West Orange head coach Darnell Grant, left, and his brother, Union first-year head coach Barris Grant, right, will meet when their teams scrimmage each other at West Orange on Tuesday, Aug. 19..
By JR Parachini
IRVINGTON/WEST ORANGE/UNION, NJ — It’s only fitting that when you look at the Union football scrimmage schedule it immediately pits brother against brother.
Right now, first-year head coach Barris Grant has several of his players involved in 7-on-7 competition.
The first official day of practice is now less than a month away, scheduled for Monday, Aug. 11.
The first scrimmages allowed to be played begin the following Monday on Aug. 18.
So, on Tuesday, Aug. 19, we have Union scheduled to scrimmage at West Orange at 10 a.m.
Darnell Grant, older brother of Barris, has been the head coach at West Orange since 2019.
Darnell, a 1991 Irvington graduate, guided Shabazz to its only two sectional state championships in 2014 and 2017 and West Orange to its only one in 2022.
Darnell almost led West Orange to another sectional title last year as his Mountaineers reached the North 1, Group 5 final, falling at home to East Orange 13-7 to close at 9-3. West Orange’s two regular season losses also came by a touchdown at Passaic Tech 28-21 and home against Phillipsburg 21-14.
In capturing the school’s first-ever sectional state championship in 2022, it was West Orange winning at Phillipsburg, 28-7, in the North 2, Group 5 final.
Like his older brother Darnell, Barris, a 1997 Irvington grad, has won three sectional state championships, all at Hillside. He led the Comets to Central Jersey, Group 2 championships in 2017 and 2018 and to the South Jersey, Group 2 title in 2019.
Darnell’s 2017 state championship Shabazz team went 12-0 and Barris’s 2019 Hillside state championship squad went 12-0 and was also a regional champion.
Should Union and West Orange make the playoffs this year, the two could meet with a whole lot more on the line. Both Union and West Orange are situated in North, Group 5 and could both be put in North 2, Group 5 or North 1, Group 5 when the sections are put together at the end of October.
When Union won its last sectional state championship and first in North 2, Group 5 in 2019, it was the undefeated Farmers in the semifinals holding off visiting West Orange, 20-14. That was Darnell Grant’s first year as the head coach at West Orange, with his Mountaineers finishing 7-4 that season. Darnell Grant had previously coached a lot of games at Union when he was the head coach at Irvington.
Not only are Union and West Orange in the same North, Group 5 field, but their enrollment figures are almost identical. As listed on the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association website, Union’s enrollment is reported at 1,670 and West Orange at 1,654, a difference of only 16 students.
Photos by JR Parachini and Joe Ragozzino
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