Beckley seniors Connor Mollohan, Tylai Kimble and Matt Moore have weathered the ups and downs of high school football together.
Wednesday afternoon all of the dedicated hard work and commitment paid a huge a dividend when the talented threesome signed a National Letter of Intent to play college football.
“They are all class kids. The ultimate goal for us is to put out a good product and teach these kids to be men. That gives them the opportunity to go on and play at the next level,” Beckley head coach Street Sarrett said. “Hopefully all of the hard work that we have instilled in them will carry over to college where they can be successful like they were here in high school.”
Mollohan will take his talent south to Concord University, while Moore and Kimble will head north to Glenville State University.
“I am really excited. Words can’t really explain the feeling to sign and play college football,” Moore said. “I have wanted to go to Glenville for quite a long time. This is a very special day for me and a day I will never forget.”
The football connection between Beckley and Glenville was a key factor for Kimble.
“I have people there that I already know. You have (former Beckley players) big Mike (Miller), (Ian) Pomeroy, Devin Gauldin and Jacob Harville up there,” Kimble said. “I will be basically going to Beckley again.”
Kimble has developed into an electric player with the ball in his hands, but he admitted he never thought a day like Wednesday would ever come his way.
“Nah, I didn’t think I would make it this far,” Kimble said, smiling. “Coach Sarrett kept pushing me. I had moments when I wanted to stop, but coach talked to me and I kept playing. I found a love for the game.”
While there is no denying his talents as a kicker, entering high school, Mollohan was arguably the most unlikely of the three to be eventually playing college football.
“If you had told me my freshman year that I would be committing to play college football somewhere, I would have called you crazy,” Mollohan said. “I thought it might be baseball or soccer. I never thought it would be football, but I fell in love with it and this is what I want to do the rest of my life.”
Mollahan’s journey to the next level started in his final year of middle school when a golden opportunity came knocking.
“I was in gym class one day and my coach came up to me and told me he knew I played soccer and they needed a kicker on the football team,” Mollohan recalled. “I kicked four footballs at the end of school and he told me I was playing Thursday.”
The step to the high school level also came at a very opportune time and as they say, the rest is history.
“When I got here my freshman year, coach Sarrett basically told me that it was a big position here. It was the first year they were allowing soccer players to play again as well,” Mollohan said. “I really wanted to do it. I came out the first day with Jerry Umberger, my kicking coach, and he said it was grind, but I was ready and I was committed.”
There was plenty to love about kicking for Mollohan this season. He hit a 40-yard boot and nailed the game winning kick against longtime rival Bluefield.
However, love has not always described kicking for the future Mountain Lion.
“I like to compare kicking to golf. You have your on days where you really love it. Then on the off days you really hate it,” Mollohan said, laughing. “I hated it a lot in the beginning, but I knew it would get better over time. Now I am in a position where I have more lovely days than bad days.”
The close proximity of the campus in Athens in regards to Beckley played a big part in the choice of colleges for Mollohan. It was not the only reason though.
“It really seemed like a good family environment down there. The coaching staff was really friendly and the campus was beautiful,” Mollohan explained. “The really big part was the distance from home. It’s not often you go to college where you can get home with a 40-minute drive, see your mom and get her to cook a meal for you. That is definitely going to be happening.”
It is often said that players should leave a program better than they found it. That is definitely the case for the dynamic threesome.
“I am not trying to sound cocky or nothing, but our class, we changed it around,” Kimble said. “We came in 1-9 and 10th grade year we were 1-9. Our 11th and 12th grade years we were in the playoffs. It is hard to beat that. Before we had our senior walkout I told (the underclassmen), if anything, don’t ever give up.”
While it would have been easy to hang it up after the first two seasons, each player had the same response when asked what gave them the drive to keep fighting.
Moore leaned into the microphone and said, ” coach Sarrett.”
“Coach Sarrett really believed in us and we believe in coach, maybe more than he believes in us,” Mollohan said. ”
For his part, Sarrett always believed in his senior group and strongly feels they have laid the foundation for success in years to come.
“They bought into the standards they we had set and the things that we asked them to do. The reward was back-to-back playoff runs. It shows you just what a great group they are and how they stayed steady,” Sarrett said. “The program is on the rise and they have set the standard. They pop in the locker room in the off-season and talk to the players about keeping that standard high. That is how they want to be remembered.”