RACHEL, W.Va. — In each of the last six seasons, North Marion has played their way to at least the state quarterfinal round and the Huskies have won eight playoff games in that span. Under 18th-year head coach Daran Hays, North Marion is well-established as one of the state’s most consistent programs.
“The players have done an awesome job of setting the standards and maintaining the standards so that we can spend our time as coaches, really developing them as players versus trying to hold them accountable for showing up and things you shouldn’t have to coach,” Hays said.
While there are many reasons for optimism on the Husky Highway, the biggest one, figuratively and literally, comes up front on the offensive line. It is a group with returning starters and increasing depth supplied by younger classes.
“I would say we are already fairly comfortable playing eight. Some of them don’t have a ton of varsity experience. But we can already kind of see the basics they are going to develop really quickly. We’ll make comments like, ‘This kid might be a second-year football player. But by the bye week, which for us is dead middle of the season, by the bye week he is going to be able to help us’,” Hays said.
“What we’ve lost, we have regained,” Floyd said. “We’ve got a couple good new kids coming in. I feel pretty good about our line.”
Senior Gavin Floyd returns up front and he is joined by Evan Miller, who earned first team All-State honors as a sophomore in 2025.
“I’m so impressed and so proud of him for the growth he has made mentally and as a leader, talking and being more vocal,” Hays said. “He is being kind of the brains up front at times. He initially was a little more soft-spoken and what not. But he’s got a ton of confidence. He thinks he is as good as anybody and we do to. He’s a pretty special individual. It is really good that we’ve got him this year. But it is even better that we’ve got him for next.”
Running back Brian Poindexter is one of the top skill position returners for the Huskies. Blake Johnson was one of the best defensive players for North last year and he figures to have a greater role on offense.
“There’s a bunch of pressure. Coach Hays and the coaches do a great job of coaching us and making us better players and developing us,” Johnson said. “I am very excited to see how this year goes for us.”
“Blake bounced around a little bit last year,” Hays said. “It was probably my fault. I started out with him at outside receiver, trying to get our best eleven on the field, so to speak. He is a slot guy and has been all along. He was just a year behind Cyrus [Collins]. Blake is going to slide in there really well offensively even though he is not a guy that probably played every snap last year.”
A new starting quarterback will guide the North Marion offense after the graduations of dual starters Toby Michael and Cole Morris. Junior Kolson Brown looks to be the next man up.
“He hasn’t had a lot of Friday night experience,” Hays said. “I think he has two or three career passing touchdowns and he has done some good things. He has a little bit of the ‘it’ factor. We obviously know and expect to an extent, you expect some growing pains anytime there is going to be that transition.”
North Marion fell by a single point in the 2023 title game and they have been eliminated in the quarterfinals in back-to-back seasons. Hays says building depth throughout the roster during the year could make the difference between another solid season and a run into the month of December.
“When push comes to shove, I think we’ll put a really good product on the field of 11 to 15 guys, initially,” Hays said. “And hopefully if we do our job as coaches, that 15 you feel comfortable with turns into 20, 22 by the end of the year. If you’ve got 22 guys that can play, you can stay pretty relevant in this class.”