Watch familiar faces from West Charlotte begin their ‘Amazing Race’ tonight
West Charlotte High football coach Sam Greiner and his wife Connie will be on Season 33 of the popular CBS reality show, “The Amazing Race,” which debuts tonight (8 p.m., WBTV, Charlotte)
He can’t say much about what happened, due to a non-disclosure agreement. And we understand. CBS doesn’t want viewers to know what happens and ruin the suspense.
But what Greiner, 39, can talk about is what he believes happened because he and his wife, Connie, 38, participated in the grueling show that pits 11 teams of two in a race around the world chasing a $1 million prize at the finish line.
Shortly after filming stopped, the couple got a big surprise: Connie got pregnant. The couple welcomed a boy, Elijah Rock, just in time for Christmas.
Elijah Rock was eight pounds, two ounces.
“We wanted to have another kid for seven years,” said Greiner, a co-host on the Observer’s Talking Preps streaming high school sports show. “We’ve been married for 10 and we’ve been unable to get pregnant all this time. I think maybe the bond we formed during this race was a factor. We got closer. I mean, it’s a very stressful situation, fun but stressful. It definitely brought us closer together.”
The Greiners have two girls — 7-year-old Journi FAiTH and 9-year-old Charli Belles — and a few years ago, they adopted Braheam Murphy, a high school football player who was on Greiner’s team at Harding. Murphy didn’t have anywhere to live and asked his coach for help.
After moving in with the Greiners, Murphy’s grades improved, he put on much needed weight and, playing quarterback for the first time in his life, Murphy led Harding to its first state championship since the ‘50s. Two years before that miraculous 2017 season, Harding was 1-10. Murphy later signed to play at Army.
The story went national and CNN showed up to cover Harding’s victory celebration.
Greiner said he had never been a part of anything like that — until now.
Greiner said the original story from the Observer about he and Murphy’s journey — and the national exposure that came with it — helped get he and his wife on CBS’ radar.
After a brief audition in Los Angeles, the couple found out they had made the cut before they flew home. And they won’t be the only N.C. team chasing the prize. Raleigh’s Penn and Kim Holderness, former TV news anchors who are now full-time internet personalities, are also on show.
Filming began in February 2020 with teams competing three legs, including two in England and Scotland, but then the pandemic hit and shut down production for more than 18 months. Production was completed earlier this year.
“It’s so hard,” said Greiner, a former college and semi-pro football player. “It’s harder than what it looks like on TV. My wife would probably never go back, it stressed her out so bad. I’m an athlete and you think you can be prepared to compete in this but you cannot. They throw so many things at you. You can go on ‘Survivor’ and you know you what you’re going to do. With ‘Amazing Race’ you have no clue. You have to be smart, communicate with so many people who speak different languages.
“They have the perfect name for it.”
Pressed to talk about how he and Connie did, Greiner references that big ol’ non-disclosure agreement again and laughs. He talks about his mother watching the kids while he and his wife were gone filming. He said he lost about 10 pounds from doing it.
“I live for that type of competition,” Greiner said. “I missed it. I crave that. My life is built around competing and it could be competing at anything. The cool thing was my wife is the total opposite of me and she did this for me. That’s what made me so happy that she was willing to go with me.”
