Coal City – Following Independence’s 34-20 win over Bluefield in the Class AA semifinal on Friday, head coach John H. Lilly asked offensive line coach Kevin Grogg if he’d like to address the team.
He did just that.
“I just want to thank you guys,” Grogg said. “I’m getting older and this coach doesn’t have many trips left to Wheeling in him, so I just want to thank you guys for helping me get back up there.”
That Wheeling feeling is a familiar one for Grogg, one that brings back a flood of good memories. In 1999 he led Wyoming East to the Class AA title game at Wheeling Island Stadium, coming up with a 57-21 win over Bluefield for the program’s first and only state championship.
“I gotta thank coach (Lilly) for asking me to come over and help him out,” Grogg said. “I don’t have very many left in me and it brings back a lot of memories. I was going through some pictures the other night and found one of me and my dad and my brother after the game. My dad’s holding the trophy and my brother is there and both of those guys have passed away. It’s special to go back because my dad was so into it and my brother was a coach at Riverside. He watched our championship game and played for one the next day and my son (Justin Grogg) was playing so my dad, it was the happiest day of his life. He had two boys in the state finals and a grandson playing. He was just elated and it brought back a bunch of good feelings.”
Indeed the Wheeling feeling is a familiar one for Grogg. It’s one he thought the community might experience before the year even began.
After a loss to Fairmont Senior in the quarterfinals last year, the Independence coaching staff was pleased with what it saw from its team that was without three starting offensive linemen due to quarantines.
The Patriots trailed by just a score going into the break, having been stopped at the the Polar Bear 3-yard line as the halftime buzzer sounded. The game ultimately got away from the visitors as the eventual state champions pulled away in the third quarter.
Still, it showed the staff they were ahead of schedule.
Grogg saw something deeper.
Being the unapologetic, unfiltered, direct personality his, he thought a trip to Wheeling this season might be in the cards.
“I was telling coach at the beginning of the year I said ‘I hate to say this, but I think we’ve got a shot,'” Grogg said. “And coach was like ‘I don’t want to talk about it’ and I said “I think we do. We’re better in almost every position than my ’99 team.’ There are a lot of equals, some better. We had Tank Tunstalle and we have Atticus Goodson. So two really good running backs and it’s pretty even. Now we have a better quarterback right now. My quarterback was really good too, but Logan (Phalin) is a little better. The offensive line, there’s no question that this offensive line is better. I had a bunch of guys that would get after you and I’m not knocking them. I had two really good wide receivers and we’ve got three or four here. I think this team is better than that team talent-wise. They may not be the better team, but talent-wise this team is better.”
Grogg’s path to the Independence press box, where he observes from during the game, was an unlikely one. At least for him. When John H. Lilly took the job he knew he wasn’t giving him much of a choice. Grogg, who hadn’t coached at the high school level since 2010, didn’t take much convincing to join Lilly in 2018.
While he put up some resistance, he secretly missed it.
“I was coaching in the Spring League, the NFL Development league, and they asked me to work a camp up here,” Lilly said. “(Grogg) was helping with the camp and I had some people in the community, when the coaching job here came open, asked me to apply for it. When I applied for it he was up there and I told him ‘if I get it I’m bringing you with me’ and he was like ‘oh, I don’t know, I’m retired’ and all this other stuff and he came.”
“Coach and I had run in together,” Grogg said. “My grandson was playing pee-wee football over here and (Lilly) shows up like a good head coach should to watch his little guys play. He’s always around and we ran a football camp. We worked it together because my grandson was playing and we got to talking. We knew each other for years from competing against each other and he said ‘why don’t you come over? I need a little help.’ I thought ‘well, I’m not doing anything’ and I missed it a little bit. You get a little older and being an assistant is a lot different than being a head coach. I don’t have to put up with all that other stuff. This is so much more enjoyable. So much more. He was working on buses all day and I’m at the farm feeding chickens. Ya know what I mean? I don’t have all that pressure that he does either which makes it more enjoyable for me, but I’m just so blessed that he’s asked me to come over and help out.”
Grogg’s impact has been felt on the field as well as off it. As the offensive line coach he’s helped build arguably the team’s best unit, dubbed “Gorgg’s Hogs.” They’ve earned that moniker, paving the way for at least three players who have rushed for over 400 yards this year including Kennedy Award candidate Atticus Goodson. The unit has also been efficient in pass blocking, protecting QB Logan Phalin who’s thrown for over 1,100 yards this season.
“I don’t even go down there,” Lilly said of when the team breaks for position groups. “He coaches the offensive line and I’m down there with most of the skill players. We kind of just put the offense together. We have a system and it’s easy when one coach can handle the line and one can handle all the skill stuff. We work well together.”
While they have the size to be successful, the work ethic of the group is what’s stood out to Grogg.
“They work in the weight room in the offseason and that’s where it starts,” Grogg said. “All of them are really strong and they all move well. And they’ve got that blue-collar work ethic. They’re all good kids too and do exactly what you ask of them and they do it the way you want. They ask questions and they just work hard.”
After Friday’s win against Bluefield, the enthusiasm the players have for Grogg was evident. As he came down from his perch he was mobbed by players as he made his way to the field to celebrate.
“Coach Grogg’s had a great impact on the team,” offensive lineman Brady Grimmett said. “He came from Wyoming County and he’s been to a state championship and he’s a great line coach. He’s really helped me with my alignment and stance. He’s kind of like a fatherly figure and he’s beside of us all the time through thick and thin and he’s always helping us.”
Off the field he’s paid dividends as well. While most are concerned with the happenings on the field, it takes a monumental effort to put the product out there each week. That’s none more so apparent than this week as the team makes preparations for the biggest game in program history.
As a coach who’s been through the process of planning a trip to Wheeling and jumping through the hoops of creating an itinerary, he’s been a massive help to Lilly, who doubles as the school’s athletic director, in the process.
“We’re kind of using his blueprint from when he went down,” Lilly said. “That made it kind of easy because I’m also the AD here. I had to make a whole lot decisions really fast between Friday afternoon and Sunday morning. We had already spoke that we were going to use his plan. It’s not exact, but it’s close.”
“I told him some of the things I did and he listened,” Grogg said. “Of course a lot of those things worked out because we won the state championship, but I did things a little different than a lot of teams do. I didn’t want to go up the night before because I wanted the kids to sleep in their own bed. They’re on a charter bus so it’s comfortable and they can sit for three or four hours and still perform. I’ve been through it and he’s let me give him a lot of suggestions.
It’s a relief for Grogg to be free of those burdens as it allows him to do what he does best – coach. In the twilight of his career the ability to do so is immeasurable. As he said in the locker room after Friday’s win, trips to Wheeling are far and few. Many coaches go decades and never once play for a title. Raleigh County itself is a good example with no team from the county playing for a title in football since 1977 when Beckley beat Fairmont Senior, then in Class AAA, 6-0.
While playing for a title is nice, winning it is the best feeling.
To do so Grogg’s Hogs will need to pave the way in a matchup they lost last year. He likes their chances.
“They’re a special group of kids and last year’s experience against Fairmont is going to help us Friday night,” Grogg said. “They’ve already went against these guys as little pups. They were sophomores last year and they got whipped up front, not bad, but it’s a whole different bunch this year.”
Email: tylerjackson@lootpress.com and follow on Twitter @tjack94