Coach Grantham

Jim Grantham

Offensive Coordinator, Defensive Backs

Jim Grantham begins his 23rd season as an assistant coach at White House, joining the staff in 1986. He serves as offensive coordinator, coaches offensive line and defensive backs, and teaches industrial cooperative education at WHHS.

He graduated from Middle Tennessee State University with a Bachelor of Science in health and physical education, after transferring from Volunteer State, and he is a 1977 graduate of Gallatin High School, where he was a standout defensive tackle and named Most Valuable Lineman and All-Conference for his senior season in 1976.

Grantham was a student teacher at Hendersonville in 1982, coaching the defensive ends and assisting with the baseball team, and coached an All-Star baseball team that summer with current Blue Devil head coach Jeff Porter. He and Porter graduated Gallatin together and played one year under legendary head coach Calvin Short, who recently has joined Grantham and Porter at White House to help with the freshmen team in recent seasons.

He accepted a position at Gallatin in the fall of 1983 and was an assistant freshman football coach, then joined Porter at White House in 1986 under Bill Locke, and the two have been on the same sideline since.

His units have scored over 30 points in 86 games during his 21-year-span, with 10 of those coming in 1998 and eight more in 2004, both semifinal seasons. His offensive units have only been shut out five times in 19 years, and only once in the last 12 years.

Coach Grantham is a resident of Gallatin.

Q: What is the best part about coaching at White House and teaching at this school and in this community?

A: “I enjoy both the coaches and the kids. We get along so well and the kids work so hard and do everything you ask of them and they are always a pleasure to coach. We have such a great administration and staff and it’s really a good situation for me.”

Q: When you are not specifically coaching your players on Friday night, what types of things catch your attention during the game?

A: “I feel like all of us coach both sides. You just try to see what they are doing and try to find something you can use. We have been fortunate to have plenty of offense throughout the years and sometimes we are looking to find something (in the opponent) if we are out-manned, which we are fortunate to have rarely happened. Everyone really works together well.”

Q: The staff at White House has been together as a whole for a long time. What are some of the things you notice that the general fan does not get to see about this staff and this program?

A: “I think just how much they care about the kids. They demand so much out of them, not just on the football field, but in the classroom, doing what they are supposed to do to be good people and being a good citizen when they leave this program.”

Q: What is the biggest thing you notice about incoming freshmen when they are first exposed to the program?

A: “What is their attitude, how do they practice, how do they carry themselves and how they act, not just on the field. Usually if they are great kids in the school, they are going to be great kids in the program.”

Q: What is the biggest change in kids from the time they arrive in the program until they graduate?

A: “A lot of them mature both physically and mentally. Hopefully we get that from our young kids every year. Hopefully they mature in the right way.”

Q: There is a hallway in the fieldhouse with pictures of past players, teams and their accomplishments. Do you ever stop and take a glimpse of the past?

A: “I think you remember it most when the kids come back. You see them and remember something they did or said, it might not have even been on the field. It brings back a lot of good memories to see our kids come back after five years, 10, 15, 20 or whatever it is, and be a part of it. That makes you feel good.”