Editor’s Note: Storylines is a series that will examine each of the teams in the surrounding counties and what to watch for heading into the season
With a new season, expectations high or low follow.
After last year’s battle with the pandemic that limited some area teams to as few as three games, there’s guarded optimism. For the four schools in Raleigh County that play football, it’s understandable.
Beckley’s playoff drought
In the past five years, I’m not sure there’s been a more highly anticipated season in the City of Champions than the 2021 campaign. The Flying Eagles have taken their lumps since the 2014 season – the last time they made the playoffs. During that span they’ve posted four one-win seasons (2016-17, 2019-20) with a three-win season in 2018 that derailed after a 2-0 start.
The tide appears to be changing.
A full season removed from the grueling gauntlet that is the Mountain State Athletic Conference, the Flying Eagles boast an explosive offense headed by quarterback Maddex McMillen and wide receiver Keynan Cook. McMillen progressed as a junior, rewriting the passing record books in Beckley while Cook, a 6-foot-4 receiver, has already committed to play college ball at Georgetown. The duo, along with a talented stable of receivers featuring rising sophomore Elijah Redfern, should light up scoreboards and put Beckley back in contention for a playoff spot for the first time in nearly a decade.
Shady’s quarterback battle
Shady Spring coach Vince Culicerto has a good problem – he has two quarterbacks he believes can start for him in returning junior Cameron Manns and Independence transfer Brady Green.
Culicerto also has experience dealing with two quarterbacks. In 2017 Joe Cantley and Drew Clark split duties with Clark taking the job full-time the following two seasons. Last year Manns and the now graduated Jared Lilly split duties at quarterback, mostly due to injuries. Just under two weeks until kickoff, Culicerto maintains he hasn’t named a starter but Manns leads in the race. The junior has proven his ability to keep a cool head across all sports, doing the same last year when he replaced an injured Lilly against Nicholas County to lead the Tigers to a comeback victory.
Meanwhile Green, who played football in middle school at Shady before completing his freshman year at Indy where his dad coaches basketball, hasn’t played a snap since middle school. Culicerto still sees him as somebody that can grow and play quarterback at the next level, making the decision even tougher. Fortunately there may be an easy fix. Manns is willing to move around the field and has already taken snaps at receiver. With a younger, more inexperienced group of receivers, his versatility may allow the Tigers to kill two birds with one stone.
Keeping the culture
Liberty head coach Mark Workman may have pulled off one of the toughest feats in sports – he took a team that was 1-19 in the 2017 and 18 season combined and turned them into a 6-0 team that hosted and nearly won a playoff game.
That kind of job goes beyond the X’s and O’s – it requires building a culture where failure isn’t accepted. He did that and made a group of seniors, who had only won four games coming into their final year, believe they could turn the program around.
The job doesn’t get easier though. Gone are quarterback Issac Atkins and receivers/defensive backs Braden Howell and Shawn Pennington. The cupboard isn’t bare though. Dynamic running back Ryan Simms returns for his senior year, as does utility man Logan Dodrill. Still, Workman and Co. can lean on the fact they’ve pulled the program from the lowest depths in just three seasons, helping inspire confidence. Add to the fact the Raiders will be unveiling a brand new turf field this season and there’s plenty of reason to believe the foundation is in place for a continued run at success.
Dreaming Big
There may not be an area team that’s garnering more excitement than Independence. The Patriots returned to the playoffs last season for the first time since 2016, giving eventual Class AA champion Fairmont Senior all it could handle before the wheels fell off after halftime.
On an individual level, the Patriots boast a legitimate Kennedy Award and Warner Award candidate in running back Atticus Goodson, a dynamic set of receivers led by Cyrus Goodson and Judah Price, an offensive line that’s a year ahead of schedule according to head coach John H. Lilly and a defense that lost just one starter.
But with all of that come expectations and the Patriots aren’t shying away from them.
“Our goal is to host and win a playoff game,” Lilly said. “We think we’re good enough to be one of those top eight teams that gets to host. I don’t think they’ve won a playoff game down here since 1987 or so, so that’s something we’re shooting for.”
It won’t come easy. In Class AA an 8-2 record doesn’t guarantee you a top seed and the Patriots’ schedule is challenging with Poca, Liberty, Midland Trail, Westside, Man and Nicholas County on the docket.
Contact Tyler Jackson at tylerjackson@lootpress.com, call him at 304-731-5542 and follow on Twitter @tjack94
