By: Lauren Larsen and Max Straub
After four years as T.C. Williams Head Football Coach, James Longerbeam resigned. He posted a very successful 2019 season as he revived a program that recorded consecutive two-win seasons before his arrival.
T.C.’s football team rarely made the playoffs, but that changed when Longerbeam took over. Three out of his four teams made the playoffs. This year TC defeated 7 opponents to qualify for post season play.
“We have a really really great group of kids that when I first got here in February of 2016 were eighth graders,” said Longerbeam, “They bought in to what we were doing and stayed together. We [also] had a lot of really good coaches with continuity in the coaching staff. I just think it was a combination of that and how hard the kids worked that equated to where we ended up.”
The team defeated West Springfield 21-20 in the first playoff game and lost to eventual state champion South County in the second round.
Longerbeam said that throughout the season, he would not have done anything differently. The team ended up where they needed to be; the program got a lot of players into college, and overall, everybody really enjoyed themselves.
Longerbeam’s favorite memory of T.C. is ultimately the players, “To win the first playoff game, to see them do that with all the hard work that they put into it, they were really really deserving. When they first got here, they had to take a chance with me too. Playing football at T.C. really wasn’t a thing at that time, but these guys made it relevant.”
Senior wide receiver Erick Grandaos Gomez said he had three surgeries for injuries he sustained while playing football; Longerbeam was always supportive of him. He consistently gave Gomez rides to and from physical therapy sessions. For T.C. as a whole, Gomez said, “Coach Longerbeam changed the culture [here].”
The team is sad that Longerbeam is leaving, but they are all very grateful for the last four years with Longerbeam. Senior safety Ricardo Ross said, “Coach Longerbeam was like the father I never had.”
