GRANITE CITY – It is a new day for Granite City High football, with Sherand Boyd Jr. appointed the new head coach, emphasizing discipline, effort, and a positive attitude as the team prepares to rejoin the Southwestern Conference this season.
Granite City had played as an independent in recent seasons, along with Collinsville for football. The Southwestern Conference also is expanding with Triad and Mascoutah joining the league.
For the first time in its history, the conference will split into two divisions. Granite City will play in the Black Division with Alton, Collinsville, Triad and Mascoutah. The Gold Division will include Edwardsville, O’Fallon, East St. Louis, Belleville East and Belleville West.
Boyd, who played for and coached at Belleville West, said he is familiar with the Southwestern Conference and likes the new structure.
“I think it’s great for us,” Boyd said. “I think it’s beautiful on how the conference is split. You’ve got the Gold Division and the Black Division. A lot of the teams we’ll play in the Black Division are the teams that we will want to see. But also, the beauty of that is we get to play a couple of crossover games every year, and I think we might fall into (Class) 6A or 7A. So if we start working where we’re working, and we’re making the playoffs, we need to see some other teams in those divisions as well.”
The program’s long-term goal is to qualify for the state playoffs. In his first year, Boyd said success will be measured by how the team follows its pillars.
“I think for us, what success looks like on Friday night is guys living out pillars,” Boyd said. “We want to be the most disciplined football team out there, we want to have the best effort, and we want to do everything with a positive attitude. I think we’re looking for that; I think the results will come from that. That’s how we’re measuring out success as a team. That’s how we can control what we’re doing; those are our measurements of success, how well our guys do those things.”
