Four seasons after William “Larry’’ Archie Jr. was hired to turn Granby High School’s football program into a winner, the hunt is on once again for a head football coach. Archie’s replacement will be named soon, Granby athletic director Chris Harris told parents and students gathered at a sports awards banquet Dec. 12. 

“We’re going to win at football,’’ Harris said, explaining that building a winning football program was his number one goal. 

That task won’t be easy, interviews with players and the former coach suggest. 

Granby’s varsity squad ended the season with only 26 players dressed and rostered, Archie said. He started the season missing 17 players who could’ve returned but didn’t, he said. Throughout the season, when he took attendance at practice, at least nine players would be missing from an average of 32, he said. 

“That’s like saying you’re missing nine kids out of your class today, and you slap an SOL in front of them on Friday night. How well will they do?’’ Archie asked, referring to the high-stakes state Standards of Learning exams, which secondary students must pass to graduate. 

Statistics answer that question. Granby went winless in 2022 and suffered its worst loss of the season in a 66-0 defeat against rival Maury High School, according to MaxPreps.com. It was outscored by opponents 275-10 in regional play, the website shows. It forfeited its Sept. 2 game against Western Branch due to a lack of players.

During morning announcements, Principal Thomas R. Smigiel Jr. asked students to step up and join the team instead of mock it. At one staff meeting, Smigiel told faculty and staff about having to forfeit a football game. 

“Teachers would be bringing kids, (saying), ‘Coach, he wants to play,’’’ Archie recalled. The students would get to practice, realize it wasn’t easy and question if they had to practice every day. “So they’d not come or leave,’’ he said.

“If you don’t love this game, it’s difficult. You can play. You’re just not going to win,’’ Archie said.

Junior Christian Post, Granby’s starting quarterback, said getting a new head coach will give the current players a fresh start and perhaps attract new players. 

“What we need most going forward is more players and to be a team effort,’’ Post said in a text message. He’s grateful for Archie’s influence, he said, but added, “We need a coach with coaching experience and to be able to get players to play as a team.’’

Other Granby football players said they want the new coach to bring an up-to-date playbook and assign them to their preferred positions. 

With a scant number of players, filling wish lists didn’t seem like an option. “Sometimes, in our situation, you would have to put a kid in the game that just wasn’t ready to play because he might have missed a day of practice and he might physically just not be ready to play at the varsity level,’’ Archie said. 

Granby last fielded a junior varsity team in 2019. Since then, due to low numbers, players who would’ve been relegated to junior varsity played on varsity instead. 

Building a winning program is a process, Archie said. It requires students who love football and who are zoned for Granby to attend Granby. It requires that other athletes follow the lead of committed players who are already on board, he said. 

“It takes a special kid to be involved in a program that’s not winning because he’s going to have to do something other than what most people are doing,’’ Archie said. “Don’t do what I do. Watch what I do.’’ 

 It also requires work in the off-season in the weight room, Archie said. 

“If you want to change the way things are, you have to have kids commit to that. We didn’t have a lot of kids (do that),’’ Archie said. 

He estimates that four to six players trained in the off-season. While some students went on to spring sports and to compete in wrestling clubs and outdoor track and field, a lack of players in the off-season didn’t improve by summer, when football camps were held. He needed 20 to 25 players to attend football camp; he said 10 to 12 players participated in summer training. 

At the sports awards banquet, the football players who endured the entire season won the praise of Eric Harris, one of Granby’s assistant football coaches. 

“Size wasn’t something we had on the field,’’ he said, “but we had a lot of heart.’’