WEST ORANGE, NJ — The West Orange High School football team recently captured the New York Jets 11-ON tournament championship. The tournament was hosted by the New York Jets of the National Football League at their training camp/practice facility in Florham Park.
West Orange also won the tournament’s lineman challenge competition. They defeated Newark East Side and Hillside in tug-of-war competitions to secure the lineman challenge title.
The Mountaineers, under head coach Darnell Grant, also will host the Essex 7-on-7 Shootout on Saturday, July 20. The tournament is expected to draw several high school teams from throughout the state.
Grant has revived the WOHS football program. In five years at the helm, he has amassed a 33-18 record. In 2022, Grant’s fourth year, the Mountaineers advanced to their first-ever state sectional championship game, defeating top-seeded Phillipsburg, 28-7, to win the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association’s North Jersey, Section 2, Group 5 title. WOHS, the No. 5 seed, won all three sectional playoff games on the road.
Grant has guided West Orange to the sectional playoffs in all four times that the playoffs were contested. In that span, the Mountaineers have reached the semifinals each time. In 2020, the playoffs were canceled due to the COVID–19 pandemic, as the Mountaineers finished with a 6-1 record that year.
WOHS was the No. 6 seed in the North 2, Group 5 sectional playoffs last season, defeating No. 3 seed Plainfield, 25-22, in the quarterfinals on the road, before losing at No. 2 seed Union City, 20-14, in the semifinals to finish the season at 5-5.
Grant previously was a highly-successful head coach at Irvington High School – his alma mater – and Shabazz High School. He was 64-21 at Irvington in eight seasons (2002-09) and went 68-32 at Shabazz in nine seasons (2010-18), including leading Shabazz to two state sectional titles in 2014 and 2017.
Photos Courtesy of West Orange High School Football
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