HUNTINGTON, W.Va. — In recent years, Spring Valley has featured one of the largest high school football rosters in West Virginia, in terms of both numbers and size. The Timberwolves have recently fielded a team of over one hundred players. And they have boasted some of the biggest and best guys on the front line.
With three consecutive trips to the Super Six, Spring Valley is going through an offseason of transition. Doug Nester is now at Virginia Tech. Zach Williamson is at Louisville. Graeson Malashevich is at WVU. Starting quarterback Will Adkins and leading rusher Owen Chafin have graduated as well.
“I don’t think we can replace them,” said Spring Valley head coach Brad Dingess. “There are some talents and some different things that this group brings that the last group didn’t. We’ll be a different football team but we’ve got some good players.”
Key pieces however do return to the Wolves Den. Senior Nate Ellis is back after splitting time at quarterback and at receiver. And one of the nation’s top recruits, Wyatt Milum returns to lead the big guys up front. The 6-foot-6, 260 pound junior holds scholarship offers from several power five programs, including Alabama, Michigan, Georgia, Notre Dame, Ohio State, Penn State, Virginia Tech and WVU.
“Going around and meeting a lot of good coaches and seeing some of the best campuses in the world, that is pretty cool,” Milum said.
“He has a lot of offers but he is a mean guy,” said Spring Valley senior running back/defensive back David Livingston. “He is nice off the field but on the field he is mean. He does what he needs to do. He gets the blocks that we need to get some touchdowns.”
“The great thing about Wyatt is last year he went against Doug Nester and Zach Williamson everyday,” Dingess said. “He got much better over the year. Now he is that leader guy going against some of these other guys. It is great competition in practice.”
Twelfth year head coach Brad Dingess has led Spring Valley to the playoffs in each season since his arrival and he is hopeful that the program has enough strength in numbers to weather the transition to a young and hungry group of Wolves.
“We don’t have as many 300-pounders up front,” Dingess said. “We have some big, tall and long kids that can run so you might see us with a bit of a different look but as far as our principles and everything, we don’t vary from that.”
“It is kind of like a big puzzle piece. We are just trying to put them in the right place and hopefully we can do that by week one and go out there and play.”