They say, “Better late than never,” and that’s no doubt the case this week when, after a few delays, the Guilford County Board of Commissioners is finally honoring the Grimsley Senior High School Whirlies football team that pulled off the impressive feat of winning the state’s 4-A football championship. The Guilford County Board of Commissioners is set to honor the group of winners on Thursday, Aug. 5 in the Old Guilford County Court House.
The board is expected to unanimously adopt a resolution to present to the team – which was scheduled to be done at a meeting earlier in the year before that item was pulled from the agenda.
Many county commissioners have already, in recent months, praised the area football team which for decades existed in the shadow of Page High School in Greensboro, but is now at the absolute top of the heap.
Commissioner Justin Conrad, a proud graduate of Grimsley, will read the resolution and present the framed version to the team.
Earlier in the year, the Board of Commissioners was scheduled – on Thursday, May 20 – to honor the triumphant players that did something Grimsley football hadn’t done since 1960: win the North Carolina championship.
It’s clear Conrad is excited about the victory because he spoke excitedly about it at a commissioners meeting the night before the Whirlies brought home the gold.
When the school won the championship in 1960, it was called Greensboro Senior High. Two years later, the school’s name was changed to Grimsley. This year, under the newer name, the team won the 4-A football championship by beating Raleigh’s Cardinal Gibbons High School 28 to 8 at Kenan Stadium in Chapel Hill on Friday, May 7.
A half dozen years ago, the football program was failing miserably with just two victories in the season. This year, the culmination of a dramatic turnaround, the Whirlies went undefeated and kicked arch-rival Page up and down the field during a 42 to 7 win.
During the height of the pandemic, the commissioners didn’t allow many people at the meetings; however, in recent months, those being honored by resolutions have been allowed to attend, say a few words, and accept a framed copy of the resolution.
It’s not clear what protocols will be in place at the August 5 meeting since county policies are highly fluid right now. A county employee mask mandate was recently put back in place, for instance.
