WEST POINT, Ala. — After getting off to a fast start in 2018 and winning their first two games, the West Point Warriors dropped their next seven before capping off the year with a 55-14 win over Cordova. With last season behind them, head coach Don Farley is happy to report a very productive offseason with good effort and leadership from his guys.
“We had a real good summer,” Farley said. “We had really good attendance from everybody, good leadership and our guys really held each other accountable and trusted each other.”
Farley is entering his seventh season as the head coach of the Warriors and he and his staff have a new challenge ahead of them this fall. With a large senior class missing from last season, including several impact players on both sides of the ball, there are plenty of opportunities for new faces to step up and earn playing time on the field this year.
“You know anytime you lose that many seniors like we had, it’s going to affect you the next year. With Rylan Jones and Kolton Sapp and Hunter Persall we lost a lot of our productivity as far as yards go,” Farley said. “We lost those guys’ experience as well and we lost three offensive linemen and that’s not a position that you want a lot of turnover in if you can help it. Then we lost some guys on the defensive front as well.”
When you lose that much offensive production all at once, it can force some schematic changes for a team the following year. Farley definitely wants to mold their style of play to his team’s strengths, but they also want to try and stay within the system that he and his staff have established over the past few years.
“We’re going to play to our kids’ strengths, but we’ll try to stay within the same philosophy of what we’ve run the last few years as far as scheme goes,” Farley said. “The guys that we’re expecting to step up have been running this same scheme for two or three years in our JV program so while we’re younger than we have been in a long time, I think we’ve really got some good guys that are ready to step in.”
Replacing quarterback Rylan Jones has been one of the biggest challenges for the Warriors this offseason but Farley likes both of the two major candidates. Whichever one of them doesn’t land the job under center will become a valuable target on the outside so Farley is excited to see how this team’s starting group of skill players shake out. West Point has attended several passing camps this summer and Coach believes those reps will be invaluable for this team once the season kicks off.
“At quarterback right now it’s between Whitt Laney and Will Cochran. They’ve both been getting reps in the spring and in the summer and of course whichever one is not taking the snaps will be lined up at wide receiver and be a big-time target there,” Farley said. “Kobe Bowers will be back for us at receiver and early in the year last year he was one of our top guys before he got injured and Levi Farley and Kelton Washington are two of the guys that we’re looking to replace Persall. It’s good to get to them and we did more of that this year than we did last year,” Farley said. “It helps get our secondary understanding the calls and adjustments that they will see, it’s good for the quarterbacks and wide receivers for their timing and everything so it’s not football but it’s good reps for those guys.”
When thinking about the struggles his team had a year ago, Farley recognized that one their biggest issues in 2018 was being a little too focused on getting to the playoffs instead of playing the game in front of them that week. Having learned that lesson, Farley is excited to see this year’s team hit the field and get things started with a win at Fairview in week one.
“Looking back and reflecting on last year, we’d had that great run of four straight postseason appearances, and I think we got a little too far ahead of ourselves and focused too much on the result and not what makes that result happen,” Farley said. “We got too focused on the playoffs and overlooked what it takes to get there, and this group has kind of refocused their attention to what it takes to make the playoffs.”
West Point (Class 5A, Region 7)
2018 record: 3-7
2018 opponents record: 48-58
Averaged 26.8 points per game, allowed 34.9 points per game. Started season 2-0 before losing seven straight games. Ended season with 55-14 win over Cordova.
Don Farley entering seventh season as head coach.
Departing seniors: Kolton Sapp, Rylan Jones, Landon Ray, Logan Hyde, Jonathan Hamby, Brayden Martin, Steven Rodriguez, Hunter Persall, Caleb Smith, Cole Guthrie, Darian Wyenandt, Colby Jones, Michael Roberts, Carson Moon, Connor Aldridge, Trey Morris III.
2019 Schedule
Aug. 22nd – @ Fairview
Aug. 30th – @ Arab
Sept. 6th – @ Hamilton *
Sept. 13th – vs. Lawrence County *
Sept. 20th – @ Russellville *
Oct. 4th – vs. Jasper
Oct. 11th – @ Dora *
Oct. 18th – Vs. Corner *
Oct. 25th – Vs. Hayden *
Nov. 1st – @ Cordova
West Point Varsity Cheerleaders
Kenzie Cordes- junior, Meadow Cooper- freshman, Allison Milligan-freshman, Kaitlynn Richmond-freshman and Kaedince Cagle-freshman, Kortney Speegle-junior, Bethany Moore-senior, Hayden Chandler – senior- captain, Lyssi Nuss- senior- captain, Caidyn Mcmanus-senior, Brianna Wray – junior, Timberly Shadix- sophomore, Kay Kay McDowell- sophomore, Emma Gutherie- sophomore, Kinsley Hunter- sophomore and Reagan Randau- sophomore, Kelsey Speegle – freshman.
2019 West Point Football Roster
No. Name Grade
1 Eli Folds 10
2 Levi Farley 12
3 Whitt Laney 12
4 Keaton Chappell 11
5 Branson Smith 11
6 Jacob Dye 11
7 Suyeta Drowning Bear 10
8 Howard Cooper 12
9 Cooper Couch 12
10 Will Cochran 11
11 Kobe Bowers 11
12 Brian Cornelius 10
14 William Brown 12
15 Luke Hammond 11
16 Charles Laatz 11
17 Ashton Thrailkill 10
18 Alfonso Perez 11
19 Damian Raymond 9
20 Caleb Bowers 9
21 Clay Creel 9
22 Herring Fisher 10
23 Kelton Washington 10
24 Kolby Clifton 9
25 Jack Sellers 12
26 Carter Thornton 11
27 Daniel Dean 9
28 Seth Beasley 11
29 Anthony Selby 11
30 Jordan Hardin 9
32 Riley Wayne 9
33 Braeden Patterson 11
34 Brody Rusk 12
40 Brent Langley 9
44 Lucas McAfee 11
47 Joseph Calvo 9
50 Jayden Williams 11
51 Benjamin Doss 12
52 Joseph Barnett 10
53 Erik Griggs 12
54 Chase Sibley 11
55 Kaleb Perry 9
56 Tyler Thompson 12
57 Jordan Tanner 12
58 Aiden Dujoud 9
59 Jody Weldon 10
60 Josue Suarez-Orona 10
61 Armando Hernandez 10
64 Ethan Helms 11
66 Jacob Smith 10
67 Matthew Dunagan 11
68 Nathaniel Swann 10
69 Kenyan Baker 11
70 Gaige Roberson 11
72 Justin Mosher 10
74 Evan Brown 12
75 Kell Wilson 12
76 Lester Simpson 10
77 Jason Sapp 10
78 Tariq Nemrouri 11
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