Since making the state football playoffs with a magical late season run in 2017, Richwood has struggled to find wins.
In each of the seasons since 2017, the Lumberjacks have failed to reach the .500 mark.
Now first year head coach Todd Russell is hoping to turn past struggles into future success.
Russell is taking over this year as the head man in Richwood after former coach Gary Roach stepped down after last season.
While he is new to the high school head coaching end of things, Russell is far from a new face in the land of the Lumberjacks.
“I have never been a high school head coach, but I have been the defensive coordinator the last three years,” Russell said. “I started out the season before that as the JV offensive coordinator. We had a coaching shuffle halfway through the season that year and I ended up finishing that year as the offensive coordinator.”
If enthusiasm equates to success, Richwood definitely has the right man for the job going forward.
“This is my dream job. I went to high school at Richwood, graduated from there and I have worked my way up through the Pee Wee program,” Russell said. “I got a chance to coach at the high school and this is where I want to be. I bleed black and orange.”
Although Russell wasn’t named head coach until early January, he was already busy putting his thumbprint on the team.
“I was still the assistant coach and (athletic director, J.B.) Miller felt like going forward that it was going to be my job. He let me have a lot of input on next years schedule and how we ran things in the off-season,” Russell said.
Russell talked about being please with the response during the off-season workouts, but admitted that it was a little different this year.
“We have a few kids that are die-hard weight room kids,” Russell said. “You always have the four or five that never miss a day. They haven’t been used to us having so many kids playing baseball and running track. We had 23 kids on the baseball team and that is huge for us. So, they had to make an adjustment.”
“As a football coach, it makes it a little rough on you because you want them all in there,” Russell continued.” “On the other hand, I realize we are a small school and for us to be successful in sports as a school we have to have kids playing multiple sports.”
As would be expected with a coaching change, changes on the field are sure to follow for the Lumberjacks.
“We want to approach the upcoming season with a new outlook. We are overhauling the offense. We will run a few of the same plays, but with coach Roach we were a no-huddle offense,” Russell said. “We will have spots of that, but we will huddle. We will also look and see what the defense is throwing at us pre-snap. We are just changing a lot of the way we do things.”
A little slower pace may also be dictated by the losses suffered due to graduation.
“We lost a lot on the offesnive line. We lost three four-year starters. That is a spot we definitely have to fill in,” Russell said. “We have a couple of hold overs from last year that started pretty much every game that are really good. We also have one that started a lot towards the end of the season. We have to fill those spots if we are going to be successful.”
The first chance to get his group together on the field starts Monday evening when the Lumberjacks begin the summer three-week period allowed by the WVSSAC.
Russell outlined his goals for the next three weeks.
“Getting the new playbook down will be key and on the defensive side of the ball we want to play with a different mindset,” Russell said. “We will be emphasizing special teams, so that will be part of our program as well. We want them to understand how important special teams are to winning ball games.”
The offense will get some work in two planned 7-on-7 scrimmages. One scrimmage will be held at Richwood June 25 and will include Wyoming East, PikeView, Shady Spring, Sherman and possibly Buffalo.
The Lumberjacks will also be at WV State June 23.
“(Former Richwood standout) Caleb Jantuah is the back-up quarterback down there and his coach asked him if we were coming, so we will be there,” Russell said.
Richwood opens the high school football season August 26 against rival Webster County in the annual “Wagon Wheel” game.
