MASON, W.Va. — Dave Barr is heading into his first full season at the helm of Wahama’s football program after taking over midseason in 2013. He went 5-1 a season ago in an interim role, leading the White Falcons to the quarterfinal round of the playoffs where the 2012 defending Class A champs fell to eventual 2013 champion Madonna.
With the transition process now complete and that interim tag removed (along with new uniforms), Barr and the White Falcons have to replace several key players who had a part in that 2012 state championship — most notably, running back Kane Roush who signed with the University of Charleston and finished his tenure with Wahama as the school’s all-time leading rusher.
“We’ll miss him, but I take a lot of comfort in knowing that he’s going to have a great career at Charleston,” Barr said. “But we’ll have a tough time replacing what he did for us.”
A group of backs could factor into that role.
“Timmy Gibbs, Hunter Trent, Demitirius Serevicz and Jared Nutter are all battling for the carries that Kane had,” Barr said. “I think that two of them will step up and do a really good job, whichever those two may be. It may even be running back by committee.
“None of those kids are going to be Kane,” he continued. “And we don’t expect them to be. They all have different things they are pretty good at and it may be situational in terms of what we do with them. We’ll let that play out and see where it takes us.”
The strength, though, for Wahama will be upfront as the White Falcons return a lot of experience in Brent Lark, Jesse Hesson, Clayton Sines and Garrett Miller (tight end).
“Most of our losses were at our skill positions,” he said. “But we had others who played quite a bit last year as well, they just didn’t always start. It’s not that we don’t have experience.”
With all-state standout Hunter Bradley graduating as well, Wahama will have a new quarterback in 2014. Former Meigs (OH) athlete and rising junior Kaileb Sheets is expected to take over the reigns of Wahama’s offense at quarterback after moving across the river to the Mason area since last year.
“He runs really well and can throw it,” Barr said. “He’s a dual-threat and fits in well. He’s really tailor-made for some of the things we do, including the read-option. He’s real talented and can do a lot of things.”
Another impact player for the White Falcons is expected to be rising 190-pound sophomore Philip Hoffman at fullback and defensive end.
“He’s a bigger kid, a hard worker and does a nice job of catching the football,” Barr said. “He’s also a smart kid and will be an asset to us.”
Playing out of the Tri-Valley Conference in Ohio, Wahama’s league schedule only allows for two in-state regular season games each year. The White Falcons will end the season with their annual rivalry matchup against Buffalo, but open up the year with an intriguing matchup against Class AA playoff contender Ravenswood.
“That’ll be a nice challenge,” Barr said of having the Red Devils added to the schedule. “It’s one of those games that both communities can talk about and be excited about. That will be a big test for us, I know they expect to be pretty good this year.”
Regardless, expectations will remain the same for Wahama overall — a program that’s won a state title, had a runner-up finish, semifinal appearance and quarterfinal run since 2010.
“We’re going into every week expecting to win and we’ll play hard every week. Our kids were talking about how we didn’t make some preseason top 10 ranking,” Barr said. “But we can’t worry about those sorts of things. All you can do is get ready for Ravenswood. We have two really tough scrimmages (against Williamstown and Wheeling Central) and we’ll know what kind of a football team we are really quick.”
| WAHAMA 2014 Football Schedule |
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| 1 | 08/29/14 07:30PM | A | RAVENSWOOD | – | ||||
| 2 | 09/05/14 07:30PM | A | WATERFORD, OH H.S. | – | ||||
| 3 | 09/12/14 07:30PM | H | RACINE SOUTHERN, OH H.S. | – | ||||
| 4 | 09/19/14 07:30PM | H | BELPRE,OH H.S. | – | ||||
| 5 | 09/26/14 07:30PM | A | FEDERAL HOCKING,OH H.S. | – | ||||
| 6 | 10/03/14 07:30PM | A | TRIMBLE,OH H.S. | – | ||||
| 7 | 10/10/14 07:30PM | H | EASTERN, OH H.S. | – | ||||
| 8 | 10/17/14 07:30PM | H | SOUTH GALLIA, OH H.S. | – | ||||
| 9 | 10/25/14 07:00PM | A | CORNING MILLER, OH H.S. | – | ||||
| 10 | 11/07/14 07:30PM | H | BUFFALO | – | ||||
| wins: 0 lost: 0 ties: 0 | ||||||||
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