Woodruff HS football prepares for season without legend

WOODRUFF, S.C. (FOX Carolina) - The Spartanburg County School District 4 community started school this week without one of their own.

Former teacher, administrator, coach, and school board member Dr. Randy Grant died in May.

For decades, Grant also served as the Woodruff High School football team’s official statistician.

“Randy was real serious about stats. He was real particular,” said Woodruff HS Athletic Director Mike Morris.

A Woodruff native, Grant began teaching in the 1970s.

“He had so many different roles, but the one that everybody will know Randy Grant by is holding the clipboard here or anywhere the Wolverines played on Friday night,” said Garrett Mitchell, a friend of Grant’s.

For more than 30 seasons, he would meticulously keep stats for the football team.

“It just meant so much for him to be out here and I think to serve the kids that he would watch on Friday nights and the generations of players that came through,” explained Mitchell.

When he first became the statistician, it wasn’t something he asked to do, but rather something he was appointed to by legendary former coach Willie Varner.

“Coach always wanted his stats at six in the morning, so after the game, Randy would actually go home and stay up all night,” recalled Morris.

Grant took a break from the sidelines for several years in the mid-90s, but this upcoming season will be the first in nearly 20 years he won’t be on the field on gamedays.

“Friday nights here just will not be the same without him,” said Mitchell.

But his legacy will carry on.

“He loved Woodruff High School, he loved Woodruff football with all of his heart,” said Morris.

“Woodruff football, this town, and our schools were a far better place for having Randy Grant here with us,” added Mitchell.

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