New Richmond – Wyoming East head coach Jimmy Adkins spent the first four games of his rookie season trying to find his footing.
He finally found it in a big win over River View but unknown to him, and the rest of the Warriors at the time, it was going to be their last game of the season. That was the reality of 2020 as the coronavirus ravaged through Wyoming County, ending the fall seasons for both of the county’s football teams prematurely.
Fortunately 2021 is a new year and opportunity for the Warriors to exhibit the lessons they learned from 2020
“This team coming in, they’re a team,” Adkins said. “Not knocking any teams in the past because we’ve had a good group of kids but there’s no player that thinks they’re overtop of the team. Everybody’s here for business, everybody knows their job and if they don’t understand it they ask and we help them. But they’re here to get the job done. the locker room isn’t divided, they’re all here for a purpose and they all want to win. They understand that they’re lucky to be here with what we went through last year.
“To add on to that, with us being able to have a three-week period – we’ve been in the weight room since March 1, five days a week and you can see it on these boys. These boys have gained muscle, they’ve gotten strong. It’s just a night and day difference from last year.”
Any improvements the Warriors can make are welcome, especially after key losses to graduation. Gone is all-state running back Caleb Bower, who rewrote the record book at East with a phenomenal 2019 campaign. Also gone is offensive lineman Josh Reiley – also an all-stater. Replacing them isn’t an easy task. In fact it’s one Adkins doesn’t think can truly be done by one person.
“You can’t really replace Caleb,” Adkins said. “Josh is another one too. People around here know Josh but he was under the radar. He was a stud here and one of the best offensive lineman to come through here. It’s hard to replace those guys. You probably can’t replace them, but we’ve got guys that are busting their tails to fill those spots.
“Junior Chandler Johnson is, honestly a name to keep an eye on. He’s gotten bigger and faster. I think he’s like 6-foot-4, 210 pounds or something like that. He understands coming into this year that he’s not Caleb Bower, he’s making his own name for himself. He’s here to make a name for himself and we expect really good things coming from him.”
Johnson will see more snaps in the backfield but helped the Warriors as a receiver in the games they did get to play last season, generating explosive plays. With sophomore quarterback Jackson Danielson back along with offensive lineman Charlie Stewart, Adkins is hoping the offense continues to grow and build on the potential it showed last season.
“Honestly, it’s kind of about going back to last year and what I learned as a first-year head coach,” Adkins said. “I’ve been in the game from the time I was six until I was in college but you just don’t understand the role you take until you’re a head coach. These guys that have been here and done that, they’ll tell you. I’m not going to say what you saw last year you won’t see this year because you’ll see a lot of the same stuff, but we have changed our offense to the players that we have. You’re still going to see stuff we did last year, but we’re going to have a much more explosive offense this year.”
One thing that powers Adkins’ optimism is the offensive line. An experienced group led by Stewart, Adkins anticipates they’ll successfully pave the way for the changes on offense.
“Up front the majority of our guys are juniors now,” Adkins said. “We’ve got a couple guys that were starters as freshmen. You’ve got Charlie Stewart, Blake Cook – those are guys that have taken their lumps and it’s their show now. Charlie Price is a senior and we expect a lot from him up front too, but it’s going to be night and day for us up front. We’re going to be tough to handle up there.”
While a return trip to the playoffs is something the Warriors hope to accomplish, Adkins is hoping to pave the way there with standards and goals that get them there not just this year but future years. Those goals go beyond the gridiron.
“Some goals for us are just the mentality of the game itself,” Adkins said. “When I played I feel like I played it very aggressively. I want these guys to find it in them to be more aggressive. The thing about football is you’ve got to have that in order to be successful. You’ve got to be aggressive. We want to see some leadership too. Not saying we lacked on it last year, but we’re really focusing on that and family. The main thing with me is these guys understanding that they are there for each other and the coaching staff is there for them. We’ve got to have each other’s back. Here at the War Zone, in the community, whether you’re in Mullens or Pineville or a group of them go to Beckley – we want them to represent this community and this county and be young men. That’s the main thing. I want to make sure they’re acting like good young men. They’re role models.
“We’ve had our practices in the evening because I want the middle school and youth league guys to see them and what it takes. Those kids look up to these guys. I want them to see what we’re doing. I remember when I was in middle school we practiced an hour or so with the high school and that’s all I could think about. That’s where I wanted to be and we want these guys to understand that and take pride in that.”
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 H – WESTSIDE –
2 09/03/21 7:30PM H – MINGO CENTRAL –
3 09/10/21 7:30PM A – NICHOLAS COUNTY –
4 09/17/21 7:30PM A – HERBERT HOOVER –
5 09/24/21 OPEN –
6 10/01/21 7:30PM A – RIVER VIEW –
7 10/08/21 7:30PM H – SHADY SPRING –
8 10/15/21 7:30PM H – POINT PLEASANT SENIOR/MIDDLE SCHOOL –
9 10/22/21 7:30PM H – PIKEVIEW –
10 10/29/21 7:30PM A – INDEPENDENCE SENIOR –
11 11/05/21 7:30PM A – LIBERTY (RALEIGH) –
