SACRAMENTO, Calif. — After a season of back-to-back losses, the Grant Union High School Pacers celebrated a comeback season that no one saw coming with a ring ceremony Saturday.
"If you would have told me, I would have said you were crazy," said co-head coach Carl Reed.
The year before the Grant Pacers defeated the San Jacinto Tigers of Southern California in a bruising match-up by a score of 36-34, their 2021 football season was a 0-9 disaster.
"It took a lot of work. It took a lot of dedication. Football was our lives ever since we lost," said quarterback Joseph McCray.
Reed called it a season of "having to prove ourselves."
"We were unranked, not even in the top 50. We had to come in and prove ourselves, so every week was to let everybody know, ‘We’re back. Grant is back,'" said Reed.
Reed's coaching staff helped players get through the disappointing season.
"They all kind of told us to have a short memory after everything," said McCray, who had his own personal turnaround.
Reed said McCray recovered from the disappointing season to become the school's all-time passer and all-time touchdown record-holder.
McCray also won season MVP at the award ceremony, which he said was for everybody.
"This is what everybody was waiting for, this come back right here," said McCray.
