HAMBLETON, W.Va. — Over the last three seasons, Tucker County has found the formula to play deep into the month of November. The Mountain Lions advanced to the Class A semifinals in 2023 and 2024. Last fall, Tucker went 7-5 before falling at eventual champion Wheeling Central Catholic in the quarterfinals.
“We definitely would have liked to been going one more week to the semifinals, at least, and then see what happens,” said Tucker County head coach AJ Rapp. “Anytime you can play in the postseason, it just gives you experience and it gives you that much extra time. Extra practices, one week or two weeks, whatever you have there, that’s a big deal when you’ve got kids coming back.”
“We’re kind of used to that up here,” said Tucker County senior WR/DB Evan Witt. “We’re used to playing big teams. We’re going to be ready for this season coming up.”
Graduation losses at the skill positions were heavy in the offseason with senior all-staters Sam Marks and Reid Kisamore moving on. However, the Mountain Lions welcome back four of their five starters on the offensive line.
“A fella I want to shout out to is Josh Crossland. He was really the heart of the line,” said Tucker County senior lineman Colton Teter. “I want to carry on. He is going to be helping out here and there. The linemen this year, I am really excited for you guys to see what we’ve got because I think we are going to surprise people.”
“We’ve got a couple of young guys that are going to be battling for positions. And we’ve got some backups,” Rapp said. “It is funny year-to-year, some years we’ve got a lot of receivers and very few linemen. This year, we are lineman heavy and receiver light.”
In his junior season, receiver Lucas Barb racked up 765 yards from scrimmage and nine total touchdowns. He will slide under center this year to engineer the Mountain Lion offense.
“He’ll be more of a runner than what Sam was, probably. That’s his nature,” Rapp said. “Coming out of middle school, he was the running back. Even last year, he made some great catches for us at receiver. He can play them all. He is just an athlete. He won a state championship this year in high jump. The kid is an athlete and he can play wherever we put him.”
Cayden Arnold stands to be one of Barb’s top targets on the outside. He was second on the team a year ago with 614 receiving yards and eight touchdowns.
“He is just an athletic kid,” Rapp said. “He is going to be our man this year at receiver. If you look at him, he has gotten bigger and stronger this year. When I saw him in June and when he came out in a 7-on-7 at Elkins, he is that senior boy now instead of a little junior kid. He has grown into a young man.
Senior Cade Rapp returns to the backfield after leading the team with 504 rushing yards.
“I would like to get a little more than I did last year,” said Cade Rapp. “Although, if we are scoring, I don’t really care. I have been around it my whole life. It is kind of sad that it is my last year. But I am ready for it.”
“We use our backs sparingly,” said AJ Rapp. “As I call him, it is a glorified guard in the backfield, a bigger type of kid. We’ll have some other backs in there, Branson Hyre and them will tote the ball more. We told Cade last year, and he did a great job for us last year, I told him that when Sam gives you the ball, all we ask is for four yards at a time.”
With five playoff wins over the last three years and four consecutive postseason berths, the Mountain Lions will once again be tested by a schedule that features three of the four Class A semifinalists from last year with Cameron, Clay-Battelle and conference rival Pendleton County.
“With teams dropping us, we’ve picked up three of the four semifinalist teams from last year,” AJ Rapp said. “People call us and we are getting recognized as a team to play with. Teams that want to play good teams, same as with our basketball, we play each other and they pick us up.”