Brothers will face each other when Union travels to West Orange for first scrimmage of football season

It’s only fitting that when you look at the Union football scrimmage schedule it immediately pits brother against brother.

Right now, first-year head coach Barris Grant has several of his players involved in 7-on-7 competition.

The first official day of practice is now less than a month away, scheduled for Monday, Aug. 11.

Photo by JR Parachini
At left is Union 1986 graduate Gary Mobley, presently the head coach at Columbia, and at right is first-year Union head coach Barris Grant. They are on the North sideline during the Phil Simms North-South All-Star Game played June 8 at Kean University in Union. Mobley starred on 11-0 state championship teams at Union his junior and senior seasons of 1984 and 1985, while Grant, after leading Hillside to three state championships, seeks to return Union to its glory days on the gridiron.

The first scrimmages allowed to be played begin the following Monday on Aug. 18.

So, on Tuesday, Aug. 19 we have Union scheduled to scrimmage at West Orange at 10 a.m.

Darnell Grant, older brother of Barris, has been the head coach at West Orange since 2019.

Darnell, a 1991 Irvington graduate, guided Shabazz to its only two sectional state championships in 2014 and 2017 and West Orange to its only one in 2022.
Darnell almost led West Orange to another sectional title last year as his Mountaineers reached the North 1, Group 5 final, falling at home to East Orange 13-7 to close at 9-3. West Orange’s two regular season losses also came by a touchdown at Passaic Tech 28-21 and home against Phillipsburg 21-14.

In capturing the school’s first-ever sectional state championship in 2022 it was West Orange winning at Phillipsburg 28-7 in the North 2, Group 5 final.

Like his older brother Darnell, Barris, a 1997 Irvington grad, has won three sectional state championships, all at Hillside. He led the Comets to Central Jersey, Group 2 championships in 2017 and 2018 and to the South Jersey, Group 2 title in 2019.

Darnell’s 2017 state championship Shabazz team went 12-0 and Barris’s 2019 Hillside state championship squad went 12-0 and was also a regional champion.

Should Union and West Orange make the playoffs this year the two could meet with a whole lot more on the line. Both Union and West Orange are situated in North, Group 5 and could both be put in North 2, Group 5 or North 1, Group 5 when the sections are put together at the end of October.

When Union won its last sectional state championship and first in North 2, Group 5 in 2019 it was the undefeated Farmers in the semifinals holding off visiting West Orange 20-14. That was Darnell Grant’s first year as the head coach at West Orange, with his Mountaineers finishing 7-4 that season. Darnell Grant had previously coached a lot of games at Union when he was the head coach at Irvington.

Not only are Union and West Orange in the same North, Group 5 field, but their enrollment figures are almost identical. As listed on the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association website, Union’s enrollment is reported at 1,670 and West Orange at 1,654, a difference of only 16 students.

Union’s other scheduled scrimmage, which should be its game-scrimmage, is two days later on Thursday, Aug. 21 at 11 a.m. at home at Cooke Memorial Field against Middlesex County Group 5 school Edison.

Union has a nine-game schedule this season and is set to open at Woodbridge on the state’s Opening Night, Thursday, Aug. 28 at 6.

Union’s home-opener is the following weekend on Friday, Sept. 5 at 7 p.m. vs. Hillsborough. Union is coming off a 2-8 season and has finished under .500
the last three seasons. Union last finished over .500 and won a playoff game in 2021.