Welcome back to The Deep Post, a weekly column that hits on the rumblings of the week past and ahead. This week’s offering includes playoff thoughts and a look into the chaotic state of the Coalfield Conference.
Opening DriveÂ
All three area teams that hosted playoff games won and will host again next week. But I want to start with the lone area team that went on the road and won in Independence. It goes without saying that the defending state champs aren’t your usual No. 14 seed. But Roane County is also an experienced program that’s won two playoff games over the last two years. The Raiders weren’t wide-eyed playoff virgins tasting success for the first time.
Independence instead looked like a top seed welcoming a playoff straggler for a beatdown. Coal Camp Tough, GATA (get after their ass) – all those slogans that sell shirts were applicable in Indy’s 55-21 win at Roane and the Patriots simply dictated the game. Roane’s style is to line up toe-to-toe, control the ball and wear on you. Indy shut that down immediately, coming up with a pair of fourth-and-short stops and jumping out to a 21-0 lead.
That forced Roane to the air where an opportunistic Indy defense snagged four interceptions. Indy won with its defense and trench play.
The Patriots have title aspirations again this season but Friday’s win is the one that pushes them into that elite program tier with Fairmont Senior and Bluefield. Those programs have made consecutive trips to Wheeling Island and have backed into the playoffs as bottom seeds, causing havoc. Every Patriot that played Friday can take pride in the fact they cemented Indy’s spot in hierarchy. For the next five years, regardless of seed, Independence will be the team that no team wants to play in the first two rounds of the playoffs. And the game was won with a largely different cast than the one that put the program on the map over the last two years. Sure Trey Bowers, D Hypes and Tyler Linksweiler did their things but Landon Riddle, Dalton Williams and Sylas Nelson were also impact players in Friday’s win.
No place like homeÂ
Greenbrier West, James Monroe and Princeton will all host again this week. It’s the first time I can remember where we’ve had more than two teams hosting quarterfinal games.
West and James Monroe were going to host regardless if they won but Princeton benefitted from Parkersburg upsetting Hurricane. All three won easily this week but the quarterfinal round is where it usually toughens up which makes home-field advantage that much more important and it’s paid off for those three teams.
Princeton has lost just two home games in the last two seasons, Greenbrier West hasn’t lost a home game since Nov. 5, 2021 and James Monroe hasn’t lost in Lindside since Oct. 22, 2021. Sometimes just getting in, as Independence has, is enough but when teams have to come to your place its a decisive advantage.
Coalfield Conference
The idea of a conference that encompasses most, if not all the area teams, is a good one in theory. But the revival of the Coalfield Conference has largely been a failure because agreements are being reneged on. The work done by those trying to bring the conference to relevance should be commended but less than two years into its new look, the conference is failing.
When it was initially revived post-Covid, the principals and athletic directors of the member schools all agreed they would play the conference teams in their classifications. After all, a perk of conference membership is guaranteeing a schedule. That hasn’t happened with some schools dropping others from their schedules entirely next season. Wyoming East has already informed Independence it won’t play it in football next year. As a result Independence, which has established itself as a football power within the state, has enacted a rule that if a conference school refuses to play it in one sport then it loses it in all sports. It’s led the boys basketball team to drop East from the schedule with more programs to follow.
There are 20 schools member schools – seven in Class A, nine in Class AA and four in Class AAA. All of the Class AAA schools play each other so there’s not a problem there but the two smaller classes are already in disarray. Greenbrier West can’t get Meadow Bridge on the schedule which has led to frustrations as the Cavaliers have had to add Petersburg and Moorefield to fill games. Bluefield, which had the best winning percentage against Class AA conference schools (2-0), can’t get anyone outside of PikeView (which is made to play that game by the Mercer County BOE) and Independence on the schedule. That’s a problem that’s plagued Bluefield for years to a point that it had to schedule all four Class AAA members of the conference.
“I think the point of a conference is for schools to have common goals and to add more levels of competition,” Greenbrier West athletic director Jared Robertson said. “Winning a conference championship may not be the same as a state championship but it is an important goal that you can provide for your kids. That competition builds rivalries from sport to sport leading to increased interest, more excitement, better crowds and an overall better experience for your student athletes. The schools should support each other and try to help each other. Yet we are scrambling trying to fill our schedule and play schools four hours away while schools of the same classification refuse to play. It is frustrating.”
That’s just one issue plaguing the legitimacy of the Coalfield Conference. The other is pettiness. If Shady Spring is a member of the conference, other member schools must treat it as such. The all-conference volleyball list was shared with me earlier this week. Shady, which played in the state championship game every year from 2019-22 and didn’t drop a single set against a Class AA team in the conference this season en route to a semifinal finish, didn’t have a single player on the list. Not even an honorable mention.
The omission was largely attributed to the Tigers not having a rep at the meeting while also missing the conference tournament for an already scheduled event. Still, how can you feel good about a list like that if you exclude your best team?
Shady as a school is already having second thoughts on conference membership as well. Boys basketball coach and athletic director Ronnie Olson is experiencing many of the same struggles the Indy football program is after the Nicholas County boys basketball program dropped him from the schedule prior to the season.
“I was against having a conference at first but then I thought let’s give it try and here we are in year whatever we are in and we have teams that either won’t play us or schedule us then drop us after they schedule us,” Olson said. “We have been looking for home games and have to play Wesley Christian out of Kentucky for a home-and-home. That’s a three-hour trip for us. And our volleyball team which is one of the best programs in the state with college level players year in and out can’t get anyone on the all-conference team? You tell me why we would want to play in the Coalfield Conference.”
There’s pettiness in every conference. Just look at some of the past MSAC teams in comparison to all-state teams or even the Big 10 (North Central West Virginia) which refused to do all-conference awards for girls basketball in 2021 after Meredith Maier transferred from Grafton to Fairmont Senior.
So what’s the solution? A freeze out.
For example, if Wyoming East or any other school refuses to play another conference school in one sport, then enact a ban like the MSAC does for members who breach their contracts. When Princeton left the MSAC before its contract was up, it was banned from playing MSAC teams for a specified period aside from postseason matchups. It forced Princeton to schedule Brooke, Wheeling Park, Martinsburg, etc. while losing access to Charleston area schools. It turned 90 minute trips into four hour trips.
If breaching your conference contract costs you access to 18 other area schools, that should get the message across as budgets are strained. The challenge is getting all member schools to agree to that. Independence, which has only had nine regular season games scheduled the last two years and is rightfully miffed about how it will struggle to fill its schedule, is quick to point out how it has lost to all other conference schools over the last five years.
The football team lost to Bluefield this season, Liberty in 2020, Wyoming East in 2019, PikeView in 2018, Shady in 2019 and Nicholas County in 2019. It’s all cyclical. In basketball it would be difficult to recall a time Indy beat Wyoming East in boys or girls basketball.
The frustrations are at a boiling point and if the Coalfield Conference is to survive it needs to figure out a way to cool tensions. State championship caliber programs bring pride, notoriety and most importantly legitimacy to conferences. Losing Independence, Bluefield and Greenbrier West football or Shady Spring and Bluefield basketball would be the same as ACC basketball losing UNC or Duke or Big 12 football losing Oklahoma and Texas. That doesn’t even hit on the baseball programs at Independence and Shady which have been the only two from the area to make the state tournament over the last six years. Coming off a school year where the conference had four state championship teams and state POTY winners, it’s imperative to find a solution before it all falls apart.
Gold StarsÂ
Trey Bowers, Independence – Bowers has six career postseason interceptions. He had two Friday and four during the 2021 title game run. Those carry more weight in the postseason when you’re playing the best of the best.
Brad Mossor, Princeton – Mossor has been the less heralded member of the Princeton offense. Dom Collins and Marquel Lowe are putting up points left and right, Chance Barker is breaking every program record at QB and Eli Campbell is going to be a Stydahar Award finalist. Still, Mossor has quietly produced 895 yards from scrimmage and eight touchdowns this year, starring in Saturday’s playoff win.
Greenbrier West Defense – Wirt County running back Chase Lowe needed 54 yards to break the program rushing record. He was limited to 50 as the Cavs forced four turnovers and came away with five sacks and a safety.
Princeton’s Pass Rush – Kalum Kiser, Mikey DiGiacomo and Jordan Cooper spent most of Saturday in Oak Hill’s back field, routinely forcing Red Devils QB Malachi Lewis to scramble. They got home frequently in the 37-7 win.
Layton Dowdy, James Monroe – Dowdy threw five touchdown passes to three different receivers, setting a new single-game career high in Saturday’s playoff win over Sherman.
Final ThoughtsÂ
Bluefield offensive coordinator Fritz Simon announced he was hanging it up after a 20-year run in coaching. He had served in that role since 2004 and immediately provided a jolt for a program that won titles in ’04, ’07, ’09 and ’17.
Replacing him will be an incredibly tall task for a program that’s enjoyed consistent stability at a championship level. Simon was loved by many of his players and could install almost any offense on the fly. During his 20 years on staff Bluefield ran the wing-T, spread and I-formation amongst others. The Beavers could seemingly sport any offensive formation from week to week and year to year. Even this past season they went from a QB-run team early to a passing spread team late.
He was also a terrific scout that aided in defensive game planning. I can’t begin to share the amount of times he tipped me off on things to look for – tells and tendencies that opposing players put on film that helped indicate the play pre-snap. If a player slightly raised his heel before the snap or had one foot forward, he knew what the play would be. When Fairmont Senior went under center and fumbled into the end zone in the 2017 title game, he told his players to be ready for that because the Polar Bears hadn’t gone under center all season. They did for that play and it changed the outcome of the game.
I’m not sure how Bluefield replaces a talent like that or if it can but it speaks to the level of coach he’s been for his alma mater.
Email: tylerjackson@lootpress.com and follow on Twitter @tjack94
