By Tom Bragg, For Lootpress.com
HURRICANE, W.Va. – New position, no problem for Noah Vellaithambi.
The Hurricane junior made the move from quarterback to running back this season, and so far Vellaithambi has acclimated him self well to the new role.
Since settling in as the Redskins feature back, Vellaithambi has quickly blossomed into the one of the state’s most productive ball-carriers in recent weeks.
Last week at Princeton, the Hurricane junior put on a show. Vellaithambi carried the ball 41 times for 285 yards while scoring four touchdowns as the Redskins got out of Mercer County with a 56-41 win against the host Tigers.
For his efforts, Vellaithambi has been named the Lootpress Kanawha Valley Player of the Week.
The award is sponsored by Dutch Miller Auto Group.
The conditions for Hurricane’s road win to improve to 6-1 last week were not great, with a delayed bus and hostile atmosphere not helping matters. For head coach Donnie Mays, however, the plan was simple – keep giving the ball to Vellaithambi.
“Our bus arrived late, we didn’t get time to warmup, the other team rushed us to the 50-yard line and kind of got in our face a little bit,” Mays said. “It was just a wild beginning to the ballgame and we had to get locked in for a minute. I told the kids early, ‘We can be down 14-0 before we blink an eye, that’s a tough place to play.’ And Princeton was coming into that game 6-0 and it was kind of a Super Bowl game for them. They onside kicked us early multiple times and got the ball back, but at the end of the day staying calm and just feeding the ball to Noah behind the line we have – it was just a simple game plan that falls into place. A lot of that is because of his vision — he’s got great vision and he’s a smart kid. He knows when we call certain things the angles he needs to take or what jump-cuts he might have to make. He’s just a tactical-type player. It’s an old-school approach for a new style of play.”
Vellaithambi had his coming out party as a running back nearly a month ago when Hurricane roared back from down 25 points to beat Spring Valley 48-35 behind Vellaithambi’s 34 carries for 271 yards and five touchdowns – including the late go-ahead score.
“Coming into this year, we knew that [Vellaithambi] could be a guy we could sprinkle everywhere but we didn’t realize he was our main, featured back until we screwed up and didn’t give him the ball enough, and that’s completely on us,” Mays said.
Since that night, he has really been the first option in a Hurricane backfield he now shares with Marshall-committed senior quarterback JacQai Long, who returned to West Virginia for the 2023 season after beginning his prep football career at Capital as a freshman before spending two seasons in Ohio.
“It’s like you have two quarterbacks back there,” Mays said. “One has the option to throw the ball and the other can run it – but we can also throw it with Noah back there too. We haven’t really done that much, but when you have a brain like Noah back there running the ball, he can give you a lot of insight as a coach about angles and stuff that he is seeing out there that can really open up parts of the run game. He’s a smart football player and when he comes over to the sideline he is feeding us a lot of information.”
Next up for Hurricane, ranked No. 3 is this week’s WVSSAC Class AAA state playoff ratings, is a visit from neighboring rival Cabell Midland, which comes into this week’s trip into Putnam County at 7-0 and No. 2 in the Class AAA ratings.
Scott’s Carson Brinegar won this week’s Community Choice fan vote, receiving more than 50 percent of the more than 42,000 votes cast. Brinegar caught 13 passes for 227 yards and scored three touchdowns in the Skyhawks 55-9 win against Cardinal Conference foe Logan and now advances to the Community Choice poll, which will be conducted after the regular season with the winner of that poll awarded a $500 scholarship by the Lootpress Foundation.
Kanawha Valley Player of the Week winners
Week 1: Josh Moody, Nitro
Week 2: Chase Massey, Winfield
Week 3: Dane Hatfield, Herbert Hoover
Week 4: Preston Bonnett, Poca
Week 5: Matt Frye, Scott
Week 6: Hunter Giacomo, George Washington
Week 7: Noah Vellaithambi, Hurricane
Community Choice Players of the Week
Week 1: Trey Lester, Sherman
Week 2: Chase Massey, Winfield
Week 3: Caden Ray, Riverside
Week 4: Noah Vellaithambi, Hurricane
Week 5: Blake Fisher, Herbert Hoover
Week 6: Preston Cooper, Scott
Week 7: Carson Brinegar, Scott
