For the second straight year Bluefield limped into the Class AA playoffs.
But the Beavers again made some noise as they were the only team in the state that played within a score of Independence but fell in Coal City for the second straight season to eventual champs.
With a roster loaded with retuning players, veteran head coach Freddy Simon, who enters the season with 296 career victories, has liked the early returns.
“I think our kids are trying and they’re pushing to have the right attitude and character,” Simon said. “It’s not an easy thing to fix this day and time but they’re picking up on things we’re pushing to get right and they’re working hard. The effort’s been good. They’re focused and I’m seeing improvement there. I like what I’ve seen so far.”
There are some notable holes to fill.
The Beavers graduated all-state quarterback Caleb Fuller and their replacement at the position, Bryson Redmond, elected to focus on baseball. That’s required some shuffling with wide receiver Sencere Fields moving to QB, forcing some role changes. R.J. Hairston, an all-state receiver, will see some time in the back field as will Gerrard Wade, Ty Powell and Kisean Smith amongst others.
“(Offensive coordinator) Fritz (Simon) has done an excellent job working with what we have to be the best we can be at it,” Simon said. “We’ll be out of play action and throw some passes with shotgun stuff but we’ll also have a pretty good mix with the running game with some running backs that can rest each other. I feel good about our scrimmages, not great because we’re not executing like I want to, but I feel good with what I’ve seen offensively and defensively. Honestly I feel like we’re goin to have a pretty good football team.”
While loaded with talent, the Beavers have already been dealt a blow. Running back Amir Hairston earned first-team all-state honors following his sophomore season in 2021 but played in just four games last year after suffering a lower body injury.
A Kennedy Award candidate, Hairston and the Beavers were dealt another blow when he suffered a knee injury at a camp this summer, requiring surgery and ending his high school career.
“Playing without him last year helped us but boy we sure would’ve loved to have had him,” Simon admitted. “It’s heartbreaking for me, him and our whole team that a guy of his character and talent can’t be with us but he’ll be with us as much as he can with sidelines and practices so we’ll have that part. But our players had to go without him last year and we didn’t start with him this year so it will be the same as last year when we finished up.”
On the defensive side of the ball Simon is optimistic with existing continuity helping the learning curve.
“We’ve got most of our players back,” Simon said. “Last year we didn’t have the right combination but probably after the first Independence game we kind of put together what we knew we thought would be a good fix. We got better and better and got quicker. We already know now where those pieces go without having to waste any time. That will be an advantage we have this year going into the first game because we know where everybody belongs without having to take a guess. When you can rep kids at their position it becomes a better football team because now we know where we belong and what we’ve got to do when the game starts.”
As usual, Bluefield comes into the season with one of the most difficult schedules in the area. It starts with the Virginia 2A champions in Graham, jumps to Class AAA playoff team Princeton and features Class AA champion Independence and Class A runner-up James Monroe. For good measure the rest of the area Class AAA teams in Beckley, Greenbrier East and Oak Hill are all present and accounted for.
While seemingly overwhelming, the new point change rule that gives teams bonus points for playing quality competition (they get points or fractions of them for each win that a team that beats them earns) should favor the Beavers.
“That’s kind of what you want as long as you don’t get kids hurt,” Simon said. “To me when you play a tough schedule you only get better with your competition and that means you can’t take a break mentally or physically each week and you play tough teams. Now that they’re adopted the strength of schedule rule where you get points still when you get beat by a team it helps. If we were to lose to a Princeton for example and they were to win 10 games that would give us 10 extra points when it got down to adding at the end of the year. That helps and it’s same for double-A where you get 0.9 for every game they win. Losing to Independence we would’ve gotten nine points because they went undefeated and Graham would be the same. I like the strength of schedule deal.
“Last year if it had been in effect we would’ve finished 13th which is big because we wouldn’t have had to go to Independence in the first round and I felt we could be the best team but we needed a couple more games in the playoffs to get that confidence and it would’ve been nice to meet John (H. Lilly) in Wheeling as opposed to that tough ‘ol place at Independence. They had a heck of a team and after we lost to them I think everybody saw how good we were and how good they were because they just stomped everybody after us. It wasn’t even close.”
For all of Simon’s optimism there’s just one concern – depth. The Beavers field a roster of under 40 players with many of the starters playing both ways. One injury can force a cascade of changes.
“We have a good group of 12 or 13 deep but once you lose a couple kids in double-A it’s tough,” Simon said. “We lost Amir and we still battled back but it would’ve been nice to have a season where we don’t have anybody hurt and eventually we’re due for that. We’ve had year where we don’t have anybody hurt and the last couple we’ve had them get hurt. We’re due for one where nobody gets hurt.”
