The 2011 season could not have gone much better for Cabell Midland head football coach Luke Salmons.
Before Salmons took over in Ona, the Knights had won just three games in 2010. But in his first season, the former Marshall offensive lineman led the Knights eight wins and a trip to the second round of the state playoffs.
“When we first got here last year, the expectation was we had to teach them how to work,” Salmons explained. “ We want to instill discipline, work ethic and the desire to be successful. It was a challenge.”
Even with the achievements the Knights had in Salmons’ first year, he said his kids have even bigger goals as they get set to begin year two of his tenure.
“Our whole motto when we got here was to teach them how to work,” Salmons explained. “No one was going to outwork us.”
Throughout the off-season, the Knights had around 90 kids in and out of the weight room everyday preparing for the upcoming season.
And with conditioning at the forefront of his players mind, the next goal of the coaching staff is to develop a winning mentality among the players as well.
“The next thing was to teach them how to win,” he said.
“We try to teach them how to develop a winning attitude. What do you do to win? What causes you to win? How do you handle winning? Now we’re building off that and working on getting better. It could take a while,” he continued.
And part of winning under Salmons involves heavily running the football.
“We have a chance to be more multiple than we were last year,” he explained. “We definitely want to establish running the ball because it fits our team.”
During the off-season, Cabell Midland received a star player to share the workload in the backfield. All-state running back David Gaydosz transferred from the fellow MSAC school Winfield in the offseason.
“He’s an athletic kid. He is very good in open space and has great hands,” Salmons said of Gaydosz. “He’s just a good high school football player.”
Gaydosz will be one of three Cabell Midland running backs that should see a significant number of carries, along with Caleb Farley and Kasey Thomas.
“We think we have three guys in the backfield that are game changers.”
The stable of rushers should be helped out by a veteran offensive line, full of four returning starters from 2011.
Cabell Midland’s first game of the season will come against Spring Valley on August 24.