Midland Trail head coach Frank Isaacs remembers his first interaction with Josh Dickerson.
He didn’t know who he was.
“Honestly I get a text the Sunday before out first practice,” Isaacs said. “It said ‘Is it too late to come out for football?’ I’ll be honest with you, I didn’t have his phone number and I didn’t know who it was so I said ‘Sure man, anytime!’ and I asked my son who it was. He said ‘Oh that’s Josh Dickerson’ and I never gave it a second thought. I said that’s great, it’s a senior coming out for his last year. He wants to honor his brother and wants to wear his jersey and I thought that was really cool.
“It’s no secret that Josh lost his brother in a car accident last spring and he had played for us for three years so I was excited for him to be able to do that.”
Dickerson did just that, showing up to practice and when Isaacs started splitting the players into position groups he asked Dickerson what he wanted to play. The answer was almost immediate.
“I’ll never forget this look,” Isaacs said. “He just gives me this little smirk and he says ‘I really think I can play quarterback.’ I’m not going to lie to you, I laughed inside and told him to go ahead over with the quarterbacks. I never imagined him playing. It was unfortunate because we had our first scrimmage canceled and our second one cut to 45 minutes because of lightning and he got only six snaps in that game.”
While Isaacs never dreamed Dickerson would be the quarterback he wasn’t alone.
Dickerson assumed he’d be a spectator.
“Naw,” Dickerson said ” I figured I’d be riding the bench, having a good time and getting to hang out with my buddies on the sideline.”
Twelve minutes into the season Isaacs called Dickerson’s number. With the Patriots struggling against Clay County they needed a spark, one that the senior who hadn’t played football since middle school provided.
“We weren’t moving the ball at all,” Isaacs said. “Josh comes in and throws three straight completions and we score on that possession and ever since then he’s been our quarterback. If he had played all four years he’d be one of the better quarterbacks in the state of West Virginia.”
Dickerson has made his coach look like a genius this year, tossing over 15 touchdowns passes and throwing for over 1,000 yards.
Perhaps this year more than ever, having a capable player at the position has been important for Isaacs. In years past the Patriots have relied on the ground game with a stable of bruising backs. While they still roster those type of players they’ve been blessed with an abundance of speed and pass catchers. The trio of Ayden Simms, Cody Harrell and Matt Light have formed one of the classifications top receiving trios.
Wasting a year of that trio was something that concerned the seventh-year head coach, but Dickerson’s performance put the qualms to rest.
“I’m going to be honest with you,” Isaacs said. My wife and I were sitting in my car and she looks at me and says ‘You have to go with Team Josh.’ I started laughing and told her I couldn’t do that and risk wasting those kids. I told her I couldn’t put him in charge of the offense. She said ‘I’m telling you right now, it’s Team Josh. That’s going to be your best offense and your best chance to win games.’ And I didn’t listen to her until there was a little voice in my head during that Clay County game. It was my wife’s voice and it kept say ‘Team Josh,’ so I put him out there.”
Dickerson has rewarded Isaacs not just with his play, but his initiative to keep improving in a sport he hasn’t played in years. He’s taken every opportunity to learn the offense he’s engineering, checking with the veteran players to make sure he understands his responsibilities. It’s come in handy as he’s been a key cog in a four-game winning streak that saved Trail’s season as it makes it fifth straight playoff appearance on Friday.
“To his credit he’s tried his best to learn our offense,” Isaacs said. “He’s stuck around Aden Isaacs a lot and he’d sit with him on the bus on away trips learning the offense and learning what I liked and what I wanted. He  learned and he’s still learning. Once we identified him as the starting quarterback I knew we wouldn’t go any further than he could grow, along with the offensive line. It just came to fruition that the last couple of weeks we’ve started finding our identity and he’s started improving and figuring out what he could and couldn’t do and that goes for us too. That’s the reason for our success the last few weeks.”
For Dickerson, immersing himself in the playbook and improving when thrust into the role of starting QB was an easy call. He didn’t want to let his teammates down and figured if he was going to do something he may as well commit to it. He did so and has helped make the season a success this far for his teammates.
“I mean if you’re going to do something there’s no reason in doing it halfway,” Dickerson said. “I didn’t want to let everybody down by not doing my job right. There’s people out there working every day. The seniors that have been there longer than I have are putting in the work. I’d hate to mess something up for them and ruin their senior season.”
Email: tylerjackson@lootpress.com and follow on Twitter @tjack94
