As the football Lancers of Grace Brethren High School in Simi Valley, Calif., headed to the CIF-Southern Section Division 4 championship last Saturday night, they were featured in the Ventura County Star on Friday. A portion of the story appears below. Click here to read the complete article. (Grace Brethren High School is a ministry of Grace Church, a Charis Fellowship congregation in Simi Valley (Jordan Bakker, pastor).
How did little Grace Brethren become a big-time football powerhouse?
When Josh Henderson accepted the head coaching job of the Grace Brethren High football team in 2010, he admits the program wasn’t his top priority.
“I was thinking about my family first,” he says. “I wanted a place where we’d all be happy and comfortable. The football team had potential but there was work to be done. We were taking over a program that had gone through a few down years.”
Henderson and the Lancers enjoyed solid success that first season, finishing 8-4 and winning a first-round playoff game. Yes, the potential indeed was there.
But who could have guessed where Grace Brethren would be eight seasons later?
The smallish Simi Valley school that began as an 8-man program 27 years ago and features a student enrollment of 305 has evolved into a big-time football powerhouse.
Sporting an 11-2 record, the Camino League championship and the division’s No. 3 seed, Grace Brethren will play for the CIF-Southern Section Division 4 championship on Saturday night when it hosts top-seeded Corona del Mar (11-1-1) at Royal High. Kickoff is 7 p.m.
It marks the fourth time in the past five seasons Grace Brethren has advanced to the championship final, including last year when it won the Division 8 crown. The collective record in the last five seasons is 58-9.
Click here to read the complete article.