By Mike Moore Photo Courtesy of Northwest High School
Staff Writer
Jackson — In the eight years prior to Adam Grybauskas’ arrival at Central Lake, the Trojans’ football program never won more than five games in a single season, never reached the state playoffs and had a 34-38 record.
In the eight years prior to Grybauskas’ arrival at Elkton-Pigeon-Bay Port, the Lakers had two winning seasons, two trips the playoffs and a program record of 32-42.
In 15 years, combined with those programs, Grybauskas went 97-54 and reached the state playoffs nine different times.
Needless to say, he’s no stranger to transforming a struggling program into a winner.
On Monday, he accepted that challenge once again when he was officially announced as the next football coach at Northwest.
“We’re excited, we really are,” Grybauskas said Tuesday afternoon. “This is an awesome move for us. To come to a bigger school with some new facilities, it’s great. It’s going to be different, coming from smaller schools where we had to beg players to come out, to this, where we’ll have plenty of kids to work with, but I’m looking forward to it.”
Grybauskas began his gridiron coaching career in 2001 with Central Lake, and from that fall until 2010, he went 61-31 while qualifying for the Division 8 playoffs six years in a row.
After Central Lake, he accepted the head coaching job at Elkton-Pigeon-Bay Port, where from 2011 through 2016, he amassed a 36-23 overall record and made the D-7 playoffs three out of the past four years.
“I’ve been able to turn struggling programs around before,” Grybauskas said.
Struggling is one way to describe what the Mounties have gone through on Friday nights.
The program has an all-time winning percentage of .371, has never made the state playoffs, and in the past seven years, has won one game or less, six times.
Last year’s team went 0-9, averaging 13.3 points per game on offense while allowing nearly 40.
It’s a troubling past Grybauskas has stepped into, and that’s exactly how he intends to look at it.
“We’re not going to focus on the past,” he said simply. “We know this is a struggling program. For me that’s an opportunity. My message to the kids was not to look at the past, but as opportunity to do something new. The big message going forward is improving and getting better. We’re going to focus on today being better than yesterday.”
Grybauskas, who grew up in Hudsonville, said it’s been a goal for him and his family — he and his wife Nancy have three children, Isaiah, Braylon and Grace — to eventually move closer to home.
“Jackson fits that build,” he said. “While this district is similar to where I was, with a lot of land and being near the woods, we’re also 10 minutes from the luxuries of being in a big city. We’re looking forward to that.”
The other luxury he’s eager to work with is an increased roster size.
After 15 years of working with programs in D-7 and D-8, Northwest would likely find itself in the D-3 or D-4 playoffs.
“The numbers are going to be a big adjustment or me,” Grybauskas, 41, said. “I’ll have to adjust how I run practice and how I work with personal packages and get guys on and off the field. There’s just more options I have to work with, which is great. At the same time, I know the competition level is going to be better than what I’ve seen before. So we have to be ready for that.”
Grybauskas will begin teaching high school physical education at Northwest, and said his next main duty as coach is to assemble a staff.
“That’s what I’m working on,” he said. “We need guys who want to be a positive influence on kids. When you’ve part of a losing program, that can really become part of the mindset. Part of turning things around here is changing that mindset, changing that culture. We need everyone believing we can win by going out and giving the best effort possible.”
Grybauskas stopped short of giving a specific timeframe as to when he expects the transformation to occur, but was nothing short of certain it would.
“You take on a challenge like this without that belief,” he said. “I know it’s going to take some time. Who knows how long? I’m a hopeful and confident person. We want to turn this around relatively fast, and if we get everyone to buy in, that’s what’s going to happen.”
Mike Moore is a play-by-play commentator and Sports Writer for JTV Sports.
He’s also a Real Estate agent with Real Estate One, specializing with buyers and sellers throughout Michigan, from the Jackson area to metro Detroit. You can reach him at mjm12@albion.edu or by calling (313) 770-6365 with any inquiries.