SALT LAKE CITY — Every time legendary East High football coach Grant Martin picked up a newspaper, his grandson Brandon Matich says that Martin would doodle an "E" on the paper for East.
Such was Martin's fondness for the school where he coached for the better part of three decades.
Throughout the latter stages of Martin's coaching career, which wrapped up at the end of the 1970s, he also spent tons of time with his grandchildren, and that time only increased over the ensuing years.
He had a particularly close relationship with Matich.
Matich recalls spending hours upon hours playing catch with his grandfather during all his formative years, and all along the way, Matich tried to be like him — from loving football to doodling E's.
"He would always make the block and the shadows, and then I would do the same thing," says Matich.
Martin passed away of congestive heart failure in March of 2006, but he has remained a pivotal figure in Matich's life.
And Matich has continued to try to be like him.
Both Brandon Matich and his younger brother, Jonny, followed in their grandfather's footsteps by going into education and becoming head football coaches, and Brandon's connection to his grandfather became all the more vivid last winter when he accepted the job of head football coach at East High.
Literally and figuratively, Brandon Matich is following the trail his grandfather first blazed, and Matich has felt his grandfather's immense presence at every turn.
"Every Friday I talk to my grandfather, and I'll tell you what — that son of a gun is there," says Matich. "I know he is, and I know he's proud as hell.
"So if you ever see something crazy or funny happening in an East High game where the ball will go a little to the right or a little to the left — it doesn't go through the uprights for the other team or we catch an immaculate reception — he may have something to do with it."
Not that Matich's team has needed any such fortune yet.
Matich inherited a group of players who went just 1-8 a year ago, but the Leopards have experienced an incredible turnaround so far this fall. Through six games, East is undefeated and has been arguably the state's biggest surprise of 2010.
Indeed, the Matich-following-in-his-grandfather's-footsteps story has been remarkable, and it's perhaps even more remarkable when you consider it nearly didn't happen.
Last January, Matich made the agonizing decision to leave Park City after five seasons to be the next head coach at East.
But then things got incredibly complicated.
After accepting the East job, Matich was subsequently courted heavily by one of the state's premier football programs with offers of incredible resources tendered in hopes of prying him away from East.
Known as one of the state's most emotional coaches, Matich had an indescribably difficult time figuring out what to do.
Searching for answers, he turned to the people whom he trusted the most — coaching mentors, his assistants and his wife, Andrea, among others — and the messages they had for him were all the same.
"All the responses to me — in some shape or form — were 'Brandon, family's very important to you, and that's the direction you should go,' " says Matich.
He followed their advice, and he hasn't looked back since.
Things have changed immensely at East since Martin won four state championships here many years ago, but Matich loves being able to be where his grandfather once was.
"I treasure every moment I have here," says Matich. "It's not the East High my grandfather coached or taught at, but it is East High. It carries the name, and there's not a school in this state that rivals East High for tradition.
"That tradition, football-wise, really in modern times exists because of my grandfather, and those are big shoes to fill. Those are enormous, and it's stressful, too, because there are people in this building who were students. Or I have a gentleman who coached with my grandfather who's still here."
Immense pressure notwithstanding, Matich has made his family immensely proud to have taken over at East.
In particular, his grandmother Barbara, who still lives less than a mile away from East High, can't help but think about her late husband every time she sees her grandson on the sidelines.
"It brings back a lot of wonderful memories," she says.
Matich is delighted to be able to bring them back.
"I'm roaming the sidelines where my grandfather roamed," he says. "If that doesn't make me tear up, I don't know what does. It's pretty cool."
Indeed.
e-mail: drasmussen@desnews.com