River View Head Coach George Kennedy saw the progress he was hoping for in year three at the helm of the football program. A playoff drought that started in 2013 was nearly snapped but COVID interfered and the Raiders were on the outside looking in.
Still they finished with a winning record at 5-3.
Now in his fourth year at the helm, Kennedy is hoping the Raiders can not only break through to the postseason but also establish themselves as one of the top programs in Class A. He feels like they have the talent to do so.
“We started with about 35 players and we’ve got a lot of guys coming back with experience,” Kennedy said. “All of our skill positions are back intact. We have three of our five starting offensive linemen back so from that end of it we’re looking pretty good. But the guys we lost, we lost a lot of size. As a matter of fact two of our guys are playing college ball this year and one of them is the starter on the depth chart. Fall camp has went great for us though.
“We’re trying to develop depth. We scrimmaged (Class AA) Mingo Central and we did well. We looked at a lot and were happy with what we saw. Right now our concern is with depth and getting our guys healthy because we have about 14 or 15 freshmen on this team so half the team is made up of first year players. There’s a lot of promise and speed. We’re not as big as a team but we’ve got most of our starters back. We just lost a lot of depth.”
One thing working in the Raiders’ favor as they attempt to snap their playoff drought is experience. They lost a few good players in the trenches, but return several starters up front
“On the offensive line we have Riley Morgan,” Kennedy said. “He can play college ball. Maybe not on the line but he’s bulked up, can run and he’s really strong. He runs like a linebacker or tight end. We have a kid that’s a sophomore from Ohio and his name is Hayden Jones. He’s strong as an ox and benched 225 for 10 reps at the end of workouts. Nathan Bailey is a four-year starter for us. He’s our guard and middle linebacker. He’s about 225 pounds and stays in the weight room.”
The strength of the team this season will be their skill players. As somebody whose been around the program since its inception in 2011, Kennedy had high praise for the group of playmakers he’ll be coaching this year.
“Our skill guys, they’re probably the fastest group I’ve seen at River View,” Kennedy said. “What we lack in size we more than make up for in speed. We have Josh Proffitt, who ran a sub-4.5 at Marshall on the laser this past summer. He’s a receiver for us and he’s a junior. We have a first-year player in Maleek Woodson. He hit a growth spurt and he wouldn’t play because he was so small in the past but he’s only a half-step behind Proffitt. We have Mikey Picklesimer who’s just a good athlete and a good running back for us. He’s an all-conference defensive player.
“We’ve got Wyatt Blankenship who’s another running back for us. He’s just one of those program kids that’s a poster child for how a player should be and look. When he came to us his freshman year he was 88 pounds. About 20 months ago he was 88 pounds and benched 90. He’s now 170 pounds and benches 225 and is running a 4.65 for us. He’ll be one of our halfbacks. We’ve got Zaiden Beckner, he’s another 4.6 kid. William Cooper is a senior and he’s a jet. He’s got afterburners and of course we have Conner Christian who will be our quarterback. This is his third year and he got a lot of reps his sophomore year and started four or five games for us last year. All those guys are playmakers and they’ve bought into the program.”
With a dynamic group of playmakers, Kennedy anticipates making changes to his offense that get those players in space and take advantage of their skillsets. That strength combined with a smaller offensive line makes the most sense to him.
“We’re going to have to get those guys into space and probably run off tackle a little more,” Kennedy said. “We will try to quick pass a lot to give our athletes opportunities in space. That’s kind of what we want. I’ll still run a variation of the wing t, but its similar to what Auburn would run in college because we don’t have 260-270 pound linemen all across the front. Last year we were physically big and could move a lot of people. I felt like last year we were good enough to compete with anybody in single-A. Unlike years past when we could ride it down your throat, we’re going to have to change it up a little bit.”
Experiencing success last season has helped Kennedy realize the program is moving in the right direction. Now heading into his fourth year the goals he has set for the team have changed.
“Well, last year my goal was to be .500,” Kennedy said. “I wanted to get there by my third year and we went 5-3. I want to improve on that. I want to be in the hunt and looking toward the postseason. That’s not my No. 1 goal. That’s putting almost a label on it. Like if you make it to the state championship game and lose and your goal was to win, you failed. Of course we have those goals on the field but we want to teach these boys how to be fine young men when they go into the world. We want them to be successful as employees, business owners or husbands. But as a team and a program, I want us to get back to expecting to make noise and get into the postseason. That’s my goal, and it might be lofty but we have to raise the bar.”
Contact Tyler Jackson at tylerjackson@lootpress.com, call him at 304-731-5542 and follow on Twitter @tjack94
Schedule
1 08/27/21 7:30PM A – MOUNT VIEW HIGH SCHOOL –
2 09/03/21 OPEN –
3 09/10/21 7:30PPM H – SHERMAN –
4 09/17/21 7:30PM A – HURLEY, VA H.S. –
5 09/24/21 7:30PM A – VAN SENIOR/MIDDLE SCHOOL –
6 10/01/21 7:30PM H – WYOMING EAST –
7 10/08/21 7:30PM H – TWIN VALLEY, VA H.S. –
8 10/15/21 7:30PM H – MONTCALM –
9 10/22/21 7:30PM H – CLAY COUNTY HIGH SCHOOL –
10 10/29/21 7:30PM A – PIKEVIEW –
11 11/05/21 7:30PM A – RICHWOOD –
Roster
# Pos. Name Gr Ht Wt Avg
William Cooper 12
Donovan Short 12
Damion Morgan 12
Maleek Woodson 12
Tyler Cooper 11
Matthew Savage 11
Michael Starr 10
James Dawson 10
John Curtis Hess 9
Jaxon Martin 9
Colten Lester 9
Bryan Mullins 9
Brandon Pistorius 9
Dalton Stacy 9
Bradly Hicks 9
Jayden Lockhart 9
Nicholas Coleman 9
Jaytex Hatfield 9
James Kennedy 9
Kaiden Newberry 9
Chanton Davis 9
10 RB.DB Peyton Hale 12
11 QB-DB Conner Christian 12
24 QB-DB Michael Picklesimer 11
27 RB-DB Wyatt Blankenship 12
28 RB-DB Zaiden Beckner 11
44 TE-DL Laura McCoy 10
54 OL-DL William Morgan 12
55 OL-LB Nathan Bailey 12
60 OL-LB Hayden Jones 10
72 OL-LB Robert Hughes 10
80 TE-DB Joshua Proffitt 11