The Anderson Union High School District Board of Trustees will vote on whether it will rehire Greg Grandell as West Valley’s next head football coach during its regular session on Wednesday, Feb. 11.
Grandell’s name appears in the Feb. 11 agenda under consent items and can be found in the Human Resources Report. There is no discussion on consent items unless a member of the board, staff or public requests specific items be discussed or removed from the agenda.
Grandell served as the head coach of the Eagles for 27 years from 1993 to 2020 and won 200 games with the program to become the second-winningest head coach in Northern Section history.
Grandell won Northern Section Coach of the Year in 2018, the same year the Eagles won the Division III NSCIF title. West Valley won a total of three section championships and nine league titles during Grandell’s tenure.
While Grandell established himself as one of the greatest coaches in Northern Section history, his exit from the West Valley program in 2020 was plagued by scandal.
In 2021, a lawsuit was filed against the Anderson Union High School District and Grandell that alleged there was a “longstanding tradition of hazing, bullying, intimidation, harassment and physical assault” within the program under Grandell’s leadership.
The claims listed in the lawsuit described older players forcefully holding down younger players and using a piece of PVC pipe, known as the “PIYA Stick,” to abuse younger players by jabbing the pipe into their “buttocks and rectal area” against their will. The suit also claimed that victims typically wore underwear or gym shorts.
The suit alleged that once the assaults were reported, Grandell launched a cover-up and threatened to kick players off the team if they spoke about any instances of hazing or abuse outside of the West Valley program.
Grandell denied all claims and the lawsuit was settled and dismissed in 2022. No disciplinary action was taken against Grandell.
Most recently, Grandell served as an assistant coach for the Shasta High School varsity football team under head coach Aaron Richards.
The Record Searchlight reached out to West Valley officials as well as Grandell, both declining to comment until after the Board of Trustees’ final vote.
If voted in, Grandell will take the reins from former head coach Jason Weston, who resigned from his role with the team following the 2025 season. Weston coached at West Valley for four years (2022-25) and led the Eagles to a 7-4 record in 2025.
Brett Abrams is a sports reporter for the Record Searchlight/USA Today Network. He covers high school and local sports in the Redding area. Reach out to Brett with any sports tips or news on X (formerly Twitter) @brabrams_ or by email at Brett.Abrams@Redding.com. To support and sustain this work, please subscribe today. Thank you.
This article originally appeared on Redding Record Searchlight: West Valley football looks to rehire Greg Grandell as head coach
Reporting by Brett Abrams, Redding Record Searchlight / Redding Record Searchlight
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