By Steve Keenan

THE FAYETTE TRIBUNE llllllll

A strong backfield should be a key as Meadow Bridge seeks to improve markedly on its 2-8 report card from 2022 .

“ We struggled with numbers and really trying to find out what we were good at ,” said Meadow Bridge head coach Dwayne Reichard . “ It ended up we lost two overtime games , as well , so you ’ re a play away from being 4-6 instead of 2-8 . While 4-6 is not what you shoot for , it sure looks a lot better on paper .”

Meadow Bridge had 27 players report for the first day of practice on July 31 , and that number could eventually settle at 28 , the coach said .

“ We started last season feeling like we could still run our spread offense that we ’ d ran the last three years ,” Reichard said . “ The fact of the matter is , we couldn ’ t protect up front like we had in the past , and our timing was way cut down . So we spent a little time there in the middle of the season — and it ’ s not what you ’ d like to try to do — trying to find what we could do and what kind of identity we could have offensively .

“ We started to put together some of our oldschool running game from Meadow Bridge past . Really , we rolled into Gilmer County with nothing but that . It was the last week of the season , and the kid that was starting quarterback for us , Braydon Thomas , it was the first time he ’ d started at quarterback , and part of that was knowing what we were going to end up doing this year and seeing how he

Jenny Harnish / The Register-Herald

Meadow Bridge ’ s Kaiden Sims takes down Summers County ’ s Tyson Adkins last season at Meadow Bridge High School .

could perform and see if we thought that was the right move going into this year . He did a pretty good job .

“ We threw a Hail Mary ( from Seaton Mullins to Brycen Sawyers ). We ended up losing in overtime , but we were competitive at the end of the season . You go 2-8 and you ’ re still competitive in week 11 , that speaks volumes for your

2023 SCHEDULE

program and your kids .”

Thomas , a junior , is penciled in as the starting QB for Meadow Bridge this year . “ He ’ s a smaller kid ; he ’ s definitely not a kid you want to step back in the shotgun and throw it down the field with . He did a good job in our play action game under center .”

At Gilmer , “ we purposefully threw a lot of play action up there and we were on the ground a lot . You know , complemented with the play action like the days of old around here in Meadow Bridge . And we felt like that was what we could do , knowing we had two sizable and very capable young men that were going to play running back for us that are also sophomores . The future moving forward the next few years , that looks like it ’ s probably where we need to be .”

“ I went to a spread offense a few years ago because of personnel , and I ’ m going back to our old school stuff because of personnel again ,” Reichard explained . “ It ’ s just about making adjustments so you can put yourself in a successful season .”

The backfield looks promising , he said . “ Kaiden Sims started at tailback for us last year . Trip Roles was more of a fullback / tight end-type kid out of our spread stuff , and was really our fullback in the I . Those two guys will probably split time between fullback and tailback , because they ’ re very similar in skill set , being young as sophomores . We ’ ll probably try to spread some carries out .

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SOUTHERN W . VA . GAME NIGHT - AUGUST 2023 • 17