Home called, and Tim Sheehan answered.
The longtime Granby boys basketball coach announced last week that he was leaving the Rams after 22 seasons to coach Agawam, his alma mater. The Brownies last reached the postseason in 2017.
“It’s one of those things, you get the opportunity to go home and coach at the place that you played, I’ve always had this thing in my head,” said Sheehan, who graduated from Agawam in 1986. “Can I go to Agawam and do the things and be successful at a much bigger school? It’s intriguing.”
Sheehan won the 2005 Western Massachusetts Division 3 championship, and Granby reached two other finals in 2003 and 2000. The Rams played at Curry Hicks Cage in the semifinals eight times. He won more than 300 games at Granby and authored 20 winning seasons.
“It’s hard to say goodbye and do everything. There comes a time and place where you’ve got to make a tough decision,” he said. “I look at the basketball program as my program. It’ll be tough to leave.”
After 22 yrs as the boys coach at Granby I have resigned to accept the same position at my alma mater Agawam High. Thank you to all my former players for my success. This is a dream come true to go home and give back . #timetoworkbrownies
— Coach Sheehan (@timsheehan21) July 7, 2021
Granby’s upcoming crop of seniors made it even harder. Ryan Gaughan and Nate Breault played as eighth graders for Sheehan, while Brandon Wishart has been in the lineup since he was a freshman. He thought he might stop coaching after his son Ryan Sheehan graduated in 2018, but this class reinvigorated him.
“They’re a big reason I was still coaching. They changed my thinking and brought some life into me and made me want to stick around and made me want to coach more,” Sheehan said. “They lit a fire under me.”
Once he knew he was taking the Agawam job, Sheehan invited Gaughan, Wishart and Breault to dinner. He told them he had them all set up for the summer league and broke the news.
“It was hard to say goodbye, they were shocked,” Sheehan said. “That’s the thing in Granby I will miss the most, I like to think I’m a good coach, but I’ve been a good coach because I’ve had good kids from good families.”
Sheehan said he hopes his junior varsity coach Dylan Dubuc will be able to take over for him. Dubuc works in the school as a physical education teacher. His dad, Paul Dubuc, has coached the South Hadley girls basketball team for the past 12 years.
“I do believe Dylan is the right person for it,” Sheehan said
Kyle Grabowski can be reached at kgrabowski@gazettnet.com. Follow him on Twitter
@kylegrbwsk.