West Greene’s roster growing, but will win total?
West GreeneþÄôs Ben Jackson takes a water break during football practice.
West Greene coach Rodney Huffman oversees warmups as players Zach Pettit, Ben Jackson and Eric Stoll stretch before practice.
When the season ended without a win in nine tries, and the offense produced just one touchdown in the final five games, it’s hard to see many positives. But, West Greene’s plight in the Tri-County South Conference was not as bad as it appeared. At least that’s what Craig Weaver sees and he stands 6-8, the tallest player on the team.
That also is what head coach Rodney Huffman sees, and he is not prone to overstate anything.
It’s the little things that they grab hold of and present as evidence.
“When I started out, this was a bad program but the way Coach Huffman turned it around is amazing,” said Weaver, who will play tackle on both sides of the football. “We had 30 players show up for heat acclimation. We’ve never had that many. The most I ever saw was 20, 21 kids.”
It’s difficult to coach and play sports at West Greene. The athletes are spread over one of the largest land masses that makes up a district in the state. Everything, it seems, is a couple miles – not a couple blocks – away.
“We have such a big area out here and we’re mostly farmers, fitting the stereotype,” Weaver said. “A lot of kids have jobs. My sophomore year, we were down to 12 kids at one point. It’s changing.”
And Weaver is one of the many athletes – the Pioneers have 30 on the roster – trying to turn the fortunes and end the losing.
“I believe we will be vastly improved from last year,” said Huffman. “We were young last year and we’re still young, but we have a good influx of freshmen who will see playing time right out of the chute. It depends on how fast they mature. The future is bright. They’ve had successful junior varsity seasons and now we’re getting up to the varsity level. It’s just a matter of time for them to mature.”
The way Weaver did.
“I’ve played football ever since midget league,” he said. “Coach (Brian) Jackson got me to come out. I’ve played ever since. I love the physicality of football. When I was a freshman, I remember I had the Jackson twins (Beau and Bray) and they told me that in football, you either give a hit or you take a hit. I chose to give a hit. I like the hitting.”
A four-year starter, Weaver is attracting a crowd … of coaches. But he is contemplating a different path to college than football, and with a sport that frowns upon hitting anything but jump shots.
“I’ve been talking to some colleges about basketball, too,” said Weaver. “So it will be a big decision between basketball and football. I think I like basketball a little more.”
West Greene has only four seniors – Weaver, quarterback Colton Hamilton, lineman Dylan Morgan and wide receiver Eric Stoll – and Huffman expects good things from them, especially the 6-0, 180-pound Hamilton.
“Hamilton has a long list of strengths because he’s such great kid,” Huffman said. “He was our starter last season but went down with an injury in the third or fourth game. Owen (Main) came in and those two were like Siamese twins. They were interchangeable. It was kind of like a two-headed monster. We used them in different packages. When Colton went down, that changed the deck. We had to move some people around.”
Huffman will pick from a number of athletes in the backfield. Freshman Ben Jackson, Hamilton and junior Zach Pettit will get looks but Huffman is leaving the competition open.
Weaver is at right tackle and anchors the line that will have mostly underclassmen.
“I think Craig is ready to make some noise,” said Huffman. “We actually have as many linemen as we do wide receivers and running backs. That’s good because you are going to lose one or two during the season. Now, we have enough players where an injury doesn’t mean you have to move three or four players to make up for one position. For the first time since I’ve been here, we have some depth.”
Linemen Marcus Morris, Jeremiah Miller, Wyatt White and Jacob Wilson return after impressive freshman seasons.
“We have enough people that we don’t have to make them play both sides (of the football) the whole game,” Huffman. “The ultimate weapon our opponents had was when we reached the fourth quarter, our kids are spent. Hopefully, we have enough kids that that won’t happen.”