Published: September 05, 2008 12:01 am         

Game night won’t be the same at Wyoming East

It’s game night tonight in New Richmond. The hometown lads will take the field to face Scott. Time was when this was a huge event, replete with pageantry and festivity.

Not that any of that matters tonight.

As familiar face will not be on the sideline.

Assistant coach Andy Grogg, older brother of head coach Kevin Grogg, and father of all-state quarterback Thad Grogg, died Tuesday of complications following heart surgery. He was 54.

“The family is tore up, and football-team-wise, it’s not real good, but we’re plugging on,” Kevin Grogg said. “I’ve had a lot of support and a lot of help for the kids.”

This was Grogg’s time. Heck, it was the Groggs’ time.

“We’re a football family,” Kevin said Wednesday. “Our uncle was a coach. Our granddads were big football fans, WVU fans. My mom and dad are huge college fans. We grew up playing football. That’s all we did. Friday night in the Grogg family meant football. When Andy and I played in college, Saturday was football. My mom and dad never missed a game that we played in. And if we didn’t have a game, we’d go to WVU or Marshall. That was the way we were, the way we are. Our mom probably knows as much about football as anyone.”

Andy’s death was a total shock to the first family of football in Wyoming County. In fact, Kevin said the brothers discussed his recovery on the way to Charlottesville and the University of Virginia Medical Center.

“The doctor told us it would be five days and he would let him go to the first game (Aug. 29, which was postponed to Sept. 13), but he would have to sit by himself, away from people,” Kevin said. “The second game, he was going to let him sit in the press box, and by the third game, he’d be ready to return to the sideline.”

Tragically, it didn’t happen that way.

Grogg underwent four surgeries to try to repair his damaged heart.

Kevin, as well as other family members, were by his side when Andy died.

“I was with him, holding his hand, which absolutely killed me,” Kevin said. “But truthfully, I was real lucky. A lot of times people don’t have that opportunity. I was fortunate I got to be with him.”

By Tuesday evening, Grogg was back — as was Thad — practicing for tonight’s opener.

“We felt like that’s what Andy would have wanted,” Kevin said. “I talked to the kids about it and my uncle (Corky Griffith, who coached at Logan and DuPont, among others) was there and that really helped. That helped us get through it. People asked me about practicing (Tuesday) and no time would have been the right time. We could have waited until next week, but any day would have been a bad day.”

Thad practiced well, Kevin said.

“Obviously, Thad was hurting,” Kevin said. “But once he got out there ... I guess maybe just concentrating on football helped him. He really practiced well.”

Andy Grogg more than loved football.

“He didn’t have any hobbies, he didn’t golf, he didn’t fish ... the only thing he did was football,” Kevin said. “That was his love. I’m going to try to carry on for him this year, do the best job I can. It’s going to be hard, he was a big part of this team and a great coach. He had a way with the kids. He was a lot different then me. And I think that’s why we worked so well together. Brothers usually don’t get to do that.”

Grogg was well respected in the football community as a longtime coach.

“Twenty coaches are going to be pallbearers (at today’s funeral),” Kevin said. “Every one of them told me they would be there. I mean, it’s a bad time for them, game day, but they said basically to forget football, it’s secondary, we’ll be there.

“And my principal, Barry Smith, has absolutely bent over backwards — he’s tried to get us a bus to transport the kids to the funeral (local churches have donated their vans for that effort), he’s made calls, taken care of everything. I couldn’t ask for a better principal.

“One thing that is disturbing is I haven’t received one call from the (Wyoming County) Board of Education. I’ve put 30 years of service into this county. Are they even concerned about the kids, my brother, me? To me, that is a shame, a disgrace.”

Grogg will recall the good times with his brother most of all.

“You know, we always couldn’t wait for August,” he said.

Ironic then that Andy, who was a head coach at Baileysville, Sherman and Greenbrier East and a longtime assistant at Hoover, Stonewall Jackson, DuPont and Riverside, died in September.

The football gods are smiling this weekend.

— E-mail:

demorrison@register-herald.com