Liberty llllllll
llllllll
Liberty llllllll
Raiders coach happy to be back Workman has his work cut out for him with a young squad
By Gary Fauber
THE REGISTER-HERALD
Mark Workman kept tabs on Liberty ’ s football team as best he could last season . But taking a leave of absence probably had him out of sorts .
“( Football ) is what I ’ ve done my whole life , since I was younger ,” the Raiders head coach said . “ It was a hard year off , but I ’ m back . Like I said , this is what I do . This is what I ’ m used to .”
What he missed most was being around the players and other coaches .
“ Just the camaraderie ,” he said . “ Just being around the kids and seeing the smiles and laughter on their face . Camaraderie ’ s big in high school . You ’ ve got to jell together as a team .”
And now that Workman is back , he plans on seeing to that happening .
The Raiders have their work cut out for them . They finished 2-8 last season , and while there were few seniors on that team , Liberty still has a couple of key losses after losing running back Connor Bradford and quarterback Dalton Williams to transfer .
Bradford , who is now at county rival Independence , ran for 1,333 yards and 13 touchdowns in eight games as a junior .
And so the quest in the offseason became to find those replacements . The candidates are there ; there ’ s just not a lot of experience .
“ We ’ re going to be super young in the skill area ,” Workman said .
Battling to take over as the starting quarterback have been senior Brayden Houck and junior Riley
Jenny Harnish / The Register-Herald
Liberty ’ s Kris Bowman carries the ball against Shady Spring last season at Shady Spring High School .
Marty . Both saw action in one game apiece last season .
“ Neither one of them has had much time at quarterback ,” Workman said .
Getting the carries at running back will be sophomores Isaac Williams , Colton Tolliver and Trenton Clay .
Junior Kris Bowman returns as a receiver . Also catching passes will be
2023 SCHEDULE
Aug . 25 Sept . 1 Sept . 8 Sept . 15 Sept . 22 Sept . 29 Oct . 6 Oct . 13 Oct . 20 Oct . 27 Nov . 3 vs . Independence vs . PikeView vs . Mingo Central vs . Sherman at Clay County at Westside at Midland Trail
Open at James Monroe vs . Shady Spring at Wyoming East
Tolliver when he isn ’ t in the backfield and Marty if he ’ s not the quarterback .
Bowman is the most experienced of the skill position players .
“ We ’ re just going to be super young in some key areas ,” Workman said . “ You try to put the best ones you ’ ve got in those positions and go .”
There does at least seem to be some optimism toward the offensive line .
“ Up front we ’ ll have some guys with experience ,” Workman said . “ They ’ re going to be young . They ’ ll be sophomores . But a couple of them started all 10 games last year . We ’ ll have a couple seniors up front , T . J . Goff and Travis Williams .
“ You ’ ve got Connor Acord , a sophomore . Connor ’ s right at 6-foot , 280 pounds . Good-looking kid . ( Sophomore ) Alex Jarrell ’ s another one . He ’ s probably 6-foot , 265 . Travis and T . J ., they ’ re not as big but they ’ re seniors . T . J .’ s started there since his sophomore year . Then you ’ ve got senior Caleb Harper . Caleb ’ s not real big ( but ) he might see some time there . Justin Shrewsbury is a junior .
“ We ’ ve got some kids and got a good group of freshmen . The sophomores that came in last year as freshmen was a good group of linemen and this freshman class that comes up from the middle school , there are several kids in there that we ’ re high on that we think will pan out to be good linemen for us in the future .”
RAIDERS » 21
SOUTHERN W . VA . GAME NIGHT - AUGUST 2023 • 15