Mark Workman and the Liberty Raiders reaped the fruits of their toil last season.
After going 1-19 combined in 2017 and 2018, the senior group highlighted by Shawn Pennington, Isaac Atkins, Dustin Workman, Colten Williams and Braden Howell helped Liberty to a 6-0 record last season, good enough to host a playoff game.
Their season was nearly extended, but Herbert Hoover pulled off a comeback, beating Liberty by a point in Beckley, denying the program of it’s first playoff win.
Now Workman, the head coach in Glen Daniel, is tasked with replacing the production of his departed senior class while maintaining the newly established culture.
He’ll do so with a youthful group.
“Over the past four years we played the same group of kids,” Workman said. “Those kids just left us so we went from experienced to pretty youthful. We’ve got a couple of seniors at the skill positions but up front is where the challenge lies for us. We’re going to be pretty young up front.”
Still, Workman views this year as an opportunity to reload instead of rebuild. He’s never been one to look at a number and aim for a win total, but feels confident the worst days are behind his team.
“When you from where we were to where we’re at right now, we did turn it around,” Workman said. “We’re kind of back to the drawing board just a little bit here with a young offensive line. We’re going to start in the first game, probably four sophomores up front and one senior. But the expectation is still there. We expect these kids to work hard, we expect them to compete and we expect them to win. We don’t see ourselves going back to where we were but we don’t guarantee that we’ll be undefeated again. These kids will be ready to rock and roll.”
Still it’s hard not to be excited after last season and the progress the Raiders have made. Adding to the excitement is the installation of a new turf field that’s changed the way the team has been able to practice.
“There’s a lot of buzz,” Workman said. “This is probably the first year where we’ve had a ‘Meet the Raiders’ type of event. There’s a lot of excitement. Not only for us but the community itself. I know the youth leagues have been practicing on it and the middle schools have been using it a little bit. There’s a lot of noise and a lot of excitement around it. It makes things a little easier too.
“It gives you landmarks. In the kind of offense we run here with a lot of run and gun stuff, it gives us numbers to get our kids out on. They know what we mean by the top of the numbers and the bottom of the numbers. They’ve got it everyday where they need to work at. They know where the hashes are and where to get to. Just those landmarks let you run practice more efficiently. You can do it on a grass field but it’s a lot of work for the coaches getting the lines right every week and making sure. Now we don’t have to do that.”
Speaking of the offense, Workman doesn’t anticipate too many changes. That’s largely because he has a senior quarterback and two excellent, versatile skill players in seniors Ryan Simms and Logan Dodrill.
“We’re still sticking to the same type of offense,” Workman said. “We don’t see any reason to change. We’ve still got some skill positions that are pretty tough and we kind of feel like we’ve got four running backs and all four can do really well if we get them to the next level. They can go. All those kind of guys, they just need to slither through the first level. Logan and Ryan are guys that will see time in the backfield but we can also move them around to the slot and hit them in the passing game. They’ve played a lot so they know what we like to do. We’re sticking to what Liberty football does and that’s won us some ball games.”
There are also big shoes to fill at quarterback.
Atkins was a second-team all-state selection a year ago for the Raiders. The plan this year is to roll with senior Clayton Williams.
“Losing Isaac is a tough loss,” Workman said. “We have a kid that’s a senior and has been behind Isaac for the last two or three years here. His name is Clayton Williams and kind of like the way Isaac was, we’re going to use him in the run game and he can throw it. Isaac’s a big loss, but it’s high school football and you’ve got to go with the next man up.”
Contact Tyler Jackson at tylerjackson@lootpress.com, call him at 304-731-5542 and follow on Twitter @tjack94
Schedule
1 08/27/21 7:00PM H – INDEPENDENCE SENIOR –
2 09/03/21 OPEN –
3 09/10/21 7:00PM H – PIKEVIEW –
4 09/17/21 7:00PM H – LOGAN –
5 09/24/21 7:00PM A – CLAY COUNTY HIGH SCHOOL –
6 10/01/21 7:00PM H – WAYNE –
7 10/08/21 7:00PM A – WESTSIDE –
8 10/15/21 7:00PM A – SCOTT –
9 10/22/21 7:00PM A – JAMES MONROE –
10 10/29/21 7:00PM H – SHADY SPRING –
11 11/05/21 7:00PM A – WYOMING EAST –