PLEASANT VALLEY, W.Va. — Benchmarks of progress are easy to spot for the East Fairmont Bees. In the first 101 years of the program, the crew from Pleasant Valley made three playoff appearances. In the last two years, East has earned back-to-back playoffs berths and they hosted a postseason game for the second time last fall.
“Obviously, each year we want to try to build upon that. That’s kind of the goal,” said East Fairmont head coach Shane Eakle. “That was a step in the right direction. You are never satisfied with getting in. You want to try to get a ‘W’ and make a run in the postseason. That’s definitely something I hope our kids are after this year.”
East will have a decidedly different look at their skill positions in 2024. Their leading rusher Dom Fantasia transferred to Fairmont Senior and one of the best quarterbacks in program history, Ian Crookshanks has signed with Glenville State.
“He is the all-time passing leader. He was really smart with the football. A lot of the coverages and a lot of the play sets he got us in, we gave him the freedom to make those calls. He was a three-and-a-half year starter for us.”
Junior Gavin Murphey and senior Cole Vangilder will be counted on to take greater roles at the skill positions.
“Cole Vangilder is kind of stepping up and Gavin Murphey is kind of one of our scat guys that has some speed and we use him kind of as a wing or a slot. We’ll maybe have some of our newer guys step in, some of our JV guys that are kind of filling those roles. We have about six or seven guys fighting for about three or four spots.”
The Bees do have more experience on the line with several returning starters.
“We’re probably 75 percent intact up front. We were fairly young, sophomore-heavy squad. So a lot of those guys will be juniors. We have a couple seniors. Caleb Crookshanks is a senior offensive lineman and started for us for the last three seasons. Hopefully that will kind of anchor some things for us up front.”
Coming out of the COVID year in 2020, the Bees have increased their win total in each season. Now entering Eakle’s sixth year, expectations for many inside and outside the program have been surpassed while hoping for continued progress.
“We came in and had plans to try to push for playoffs. I know that there were a lot of people not being disrespectful to me, but kind of chuckled when we talked playoffs four or five years ago. It is exciting for our kids, the work that they have put in, to see what they have been able to achieve. Hopefully we can take it another step.”