Prep Football Preview: Midland Trail eyes return to the playoffs in 2023

Most years a 6-4 record is good enough to send a team to the high school football playoffs in West Virginia.

Unfortunately for Midland Trail, that was not the case last year.

While the four losses were all to teams that eventually hosted a first round playoff game, that fact did not ease the pain in Hico of missing the postseason.

“We don’t want to say last year was a failure, but last year did not live up to our expectations,” second year head coach Jeremy Moore said. “We have set the playoffs as a clear expectations and nothing less is acceptable. It is no secret though, we will have to work for it this year.”

Along with a tough schedule, there were some growing pains for the Patriots. Moore was in his first year as head coach and quarterback Jaden Gladwell was starting under center for the first time in his high school career.

“We were so busy installing passing concepts that we never got into the intricacies of why we throw this and dealing with coverages. I did a poor job of coaching him and that falls on me,” Moore said. “He has really learned this year what to look for pre-snap and post-snap. I really think that will help him in the long run as long as we give him time to do it.”

Gladwell enters his senior season in a much better state of mind and is confident he can get the job done.

“I have more confidence for sure. Last year I was unsure going into everything,” Gladwell said. “Now I am more comfortable in general with reading coverages and putting the ball in tight places.”

A good portion of the struggles last year came in the trenches due to youth and injuries. The Patriots will still be young up front, but depth is much better and players are better prepared to step in when needed.

“John Bowman is a senior and he is the returning starter from last year,” Moore said. “He has experience and is our center. John does a great job, but he will have a lot of youth around him. He will likely have three sophomores around him along with senior Levi Pritt. This is only Levi’s second year, so he is technically a sophomore too.”

Hopefully we can get a junior or senior to step up,” Moore went on to say. “It is going to be about who progresses. We have about 15 linemen and 10 of them can actually play. We just have to find the best five and who will buy in. There are no guaranteed positions. We have guys who actually expect to play and it is really cool to watch them compete.”

If Trail can find the right combination, they have solid skill players around Gladwell to make good things happen.

“I know I am a little biased, but I feel like our skill positions are solid top to bottom,” Moore said. “Running back Will McGraw was a steady force for us last year. He bailed us out when we were struggling.”

In the final game of the season last year, Midland Trail may have found a diamond in the rough when, then freshman, Jayden Roop exploded for a huge game.

“Jayden has big play capability. Will can go big, but he is more of a smash-mouth guy. He normally won’t juke you, he will try to run you over,” Moore said. “Max White, David Moore, Cash Barnhouse, we have a lot of guys that we can roll in there and not miss a beat.”

The run game will be important because the Patriots have some weapons on the outside.

“We have some really good receivers. If we can get a consistent run game that teams have to honor and not sit on basic routes, we can get guys in space” Moore said. “Ian Harper and Landon Syner can go get it. Preston Compton came in from Riverside and he is a really good athlete. Zaylon Johns and Compton are really good in space. They were bright spots at the 7-on-7 workouts.”

Moore also believes his team will be better on the defensive side of the ball.

“From top to bottom I think we are solid. Last year we kind of got pushed around and I think the younger guys took exception to that and really worked in the off-season after getting a taste of varsity ball,” Moore said. “I think we are deep at linebacker and in the secondary as long as we can stay healthy. We don’t have a ton of depth there, but our front eight is really solid.”

McGraw and Oley Jackson anchor the linebackers and John Bowman takes charge along the defensive line.

“We have a lot of guys that just do their job and are not big rah-rah guys,” Moore said. “They all work well together, do their assignments and hold each other accountable to those assignments.”

Midland Trail opens the season at Class AA Clay County on Aug. 25 before returning home to play Tolsia and Meadow Bridge.