The bright lights of Friday night football will be shining around the state of West Virginia in less than a month.
For the Woodrow Wilson football program, those lights were shining early Monday morning – very early.
Just after the clock struck midnight turning Sunday evening into Monday morning, Flying Eagles’ head coach Street Sarrett and his players hit the turf of Van Meter Stadium to begin preparations for the upcoming football season.
It was the earliest moment allowed by the West Virginia Secondary Schools Athletic Commission.
“We just wanted to do something exciting for these kids after what has been going on with COVID and quarantine,” Sarrett said. “I thought it would be really cool to get them out here at the first available time that we could practice and get after it. The kids are super excited about it.”
Wins have been a struggle for the Flying Eagles over the past few years, however, the struggles have failed to put a damper on the enthusiasm inside the program.
“These kids show up everyday and work hard. Our school supports us and our town supports us,” Sarrett said. “The kids are upbeat and great leaders in the locker room and we have great assistant coaches that keep things going.”
Although Woodrow Wilson finished 1-7 last year, a play here or there could have easily changed a loss into a win, especially over the final three games.
“We could have won some of those games. If we had caught the ball in the Huntington game we could have won that one. Greenbrier East and George Washington were three-point games,” Sarrett said, “We just have to get better playing defense here at Woodrow with tackling and getting to the ball. That is one thing that we emphasized during our summer workouts. Getting people that want to tackle.
Although the Huntington game fell into the loss column, it ultimately could be the turning point for the program going forward.
“Maddex McMillen became comfortable being a quarterback that night,” Sarrett said. “I have said all along if we had caught the ball that night, he would have thrown for over 500 yards. That was his game, it built confidence in him and rolled from there.”
In the two games after the Huntington contest, McMillen threw for over 536 yards and six touchdowns. In the GW game, McMillen threw for a school record 366 yards and four scores. He also rushed for three scores against Greenbrier East.
Now the question heading into the season becomes, will this be the breakout season that fans around Beckley have been hoping to see?
There are plenty of reasons to think that indeed may be the case in 2021.
The biggest reason for excitement comes from the number of experienced players returning for the Flying Eagles on both sides of the ball. Woodrow Wilson will field roughly 20 players that have starting experience to go along with a lethal set of skill players.
McMillen is back for his senior season to lead the offense after an impressive summer traveling to camps and combines.
Georgetown commit Keynan Cook is back to lead a talented receiving core that will cause opposing defenses fits.
“Keynan is a bigtime player that works hard. Both him and Maddex are great in the classroom. Very smart, talented, multi-sport guys,” Sarrett said.
Ty’lai Kimble, Elijah Waller, Bradley Snider and Elijah Redfern are highly skilled targets for McMillen along with Mike Miller who will move from the line to the H-back/receiver position.
Miller will be a huge target at 6-5 that Sarrett says has good hands and moves his feet well.
While the defense struggled at times last year, 11 players with starting experience are back and Sarrett feels the progress made over the summer will shore up that side of the ball.
The veteran coach not only feels like his team is ready for a breakout campaign, Sarrett feels this team could be postseason bound.
“The playoffs are not out of the question and that is our goal every year,” Sarrett said. “You get in the playoffs and anything can happen. You see it every year. It is just a matter of getting there.”
Woodrow Wilson has two scrimmage games scheduled before the home opener in Beckley against Riverside, Aug. 27.
The first scrimmage will be Friday, Aug. 13 against Spring Valley in Huntington at 4 p.m. and the second scrimmage will be in Beckley against Nitro, Friday, Aug. 20 at 7 p.m.
