Granville Then & Now – May 5, 2022

Merged football program needs one coach

By Erik Pekar, Town Historian

A major move was made last week. The municipal offices of the Town of Granville were moved from the Farmers’ National Bank building at 42 Main St. to the 14 East Main St. The new building was acquired by the town last September; it was most recently the Manchester Newspapers building. In the intervening months, the town has renovated the building, adding a new court bench, and making other provisions to allow for the building’s use as a municipal building. Items began being moved over the week of April 25; the last day of operations in the old building was April 28.

The town clerk’s office, assessor’s office and most of the other offices opened in the new building on May 2. The town offices had been in the 42 Main building since March of 1964; this move brought an end to 58 years of operating out of that building. The first town board meeting in the new building will be on May 12. One office still remains in the old building, that of the town historian; that will move to the new town building in the near future. Congratulations to the Town of Granville on opening their offices in their new building.

+ + +

The first move toward building up the new Granville-Whitehall football team has been made. A head coach for the varsity team has been selected. Both schools’ athletic directors interviewed several candidates. After deliberation, Darin Eggleston was chosen in March as the head coach of the team. He was the former head coach of the Whitehall junior varsity football team. He has roots in the area as well, having graduated from the Whitehall High School.

Some in Granville have asked if Eggleston will be fair to all the players, or if he would favor Whitehall players. Although these concerns are valid, and equivalent concerns would be just as valid for Whitehall people if the head coach was a Granville coach, the concerns are out of place. Eggleston is looking at the Granville-Whitehall team as a single team.

After Eggleston had been selected, the schools made a preliminary change to the coaching arrangement. Instead of having a single head coach, the varsity program would have two head co-coaches. This is exactly the method of head coaching that was suggested back in 2019, and again in early 2021, in the old proposal of combining the Granville and Whitehall teams under a co-partnership. This system, as stated last year in “Granville Then and Now,” could not have worked, since it would have led to arguments and infighting.

John Irion, the head coach of the Granville varsity football team in the 2021 season, had applied for the merged team’s head coach position, only to find out that it was now a co-coach position, and that another coach had been selected. Irion passed on the position.

Some of the reaction from Granville area residents and parents to Irion having rejected the position, and his not being involved in the merged program, were of a negative nature towards the coaching choice, and spoke praise of Irion. However, one must consider the reasons of how Irion came to Granville, and his performance during the years he coached here. Back in 2017, he was chosen to be the new head coach of Granville football because it was hoped he would build up the team, and eventually get them back to being a major winning team, much like his 2013 Queensbury team. Some in Granville got their hopes up that he could even bring back greatness like that of famed Granville coach Sam Eppolito in the early 1930s. While Irion did make some progress in building up the team to an extent, getting to a 6-3 record in 2019, Irion did not return the Golden Horde to “glory” as was hoped by some back in 2017.

The Granville-Whitehall football team must have a single head coach. Having more than one head coach as “co-coaches” will only lead to arguments and infighting, which will hurt the program more than anything. The Granville and Whitehall school boards, superintendents, and athletic directors must revert the co-coach change for the merged football teams and go back to having a single head coach. The only way the Granville-Whitehall merged varsity football team will have the best chance at having a good start this fall with effective head coaching, is with a single head coach.