PARKERSBURG, W.Va. — Parkersburg was one of four Mountain State Athletic Conference teams to earn a top-eight seed in the 2020 Class AAA playoffs. After a 6-2 regular season, the Big Reds were unable to take the field in the postseason after the COVID metrics map became an opponent they couldn’t defeat.
“We all felt bad, especially for the seniors,” said Parkersburg head coach Mike Byus. “You fight your tail off to get a home playoff game and you don’t get to play it. We only played eight games last year but we could have played all ten. We didn’t have any issues until that one week.”
There are many reasons for excitement around Stadium Field this season and Byus says it all starts up front with a group of starting big guys that recently won the MSAC lineman challenge.
“We’re extremely strong up front. It is the strongest bunch we have had collectively on both sides of the ball up front. We are pleased with the progress there.”
The PHS line will go to work in front of their third-year starting quarterback Bryson Singer. In eight games last fall, Singer was the team’s leading passer and rusher. He accounted for 2,007 yards of offense and 28 touchdowns. Quarterback may not be the only position Singer occupies on offense.
“You may see him everywhere. He is very athletic. He is tall. He is lean and he is powerful when he runs the football. He can catch the football like a champ. He throws a good ball, especially the deep ball. But he is a heck of a safety because he is long and rangy and it is hard to get a ball over him.”
Singer welcomes the return of his top receiver. Carter King reeled in 18 passes for 280 yards and 8 touchdowns last fall.
“He is quick and fast and very knowledgeable about what we are doing. We have some guys who have been in our system long enough to know the base stuff. So as we start to expand, we have some young kids who are probably going to end up playing there who are pretty good.”
Parkersburg’s schedule features six playoff teams, including the No. 1 (Cabell Midland), No. 2 (South Charleston), No. 3 (Musselman) and No. 7 (Spring Valley) seeds in last year’s postseason.
“If we were playing any average football teams, I think these kids would win ten games. If we had any average teams on our schedule, we do not. Let’s just talk about the first four — we go to Huntington, Spring Valley comes here, Capital comes here and we go to Cabell Midland. Anybody want to play that schedule?”