Justin Cogar can’t seem to escape the Mineral County teams.
As a freshman in 2011 his Renegades lost to Keyser. As a senior in 2014 his high school career ended in a semifinal loss to Frankfort.
Ten years later as the head coach at Westside he’ll make the trek to Frankfort again, aiming to pull off an upset.
The Renegades are 0-3 all time against Mineral County team Keyser and Frankfort with their last three playoff loses (2011, ’14 and ’15) coming against those schools.
“Yeah, we’ve got some history with those schools and you know we’ve not had our way yet so we feel like we’re due to get some revenge at some point,” Cogar laughed. “Those teams up there, they play a different brand of football than what we typically see and that’s something that I think the extra preparation has been good. We’ve been able to break down what they do and kind of take it in parts instead of where you know, if you had one week preparation you kinda have to have to get everything done as fast as you can and really get it prepared that way. So the extra week as far as that goes has been good for us because we’ve been able to kinda take a step back with preparation and really work on things in parts.”
Westside was one of the bubble teams that didn’t know its fate until the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the WVSSAC and its ability to enforce its own rules. That said the Renegades did have an advantage in that they knew exactly who they were going to play if they got in.
That extra preparation helped and will prove necessary against the Falcons, the top overall seed in the Class AA playoffs.
“They’re well-coached and they were 10 years ago,” Cogar said. “They still are now and they do a lot of things well. They’re very physical and very disciplined so it’s gonna take our best game to go up and win and we believe we can do that. We believe that we can compete with anyone in double-A, but it’s gonna take our best game.”
The trip to Frankfort will take five hours, forcing Cogar and his team to head up on Friday as they hope to avoid the winter storm as well. Having the experience of the trip as a player, the third-year head coach is hoping to avoid the pitfalls that come with a long bus trip north.
“It’s definitely something that’s different from your standard Friday night game,” Cogar said. “Most of our games are pretty local for the most part so the travel will be different but I think the biggest thing that we did 10 years ago with traveling was being focused and I want these guys to kinda get that similar experience. In my time at Concord I learned the way that you structure your travel to be focused to have times to stay on task and meet with the team and do some last-minute checks.
“We want to make sure we’re rested, make sure we’re eating and we’re prepared to play the game and in every other way that’s non-football. That’s something that we’re gonna put a big focus on this weekend – making sure that our travel is focused, our preparation is right and you know we haven’t had any 1:30 kickoffs this year either so things are different as far as that goes at the end of the day it’s still football. You still gotta go out and play and we’ve had some good practices and we feel like a ready to play.”
Another challenge facing Cogar is the lack of playoff experience. This year’s postseason berth is the first for the program since 2015, the year after Cogar graduated. None of his players have playoff experience, which isn’t entirely unheard of. The 2014 team that made a semifinal run broke a two-year playoff drought with those seniors being freshman when the program made the playoffs in 2011.
Cogar is leaning on leadership to make up for experience.
“I think experience definitely helps,” Cogar said. “You look at some teams around the state that are consistently in the playoffs and they typically do well with their first round matchup as opposed to teams who don’t have a lot of experience. But the one thing similar to this team now compared to 10 years ago is it’s a senior-heavy teams and I think that matters a lot. That’s kind of shown just throughout the year and I think it’ll show again this weekend. When you have teams with a lot of seniors the leadership is there usually. I’m not extremely worried about the guys being focused or being prepared mentally because I know that our seniors are ready for the moment. They played a lot of football so that part is similar to the 2014 team.”
The Renegades are led by a heavy passing attack which features Kadien Vance, Kyler Kenneda and Coltin Lester.
Vance enters with 2,192 yards passing and 27 touchdowns. He’s dangerous with his legs as well, having rushed for 715 yards and 13 more touchdowns.
Lester leads the team in receptions with 59 for 600 yards while Kenneda leads in yards (912) and touchdown receptions (13). Cogar hopes the pass-heavy style presents a matchup problem for the Falcons.
“I think it’s a good matchup for us,” Cogar said. “They’re a true wing-T offensive team and they do really well with their system but they played and beat some really good teams, but they haven’t seen a whole lot of pass-heavy teams and I think our ability to throw the ball is a little different than most teams in West Virginia, especially at the double-A level. I think that’s something that we could use to give them some trouble. I don’t think they see a lot of it so I think it was a good matchup in that way for us. They’re big and strong and physical upfront, but we are too so it’s better. We’ve got some senior guys upfront that are big and strong and can make some plays in the box.”
The Renegades and Falcons will kickoff on Saturday at 1:30 p.m.
