WHEELING, W.Va. — In his 13 years as Wheeling Park’s football coach, Chris Daugherty has guided the Patriots against more than their share of stiff competition and had plenty of success.
The pinnacle of Daugherty’s strong tenure is a 2015 Class AAA state championship — the only non-Martinsburg AAA title earned by virtue of a win in the Super Six since then.
It remains to be seen how the Patriots (5-2) finish the 2022 campaign, but Daugherty believes this much is clear — regardless of how it ends, Park has prepared itself for the near future by facing a challenging schedule consisting of six in-state opponents, three from Ohio and one from Pennsylvania.
“This was the toughest schedule we’ve had in a very long time at this school and Villa Angela is the one that kind of changes it,” Daugherty said. “They’ve very good.”
Daugherty is referencing Villa Angela-St. Joseph, a private high school in Cleveland that in 1990 merged an all girls Villa Angela Academy with an all boys St. Joseph High School. Notable football alumni of the latter include the likes of former NFL players Bob Golic, Mike Golic, Elvis Grbac, Desmond Howard and London Fletcher.
The Vikings, currently 7-2, handled Wheeling Park, 54-27, back on September 9 for the first of the Patriots’ two losses. The other came two weeks later when another highly-regarded Ohio program in nearby Steubenville left Wheeling Island Stadium with a 69-28 victory. The Big Red were 6-0 after that game and are now 8-1.
This came after the Patriots began their season with a win over St. Clairsville (Ohio), which is 7-2 and suffered its only other loss to Linsly. That was followed by a victory against Brashear of Pittsburgh, the school quarterbacks Major Harris and Rasheed Marshall starred at before their accomplished careers at West Virginia University.
With Wheeling Park facing four out-of-state foes among its first five opponents, Daugherty believes a misconception is created due to the element of unknown.
“If you beat a Bridgeport or somebody with a name, they immediately go, ‘Wow, that’s a great win,’” Daugherty said. “We beat St. Clairsville, and they’ve been in the playoffs in Ohio over and over and they’ll go to the playoffs this year, and it’s like nobody in West Virginia notices or credits that. Sometimes I feel that way.”
Although the losses may not have been what Daugherty had in mind, he believes his team benefitted from both experiences.
“People know Steubenville, but Villa Angela St. Joes was as good as any football program we’ve played in a very long time with the most talent that I have seen,” Daugherty said. “They were dynamite.
“We’ve gone down the path with Steubenville. They make us better — period. They make us better coaches and a more physical football team. Even when we lose that physicalness with them, when we come back into our state, we gain a little bit out of that game. We could drive and go play Martinsburg, but at the same time, this is 25 minutes up the road and about the same thing. We look at it as we’re making ourselves better.”
In two games since the loss to the Big Reds, Wheeling Park has soundly defeated Morgantown 34-14 and Musselman 34-7.
Friday’s win over an Applemen team that entered No. 1 in the West Virginia Secondary School Activities Commission’s Playoff Ratings will allow Park to rise from its No. 13 spot. It also keeps hope alive for the Patriots to host at least one postseason game.
Outside of the importance as it pertains to playoff positioning, it was a statement from WPHS, which had lost each of the first three contests of a four-game series with Musselman.
“Our kids look at that as a good, quality program,” Daugherty said. “That’s all we know. We could be 4-0 with them, but we’re not. But we felt like we could beat this team and our kids were fired up they’re No. 1.”
While the Applemen were playing with a bigger target as a result of their No. 1 ranking, Musselman coach Brian Thomas says he instilled to his group how talented the Patriots are and to not think less of them because of either loss.
“Coach Daugherty and I were talking before the game and discussing how whenever teams from the state play teams out of state, I think those games get written off too much, whether you win or you lose,” Thomas said. “We were talking about us beating Sherando this year, a great Virginia football team, and that doesn’t get included in our big wins.
“Kind of the same thing with them, and on the other hand, they lost to two Ohio teams and it’s like, ‘Oh, well they’re not that good.’ Well, yeah they are. We knew they were a good team and I knew they were a top 10 team in the state. They executed and we didn’t. That’s kind of the name of the game.”
The Patriots have remaining games at Brooke and Parkersburg South before wrapping up the regular season against John Marshall.
The Week 10 matchup against PSHS will have extra significance and could well be be the determining factor as to whether or not Wheeling Park finishes the season in the top 8, which would ensure starting the postseason at home.
It’ll also be a matchup of two of the state’s more productive offenses. Park has scored at least 27 points in all seven games, at least 34 in all five victories and 123 over three wins against in-state foes, which includes a 55-33 win over University.
A balanced attack is led by quarterback Brett Phillips, who passed for 298 yards and four touchdowns and rushed for a TD against Musselman.
Phillips’ favorite target is speedster Jerrae “Tank” Hawkins, a diminutive junior wideout fielding major Division I offers in large part because of speed that enabled him to win state championships in the 100 and 200-meter events at the state track and field meet as a sophomore. Hawkins accounted for three of the Patriots’ four touchdowns through the air last week and had eight receptions for 198 yards.
Perhaps no play signified Hawkins’ meaning to the team more than his 55-yard reception on the first play of the fourth quarter, enabling Park to escape its goal line while leading 20-7 lead at that point.
“We went into a heavy set and looked like we were going to pound the ball out of there, but when they single him up, we’re going to take a shot to him,” Daugherty said. “Credit to our quarterback. It was a beautiful ball, beautiful catch and play. You have to execute that stuff or you look crazy calling it. I’ve never had a kid that can run like that and we’ve had some pretty good ones. We had the Randy Moss Award winner [Elijah Bell in 2015]. He’s on a different level as far as speed.”