Former Canton High football coach Roger Pearl, shown in 2011, will be the first inductee of the Canton High Football Hall of Fame at the Friends of Canton Football golf tournament in June.
Nearly 20 years ago, the Canton High football program was resurrected after an absence of nearly four decades.
When Canton’s Board of Education approved a proposal to play varsity football in December 2006, it came with a cost.
Friends of Canton Football would have to pay the entire cost for the team plus another $8,000 to go toward the formation of a girls lacrosse team to ensure that Canton complied with Title IX regulations.
After dropping the sport in 1964 due to a lack of players, varsity football resumed in Canton in 2007. Canton was able to field a team for the next 12 seasons but a similar problem surfaced – there were simply not enough boys interested in playing football.
In 2019, the Warriors teamed up with Granby to form a co-op program that has been very successful with five consecutive CIAC tournament appearances and a share of the Pequot Uncas championship in 2021.
Throughout the years, Friends of Canton Football has remained constant. They don’t foot the whole bill for the program anymore but they remain a significant resource for the football program and the opportunity for Canton athletes to play football.
Friends of Canton Football will host their 21st annual fundraising golf tournament on Monday, June 23, at Simsbury Farms beginning at 9 a.m.
One new feature to the tournament this year is the creation of the Canton High Football Hall of Fame, according to Friends of Canton Football member William Forte.
Longtime football coach Roger Pearl, who coached Canton for four seasons from 2008-11, will be the first member of the Hall of Fame. Pearl, who has been part of the coaching staff in Granby for the last ten years, will be beginning his 46th season coaching football this fall.
Pearl was an assistant coach at Woodrow Wilson in Middletown that went to the Class S finals in 1982 and at Middletown High, which went undefeated and won the Class M title in 1984 and finished second in 1985 and 1990. He has also coached at Manchester High, Windsor, Avon, Glastonbury and Bulkeley.
Pearl, who spent six seasons in Canton, was the ninth football coach in school history. He was an assistant for two years with Graham Martin, who coached the club team in 2006 and the varsity squad in 2007.
Canton’s best season under Pearl was in 2009 when the Warriors went 6-4 for its first winning season since 1958. After dropping their first three games, the Warriors won six straight games including scoring a school record 54 points in a win over Housatonic and gaining 586 yards of total offense in a win over Wolcott Tech. Six players earned All-Pequot Conference honors.
Under Pearl, 15 Canton players earned All-Pequot Conference honors and linebacker Nate Scott was the first football player in school history to earn All-State honors in 2010.
Canton did win the Sportsmanship Award from the Hartford Board of Football Officials and Pearl has been selected to be part of the Connecticut coaching staff for the 2012 Governor’s Cup All-Star game against Rhode Island.
“I have no regrets and I wouldn’t have done anything different if I had to do it all again,” Pearl said in 2012.
Pearl was the defensive coordinator at SMSA in Hartford from 2012-15.
Since 2016, Pearl has been the defensive coordinator in Granby on Erik Shortell’s staff. In eight seasons – there was no season in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic – the Bears have had six consecutive winning seasons with five straight CIAC tournament berths. Canton joined Granby in a co-op program beginning in 2019.
