GRANITE CITY – Granite City has a tough game on tap on Friday, Sept. 18, 2026, at Edwardsville after a strong effort in a 28-6 loss to Collinsville last weekend at Collinsville.
The Warriors are still learning the ropes of the game, and to see them come out and show their improvement is very satisfying indeed.
Granite City hosts Alton on Sept. 25 and the Warriors should be competitive in that encounter as both teams have 0-4 records at this point.
“I think for us, every week we show up, that we tell these guys we just want to get one percent better,” first-year Coach Sherand Boyd, Jr., said. “When we go, and we watch the film, what we find is that it’s never as good as you think, it’s never as bad as you think. And the cool thing about this experience is that we get an opportunity to learn from it, and our guys get a chance to respond.
“I thought our defense played really well last week; I thought they battled really hard this week. Twenty-eight points, depending on how the game went, that’s not too bad. I thought they played pretty well. Offensively, we’re trying to figure some things out, try to get our playmakers the football. We did better. We didn’t score last week, we scored this week. So, those are positives we’re going to build off of.”
Granite City lost at home to Ottawa on Sept. 4, 2026, 14-0, and it showed much positive progress for the Warriors.
“Oh, 100 percent,” Boyd said. “I think the part about us, and history, is that our kids are understanding what it means to be in a football game. I told this at halftime, we went in down 14-0, and I told them, ‘guys, you’ve been here before. You know what that’s like.’ And in the past, that wasn’t the thing. We were going into halftime 40-0, 50-0, but now, you go in, and it’s 14-0, you’re telling them hey, you’re down, but this is a football game. We’re about to get the ball back. If the offense comes back and scores, it’s a different football game. So our guys are learning the game. I think that’s pretty cool to watch, to learn a game, and build experience off of these weeks.”
Granite City goes to Edwardsville Friday night, and it is a program Boyd is very familiar with, having been an assistant coach with the Tigers before taking the Granite job.
“Edwardsville is a great program,” Boyd said. “I obviously came from the program last year. Those guys are great coaches over there, I know they’re going to be extremely disciplined, I know they’re going to play hard. But that’s what we expect from our guys. Our motto is discipline, effort, and attitude, and we’re going to continue to preach that. Next week, we just want to see who can be the most disciplined team, who can have the best effort, and who can have the positive attitude. We’ll see where the chips fall after that.”
Boyd is very proud of his players for their hard work and dedication, and how far they’ve come in such a short period.
“I’m just super proud of these guys,” Boyd said. “Our guys are battling and learning. And that’s the cool part about kids is watching them learn. Learning from their mistakes, and continuing to show up. And they’re not giving up on one another. That’s a positive for us. That’s going to turn scoreboards around in our favor in the future.”
