It took John H. Lilly just five years to lead Independence to the top of the mountain. Now he’ll try to keep the Patriots there.
Modeling his program after those of Class AA powers Bluefield and Fairmont Senior, Lilly and Co. dispatched of both of those titans on the way to the program’s first Class AA state championship. The task now is doing what those programs have done in replacing key departures while remaining in the hunt each year.
This will be Indy’s first crack at it after graduating a star-studded senior class that included the program’s second consecutive Kennedy Award winner and record-shattering running back in Judah Price. Despite the loss of over 10 starters, the early returns have been encouraging.
“I like their effort and I like their enthusiasm,” Lilly said. “I’ve been really pleased with how practices have gone and I think we’ve got really good leadership which is something we were looking for out of this bunch because we have so many introverts. We just need to get seasoned. We need to get out there and play because we’ve got so many new people and the only way you can learn is to get out there and play. In a lot of ways it’s a new team.”
Last year’s iteration played in just one one-score game and steamrolled opponents in every other game by multiples scores. The younger group hopes to carry on that success.
“It’s been a positive and a negative,” Lilly said. “The positive is they expect to go out there and beat people 65-0. The negative is they expect beat people 65-0. It’s a different team and they’re young. We’re going to be in some fights this year and in atleast four or five games it’ll go down to the last play. We know that but they’ve got to learn that.”
Trey Bowers, a two-time all-stater, becomes the first QB to start at the position in consecutive years for Lilly. He set the single-season passing yards mark with over 1,600 yards in the air while adding 800 on the ground. He’ll lead an offense where he’s the veteran but he won’t be alone.
Tyler Linskwiler will start at running back, following in the footsteps of Price and Atticus Goodson, the last two Kennedy Award winners. Linkswiler accumulated over 700 yards on the ground last year, good for 10 yards a rush in limited action. He’ll be joined by Connor Bradford, a Liberty transfer who rushed for 1,300 yards last year.
“We are high on him,” Lilly said of Linkswiler. “He’s waited his turn and he started at wide receiver last year and still almost had 800 yards rushing. I think our running back position is really solid. I think Connor Bradford will be getting a lot of reps this year. It’ll be almost 60-40 there and there will be times we have both in the backfield at the same time. I thought (Bradford) had a great scrimmage against Hoover filling in for Links. We also have a sophomore, Lucas Waddell, who played well in our scrimmage and we’re high on him. The running back position is pretty solid for us.”
The blueprint for getting the replacements up to speed seems to have worked thus far. Lilly has been an advocate for using flex days in the spring for installations and practice. During the three-week period he utilized his time by scheduling co-practices with other programs including Class AAA champion Huntington.
“I think spring ball, it really helped us,” Lilly said. “Starting as many sophomores as we did in that scrimmage, if we didn’t do some of that stuff in the spring they would’ve been awestruck, especially on defense. We practiced with Huntington and they’re loaded with guys that have D1 scholarships and early they toasted us but as the practice went along we got better. You could see us say ‘We’re just as talented, they’ve just got the big guys.’ Every team we went against this season was a double- or triple-A playoff team. The test is how much it helps. But I think if we didn’t do that in the spring Hoover would’ve lit us up in the scrimmage.”
With the losses along the offensive line, and at the skill positions the Patriots will likely look different than they have in years past on offense, specifically in their run-pass splits until the chemistry shores up.
“We’re still creating our identity,” Lilly said. “For three years we had the same people starting and they created their identity. The identity of this team won’t be the same as the ones we’ve had the last three years. We’re stronger at other positions than we’ve been at some positions. I think the thing is for us to understand that we’re going to be in a bunch of four-quarter battles and dog fights and they’ve got to understand that. That’s why we’ve scrimmaged so hard with Hoover and Princeton. We’re scrimmaging as hard as we can for our size school in preparation for that. Hopefully our scrimmages help prepare us for it.”
With the offense working to build continuity, Lilly expects to lean on an aggressive defense that features Bowers at defensive back and D Hypes at linebacker.
“I’ve always believed if you bite when you’re a puppy you’ll bite when you’re a dog,” Lilly said. “We’ve got a bunch of puppies that will bite, they’ve just got to grow up. I think they’ll have to help us a little bit until our offense catches up but I think they will catch up. We’re trying to get everybody in the right positions. But that’s why we wanted tough scrimmages to see where our weaknesses are. If you scrimmage somebody and beat them 100-0 you don’t worry about it if you’re a veteran team but if you’re young team you want to see where the weaknesses are.”
Seeking a third convective trip to Wheeling, the players have set their expectations high in hopes of making the trek north in December. While that’s understandably the standard, Lilly’s goal is a more broad but falls in line with how the Patriots got to where they ended up last season.
“The goal at the end of the year is to be better than we are at the start,” Lilly said. “The players have set some lofty goals and the coaches have set some lofty goals. My goal is to be better at the end of the year and progress. I think we have the talent that if we progress and make the playoffs we can still make a run to the state championship and I believe that with the talent we have. I think any time we get on the field with the exception of two or three teams we might have the best three players on the field. But there’s some other positions that need to grow into that.
“Our goal six year ago is we wanted to be able to compete with Bluefield and Fairmont every year. We felt like if we could compete with those two every year we’re in the hunt and that’s where we’re at. We want to be a consistent championship level team. That’s what we’re going to strive for.”
