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By Steve Keenan

THE FAYETTE TRIBUNE

The sting of not being in the 16-team Class A football playoff field in 2022 still lingers in Hico .

A year ago , Midland Trail logged a 6-4 record but finished 19th and failed to advance to the playoffs , snapping a fiveyear string of postseason appearances for the school .

“ I thought it was a fairly decent season ,” said second-year head coach Jeremy Moore . “ I wasn ’ t pleased with not making the playoffs . That ’ s the expectation we have here . That ’ s non-negotiable .

“ We played really , really good football teams , and we were competitive in most of those games . We just couldn ’ t match up with Nicholas County . We matched up well with Greenbrier West and Clay .

“ Our kids competed ; they just ran out of gas at the end .”

There ’ s a silver lining , though . “ The best part of last season is that they came into this season wanting to prove something ,” Moore said . “ They ( the older players ) know what it means to make the playoffs here , and none of them really liked that feeling .” This year ’ s seniors “ don ’ t want to be the ones to miss the playoffs two years in a row .”

The Patriots lost eight seniors from last year , and “ I think seven of those were both-side-of-the-ball starters ,” Moore noted .

Among the departures were Cody Harrell , River Barnhouse , T . C . Perry , Ducatti Hurley , Zane Burford and Talon Shockey . “ We lost our whole linebacking corps . We lost our

Register-Herald file photo

Midland Trail quarterback Jaden Gladwell throws the pass before Nicholas County ’ s Devin Nash can make the sack .

2023 SCHEDULE

backfield and two of our best receivers .”

Trail had 50 players in the fold as the fall preseason unfolded . Vacations and other factors resulted in 41 being there for opening day .

“ Our offensive line ’ s still a work in progress ,” Moore said . “ It was last year , and it ’ s still gonna be this year . Those freshmen last year are only sophomores , so we ’ ve got a lot of growing up to do there .

“ But our backfield is pretty solid . We ’ ve got ( junior ) Will McGraw , who ran the ball back there . He ’ s a solid leader back there . We ’ re really depending on Will . Jayden Roop , who had a really good Pocahontas game the last game of the season , he was a freshman and is just going to be a sophomore .

“ We ’ re going to keep both of them on the field at all times . We have some guys that are true fullbacks , but I think we ’ re a better team when Will is on the field at all times and Roop is on the field at all times . If we can get those guys to block for each other , we ’ ll be a better football team .”

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SOUTHERN W . VA . GAME NIGHT - AUGUST 2023 • 19