St. Marys’ Ashton Boron (20) carries the ball during a high school football game against Williamstown. (Photo by Neal Smith)
PARKERSBURG — The Mountain State will be out for consecutive victories and its 17th all-time triumph when the 29th Battle Against Cystic Fibrosis Football Classic kicks off Friday evening inside St. Marys’ Bill Hanlin Stadium.
Parkersburg High School head coach Matt Kimes, who is entering year three leading the red and white, will try to build on West Virginia’s 34-25 win in 2023 that snapped a four-game skid.
“It used to be mostly Wood County and surrounding LKC schools, but it’s expanded over the last few years. We’re fortunate to get some really good football players,” coach Kimes said. “Ian Crookshanks out of East Fairmont High School and Sawyer VanMatre from Wahama High School will be the guys taking the most reps at quarterback. They both got great skill sets and they are both big and strong kids. I’m excited about what they can do in the offense. We’re going to try and be as simple as possible, but also let these guys utilize their skill sets. I’m excited to coach those two guys. Running back-wise we’re looking at Sean Winfrey from Tyler Consolidated, Chase Lowe from Wirt County and Maddox Shriver from Clay-Battelle.
“Those are the three guys we’ll look at in the backfield, probably the most frequent. Receiver-wise, we got a plethora of guys we’re going to try and get the ball to – Triston Walker from Parkersburg South, Brandon Richardson from Roane County, Ethan Holliday from Greenbrier West, Avery Brown from East Fairmont. Ian and Avery got that East Fairmont connection and it’s kind of nice having that. We got some other guys, Ashton Boron from St. Marys and Jake Delancey from St. Marys, both are going to play some receiver for us. We’re trying to play as many guys one way as possible, at least starting one way and then sprinkle some guys in here and there.”
Kimes said they’ve been practicing hard this week trying to get everyone on the same page.
“We’re getting close to figuring out what we got role-wise,” admitted Kimes. “There’s some really talented kids upfront, some all-state players. Our center is going to be Keaton McDermott from Philip Barbour High School. He’s an all-state player and really good. We got Shane Bates from Tyler Consolidated, another all-state player.
“Then a couple Big Reds are going to play on the offensive line in Jake Bauman and Carter Watts. We still got to figure out the fifth, sixth, seventh piece but we’re confident we’ll figure it out. Then again, we don’t want those guys, the big guys, to have to play both ways.”
One person who certainly did that during his career was Parkersburg South quarterback Turner Garretson.
“Defensively, we really like Turner Garretson at middle linebacker. He’s a Parkersburg South all-state player there,” coach Kimes continued. “Josiah DeMoss is an all-state player from St. Marys and Chase Parsons is an all-stater from Wirt County. That’ll probably be our three starting linebackers. In the secondary, it’ll be some of the guys at receiver.
“Kaden Humphreys from Philip Barbour will be in the mix back there as well as this Ethan Holliday kid is a special player. He’s making plays all over the field defensively. I told him to stop picking on us the other day he had so many picks. He was captain of the all-state defensive team at Greenbrier West. He’s a really good football player and I’m excited to watch him play Friday.”
Kimes said a lot of the wideouts and defensive backs have been learning assignments on both sides of the ball and noted Tristen Tuttle of Tyler Consolidated will man tight end.
“We got a big tight end, a really nice looking kid who can catch the ball well, so we’ll utilize him,” added Kimes, who played for the Mountaineers in 1997. “D-line-wise we got a couple kids from Doddridge County in Ethan Cross and Kale Hart. We got those two kids and Jacob Bunner from Roane County, another all-state player.
“We got a kid from Bridgeport, Jackson Rubenstein, is going to play some defensive end for us, and we got three kids from Ripley that will add to the depth in the (Bradley) Anderson kid, the (Collen) Moore kid and the (Luke) Lowry kid all will add depth on the offensive and defensive lines.”
Kimes, who also was an assistant in the BACF game one summer under then PHS head coach Don Reeves, said St. Marys lineman William Carr is playing in honor of his grandmother.
“It’s a good group,” Kimes continued. “Very talented and very fortunate to be putting this mix of players together that had a lot of success at the high school level. It’s a pretty cool opportunity to get to coach this team and bring together such a unique group of guys coming from all different parts of the state. You know, they are different but they are the same. They are all entering the same part of their lives and the next step, going to college or into the workforce, and quite a few of these kids are interested in playing athletics at the next level. They are making these connections with kids who are going to be doing that the same time they are, so it’s been cool to see them kind of bounce some thoughts and ideas off each other for what they are going through, and making some new friendships. When we first got together as a team a lot of these kids maybe know names, but don’t know faces to names.
“We were able to introduce each other to everyone and put some faces to the names. Fortunately, we’ve been able to build a roster I think is going to be super competitive and able to have some success hopefully. We’ll see. It’s a football game. We’re trying to win and put our best foot forward. We want to represent our families, our communities, our schools and our coaches the best we can, but at the same time realizing it’s for something bigger than us. There’s a lot of folks that are more unfortunate than us and we’re trying to raise awareness and make some money for those who do need that. It’s been a message we’ve reiterated all week. I think our kids understand what the purpose of this football game is. A lot of these kids it’s going to be their last time ever playing football. They are excited for that opportunity and I’m excited to be the coach this week.”
Battle Against Cystic Fibrosis All-Star Football Classic
Rosters
WEST VIRGINIA
No. Name School Position Hgt. Wgt.
1 Brandon Richardson Roane WR/DB 5-7 160
2 Triston Walker South WR/DB 6-4 180
5 Turner Garretson South QB/LB 6-0 215
7 JC Spears Clay-Battelle QB 5-8 130
9 Ethan Holliday Greenbrier West WR/DB 5-11 175
10 Kaden Humphreys Philip Barbour RB/DB 5-8 160
12 Ian Crookshanks East Fairmont QB/DE 6-0 200
13 Chase Lowe Wirt RB/LB 5-8 180
20 Ashton Boron St. Marys WR/LB 5-8 155
21 Sawyer VanMatre Wahama WR/DB 6-4 220
24 Sean Winfrey Tyler RB/LB 5-11 170
25 Tristen Tuttle Tyler TE/DE 6-3 205
26 Maddox Shriver Clay-Battelle RB/LB 5-9 180
27 Sawyer Hunt Roane WR/DB 6-1 165
30 Eli Bauman PHS TE/LB 6-0 175
31 Sam Miller St. Marys OL/LB 6-1 165
33 Josiah DeMoss St. Marys TE/LB 5-11 200
34 Avery Brown East Fairmont WR 6-2 210
40 Channing Lowe Wirt RB/LB 5-8 180
43 Collen Moore Ripley OL/LB 5-10 180
46 Jake Delancey St. Marys WR/DB 5-10 170
50 Luke Lowry Ripley OL/DL 6-0 250
51 Shane Bates Tyler OL/DL 5-11 230
55 Chase Parsons Wirt OL/LB 5-10 205
63 Keaton McDermott Philip Barbour OL/DL 6-1 250
64 Bradley Anderson Ripley OL/DL 6-0 250
69 Jacob Bunner Roane OL/DL 6-2 285
70 Jake Bauman PHS OL/DL 6-3 285
72 Ethan Cross Doddridge OL/DL 6-2 245
78 Kale Hart Doddridge OL/DL 6-2 300
79 Carter Watts PHS OL/DL 6-3 300
80 Jackson Rubenstein Bridgeport C/DL 6-2 190
81 William Carr St. Marys OL/DL 5-9 160
Today's breaking news and more in your inbox
