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Winfield football coach Craig Snyder steps down

— By Taylor Kennedy

Winfield head football coach Craig Snyder announced Monday that he will step away as coach of the Generals and will not return to coaching.

Snyder had been on the sidelines for 28 seasons, including the last 10 seasons as Winfield’s head coach. Snyder went 45-55 in his tenure with the Generals, including state playoff appearances in three of the last six seasons.

“A couple of years ago I was close to maybe calling it a career,” Snyder said. “I was not quite sure. I figured if I was not sure, that meant I was not ready. I hung on. I would have never ended my career last year, and it is not because we went 0-6. It is because last year sucked with COVID. I hate the way it ended for that group of seniors.”

Winfield held its annual football banquet Sunday afternoon, and Snyder wanted to focus on properly sending off his seniors and reflecting on this season.

“I talked to them Monday at lunch, and it was not easy,” Snyder noted. “I might have been the one that got emotional. They understood. The bottom line is they get it. We had a little snack and talked. Food makes everything go down a little better.”

Snyder released his official announcement on his Facebook and received a consistent flow of messages from a variety of people throughout the day.

“I knew I had to put something out,” Snyder stated. “Since then, it has been a steady stream of texts of people being respectful towards me, and I appreciate that. I wanted my intentions to be known rather quickly.”

Snyder began his coaching career at Morgantown High School as a volunteer assistant while student teaching in 1994. He credits his early stops as a time of growth.

“That first few years of my coaching career were a lot of listening and learning,” Snyder said. “My coaching time in the ‘90s was a big learning time.”

Bruce McGrew, a former Winfield high school football coach and principal, brought Snyder on to his staff in the early 2000s. McGrew saw something in Snyder that ultimately led to Snyder becoming the head coach in 2012.

McGrew was the first person Snyder notified about stepping away from coaching.

“I cannot say enough about Coach McGrew,” Snyder noted. “Outside of my family, he was the first person I told I was stepping away. The only reason I was a head coach is that he gave me the opportunity. He is my number one influence by far.”

Snyder spent 26 years of his coaching career at Winfield high and middle school, and it is where he got his first and only head coaching gig.

“It became my home,” stated Snyder of the Winfield community. “In the 25 to 26 years, I think it is enough time to be considered a Winfield guy. People in Winfield have been kind and welcoming to me. There is no place I’d rather be.”

Snyder could not pinpoint a specific game that sticks out most, but he recalls the most powerful moment he has ever encountered on the field fondly.

“In 2012, which was our last home game against Spring Valley, Jeremy Huff, who was diagnosed with brain cancer the year prior, was a miracle he was alive the next year,” Snyder recalled. “His only goal his senior year, my first year as the head coach, was to get in on senior night. I told Brad Dingess, Spring Valley head coach, that we were going to take a knee on the first play and carry Jeremy off the field.

“That moment was the most powerful moment I will ever experience as a football coach or as a human being. It was the best play I ever called. The only thing they did wrong was taking him off the field too fast. That was a powerful moment.”





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