Prep Football: Summers County's Dodson earns Player of the Week honors

Summers County head coach Josh Evans was high on senior back Duke Dodson coming into the season. So much so, he considered playing him at QB until starter Brandon Isaac returned from an injury.

Instead of nerfing his effectiveness he kept him in the backfield where he’s quietly had another effective season.

He wasn’t so quiet Friday.

Dodson rushed 13 times for 154 yards and six touchdowns while hauling in four passes for 55 yards and his seventh touchdown – a school record – in a win over Sherman.

For his efforts, Dodson has been named the Week 7 Lootpress Player of the Week by the Lootpress sportswriters. The award is sponsored by The Law Offices of Brandon Steele, Bodyworks and Mid-State Ford.

Dodson was also the winner of the online fan poll which broke the tie to earn him the win, making him eligible for the year end Community Choice Player of the Year poll.

It wasn’t a huge surprise Dodson was as effective as he was. Rushing for nearly 1,000 yards a year ago he’s already proven his mettle as a weapon, rushing for 582 yards and 12 touchdowns thus far.

“It’s his senior year and he’s been very consistent for us all year,” Evans said. There’s no question about that. He needed a game like that but we didn’t think he’d score seven touchdowns. But he needed a game like that to get us rolling in the back half of our season and I say it to everybody but in my opinion he’s one of the best football players in Southern West Virginia. The kid knows the game, he’s very coachable and plays with everything he’s got.”

As good of a runner as he is, Dodson is versatile enough to move all over the field. It’s why Evans wanted to give him more snaps at QB originally before changing his mind. Dodson proved how much of matchup nightmare he is with his work in the receiving game which was also aided by the return of Isaacs.

“Duke’s a big body,” Evans said. “He’s easy to find out there on the field when you’re back there looking for somebody to throw to. He’s 6-foot-1, 6-foot-2 and you can pick him out pretty quick. He finds a way to get open a lot. He’s not the fastest kid on the team but what he does do is he does everything hard. By doing that it allows him to get open a lot and will allow others to get open a lot down the road because they’ll start keying on Duke.”

Dodson’s ability to generate big plays has already opened up opportunities for his teammates. Drake Cole leads the team with 786 rushing yards, a stat aided by the attention Dodson commands and the effort he brings. He’s a force even when the ball isn’t in his hands, finding a way to get involved.

“Drake’s success is based a lot on Duke Dodson’s blocking,” Evans said. “That’s why we have Duke where he’s at in the wing-T. Duke’s probably at 20 or 25 carries less than Drake but on those carries he wasn’t getting the ball he was doing some really special stuff in the blocking game. It just gives us two players teams have to key on.”

***

Dodson also won the fan vote with 10,132 votes, over 48 percent of the final tally. In an effort to reward communities for their diligence in voting for their respective players, Lootpress will take the top vote getter each week that hasn’t already won the Community Choice poll and advance them to the pool of candidates for the newly created Community Choice Player of the Year. When the regular season concludes, the 11 players that led in total votes their respective weeks will be grouped into a poll where everyone can vote on one player to win the award as well as the $500 scholarship that comes with it.

2022 Player of the Week Winners

Week 1: Kaiden Vance, Westside

Week 2: Darmonte Mitchell, Beckley

Week 3: Ian Cline, Greenbrier East

Week 4: Judah Price, Independence

Week 5: Ethan Holliday, Greenbrier West

Week 6: Ty Nickell, Greenbrier West

Week 7: Duke Dodson, Summers County

2022 Community Choice Winners

Week 1: Cooper Ridgeway, James Monroe

Week 2: Layton Dowdy, James Monroe

Week 3: Khamrin Proffitt, Princeton