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On a dark, rainy parking lot outside the Grant High School football stadium Thursday morning, the clanking of a large cowbell set the scene as the Pacers football boarded the bus on the way to Saddleback College to face off against Pacifica in Friday’s Division 2-AA state championship game.
“I feel amazing. I’m ready,” Malachi Simonton, a Grant High senior, said as the team geared up inside the team’s locker room moments before heading to the bus.
For the second year in a row, Grant is headed south to play in the big game.
However, last season, the team came up short in the Division 2-AA title game against La Serna.
So, for this year’s team, the ultimate destination isn’t just to arrive in Southern California later on Thursday.
“I just don’t want to go to the game and lose. I want to win it all. You don’t get remembered for losing. I want to win,” said Koby “Cheese” Shabazz, a Grant High senior. “That’s my main goal. I don’t want to just show up, ’cause they don’t know you for just showing up. They know for winning. So, that’s why we’ll go.”
Two seasons ago, the Pacers did win it all, defeating San Jacinto 36-34 in the 2022 Division 3-AA championship game.
So, when I got a chance to interview the head coach before the team departed shortly after 7 a.m., I asked what is the message to the team as they hit the road to the state title game.
He responded with one three-word phrase.
“Finish the job. It’s 100% finish the job,” said Carl Reed, Grant High’s football coach. “It’s a goal we set in summer, actually in January when workouts began. It was finish the job.”
That’s the mantra that remains the driving force for a bus load of student-athletes focused on doing more than simply playing in the big game.
“Oh yeah, we’re going to finish the job,” Simonton said.
Other Northern California teams playing in the state football championships include the Twelve Bridges Raging Rhinos, Vanden Vikings in Fairfield, Sonora Wildcats and Summerville Bears in Tuolumne County.
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