WHEELING, W.Va. — Wheeling Park is beginning football practice this week in a position it has never held before, the Class AAA defending state champion.
“It’s different shoes to be in after winning a state championship and then beginning the next season,” said Patriots coach Chris Daugherty. “It’s shoes that we’ve never had to wear at Wheeling Park, but it’s a good feeling, I can tell you that.”
For the most part, however, it will be a new group of starters for Wheeling Park playing as the defending champs as the Patriots suffered big graduation losses on both sides of the ball.
“We pretty much lost the whole defense, besides a defensive tackle and defensive end – Justin Hibbs and Jack Bence played a decent amount, they’re coming back,” Daugherty said. “Offensively, we return half of our line and our quarterback, but otherwise, we’re losing about eight guys on that side. We have a lot of room to fill.”
Leading receiver Elijah Bell and leading rusher Savion Johnson leave big shoes to fill. Bell was a force on both sides of the ball during his senior season, collecting 50 catches for 1,214 yards (24.3 yards per catch) and 17 touchdowns. Defensively, he added 57 tackles.
Johnson, meanwhile, tallied 1,884 rushing yards and 26 touchdowns on 276 carries (6.8 per carry) during his senior campaign.
“It’s sad to see those kids leave, we had a great group of kids,” Daugherty said. “But now they have moved on to college and are doing better things. We’ve got some young kids that I think will emerge in time and they get a chance to play football now, so it’s good.”
Despite the overall turnover, Wheeling Park does return one of the state’s top quarterbacks in junior Cross Wilkinson.
“He can make all of the throws and make defenses defend every inch of the field,” Daugherty said. “Athletically, we may not have an Elijah Bell (at receiver), but we do have a bunch of kids that will catch the football and get open – we also have a quarterback that can get the ball there. Hopefully, in time, our offense can be – maybe not as productive in the same way, very different – but maybe just as productive.”
Wilkinson a season ago threw for 2,249 yards, 27 touchdowns and just six interceptions as a sophomore. Senior Maezi Mosby and junior Nate Phillips are expected to help fill the void in catching passes.
“Those kids have stood out so far as far as making catches,” Daugherty said. “And we feel like we have good secondary kids coming back. At any other time in Wheeling Park history, they would have been on the field waiting. But, we were so good that they had to wait.”
Wheeling Park, which finished 12-1-1 a season ago, opens up the 2016 season at Perry Traditional Academy in Pittsburgh and then has a home contest in week two against three-time Class AA defending state champion Bridgeport.
“I’d rather be in these shoes right now than anybody else’s,” Daugherty said of that defending champion role. “I’m excited about this year. Coaches don’t want to admit it, but last year, there’s a little bit of pressure when you know, and the state and community knows, that you have a pretty good football team.
“But right now, we have a lot of question marks,” he continued. “I’m just as excited about this year, if not more, to go figure out those question marks and turn them into answers.”