make it 13-7 and before long another to make it 14-13. I am not a play by play guy so it came down to the wire. According to the SacTown paper the Grant QB said to his players in the huddle, "you give me a time and I will march us down field for a touchdown." Guess what?
Well, Kitty Kat and I sat in bed and watched the third quarter before she nodded off. The next morning the first thing Kitty Kat asked me was, "did we win?" We take pride in SacTown of OUR teams and Grant was OUR team! I told her she had to look at this picture to decide who won....
Ok, you either know the outcome or you know the outcome... little Grant High took down the mighty powerhouse! To be honest Grant dominated the first half and held on in the second half... and then added the last minute TD for the win. Grant's defense was awesome. I will take a wild guess that Poly will put 10-15 kids onto D-1 rosters next year and Grant might put 2 or 3. If they played again I don't know who would win. I do know that on this one night Grant won.
The thing is a win like this goes deep. Del Paso Heights is a tough neighborhood in a small city. When Derrick Lee hits a home run for the Cub's the local TV news sports guy will say, "... and El Camino High's Derrick Lee hit a home run today as the Cub's won...." I think Tom Hanks went to school at Sac State for one semester and we still act like he lives here! The small town pride is even deeper in a neighborhood like Del Paso Heights. That win might be the pinnacle of life for several players on that team but they have that pinnacle forever. I am sure many players, with their new level of confidence, will use that win to propel themselves forward in life... or at least I hope they do!
There is a parade today from Grant High to downtown Sac. Mayor KJ will be the primary speaker as the Govenator is busy. I won't be at the parade today... at least not in person as I have a client meeting. However, I will be there in spirit as many people from all around SacTown will be. It's really a great accomplishment and gives great civic pride to all of us.
I was more excited with that win, Saturday night, then when the King's finally broke through to win a playoff series in about 2000. Let me tell you I was REALLY excited when the King's finaly won! This was a huge victory and I want to thank Grant High for providing the fun and excitment! It's good to be in SacTown today!Peace out.
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