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Ritchie County’s Morgan Knight, pictured here stepping out of a block and attempting to tackle Mount View’s Tony Bailey during last year’s Class A quarterfinal playoff game at Chuck Schofield Memorial Stadium, will become one of the few returning starters for the defending state champion, his head coach will be Rick Hoch. (Photo by Jay W. Bennett)
ELLENBORO — There’s a lot of change afoot at Ritchie County High School, and it’s not limited to head coach Rick Haught’s defending Class A football champions Rebels.
Chuck Schofield Memorial Stadium began a facelift this week. The new lights are already on and work has begun on the new artificial surface, which will include an eight-lane track.
Haught, entering his fifth season at the helm of the Rebels, has inherited a program that had won five games in the last four campaigns.
RCHS doubled Williamstown last year, 42-21, to win the first state gridiron crown in school history, but a repeat will take some effort.
The Rebels suffered a series of losses from the deal, including top player in single-A Gus Morrison, who now plays for Glenville State University, and headman Mike Kellar.
“I try to be in football and basketball mode at the same time. It’s tough. Things just aren’t going well.” admitted Haught, who among his many hats also coaches boys’ basketball and track and field. “With the construction of the new facility, we had a building at the finish line. It became my project to rebuild this building and find the funding for it.
“I’ll see it through. We found enough money and donated materials and we got people to donate their time. It’s gonna look sharp down there. Monday and Tuesday we were 7-on-7 at St. Marys and Friday was a shootout at Tyler Consolidated. That’s been my last few weeks, but it’s been OK. I signed up for it.”
Overall, Haught noted “It’s a big project. We will have new away and home stands, a new fence and there will be paving around the stadium. The baseball infield is getting turf, as is the softball field.”
Back to the gridiron, the Rebel coaching staff have their hands full when it comes to figuring out where to best deploy their players to capitalize on their talents.
Topping that list is safety and returning All-State first-team signal caller Ethan Haught, who is likely to be more of a mutual threat this season.
“You have to give Ethan credit for working hard in the weight room and we started to see what he could do with his feet last year.” admitted Coach Haught, who watched his son rush for 405 yards on 95 tries with eight touchdowns as a junior. “He’s a lot more dangerous. He can take off and get yards that way. That way we’ll be harder to defend. Really pleased with Austin Bartlett’s (led team with 100 total tackles and had 25 catches for 454 yards and two points) improvement on the offensive side of the football and his ball catching skills have improved a lot.
“Bodhi Utter (leading returning rusher 23-206-4 TDs) will be there. He will play a much bigger role this year. There are some new kids that are older and we’re getting glimpses. I think they can step in and help us. It’s exciting to have new kids and see what they can bring to the table and work with them on that aspect. We lost a lot and we replace a lot. People immediately say how you going to replace a Gus Morrison and stuff like that, but the whole backfield is gone. We all graduated in advance. That will be the biggest task, replacing the offensive line.”
Right guard/defensive lineman Morgan Knight returns, but coach Haught admitted “We don’t know if we’re going to leave him there or move him to the backfield. At the same time it’s kind of exciting. Our numbers are good. It’s quite exciting to see which kids are going to step up, what you can find, who has what skills, and trying to be aggressive on my part as to what’s the best way for us to do with this new group of kids.
Although we’re in a very different place this summer than last year, things are going as well as expected.
Bruce Moyers is back after leading the Rebels in kickoff return yards. Also returning is cornerback Jace Wells, who the coach said could move up to where Glenville State signee Marlon Moore played last year.
“We may be looking for two corners,” added the coach.
Knight finished eighth on the team with 50 stops overall and the only other top-10 returnee is Tristen Ginanni, whose 67 count put him sixth with the Rebels.
One of the biggest issues for Ritchie County so far is that they’re a bit lacking in gear, having had a helmet fit on Thursday and 50 players pushing.
“It’s a good thing to have. We have many children who are interested in playing. It was a good day,” Haught continued. “For the last couple of years we’ve been in our mid-30s, which I think is a nice-sized team.”
Everything should be ready by the start of the season. However, the Rebels open the campaign Aug. 26 at Tyler Consolidated and then have a bye week followed by street contests in Wahama and St. Marys before Doddridge County rolls to Ellenboro on Sept. 23.
“We must be ready to go” Haught said of his entire coaching staff. “It’s one thing to train 35 kids, but when you have 15 more kids you have to do a lot of reps. We have to play our A game.
“We will use some of our flex days. We can just focus on making kids stronger in the weight room and work on conditioning. We want to try to keep the offensive in check so that we can hit the ground running in August.”
Contact Jay Bennett at [email protected]
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