MORGANTOWN — The Morgantown High football team will have a fresh new look when it takes the field Friday nights this fall.
The Mohigans’ helmets got a new coat of red paint, switching up from the white domes they became accustomed to over the years. The new look will stand out under the lights, and it is representative of what MHS will bring to the field with many new faces across the board.
Starting quarterback Logan Holgorsen is now at University. Top wide receiver Alajuan Robinson will play football and run track at Wheeling Jesuit. Javohn Moore, Cole Streyle, Jayron Wilson, Tre Barnes, Sabri Juma and Neil McKnight all graduated, leaving holes at all levels of the defense.
But that doesn’t mean there aren’t key returnees who made significant impacts on MHS’s 4-7 campaign a year ago. One of those is senior Ty Konchesky, who is ready to prove a lot of people wrong, starting this week with the beginning of the three-week summer workout period, at Pony Lewis Field.
“I think we’re going to be really good,” Konchesky said with a grin on his face. “Those rankings that those people have, they don’t know what they’re talking about.”
Konchesky is referencing a preseason poll released by 304 Elite, a website dedicated to promoting West Virginia high school sports. The site released its top 10 preseason rankings and the Mohigans were not represented.
Konchesky thinks his team will prove them wrong, and he could be a big reason MHS could improve on its losing season.
He was one of the top threats at running back, with 790 yards and nine touchdowns in seven games, when he suffered a season-ending ACL tear toward the end of the year.
“I was cleared about a month and a half ago, so it’s just getting out and doing stuff now by testing to see what I can and what I can’t do,” Konchesky said.
He will pull double-duty this season as a “Mike” linebacker and starting running back, but linebacker is one position with a lot of depth, so he could take off reps on defense to stay fresh on offense.
Joining Konchesky on offense is tackle Nick Malone, who picked up his first Division I offer, from Pitt, last month. Center Jaden Wolfley is also back for his senior year — he started the last two seasons.
Quarterback is a big question mark, but head coach Matt Lacy has two players in mind who will likely fill the void — sophomore Cam Rice and junior Chris Burke.
“Both of those guys will have an opportunity to perform there at he quarterback position,” Lacy said. “We’re going to try and get both as many equal reps as we can going through these three weeks and into early camp. It’ll probably be an open competition through our second scrimmage (a week before the season starts), honestly.”
At receiver, senior Jestohn Moore and junior Preston Fox should make immediate impacts.
Defensively, MHS is going to try out a new scheme with an emphasis on speed. Tuesday was the first time working on it in a controlled setting, so there were a few rough spots, but that’s to be expected.
“There’s always growing pains as you change with anything,” Lacy said. “We had some busts — kids made the right call but then they didn’t play it right, that type of thing. It’ll come, it was only Day 1 on defense as far as practice goes. We hit on some of it during our flex days earlier this year, but we’ll continue to develop it and when things come up, we’ll find answers for them.”
The Mohigans open the season Aug. 24, at home, against Parkersburg.