Coss hoping baseball was just a start for Pioneers
Third-year West Greene football coach John Coss is hoping that his work in the spring with some of this year’s key players will pay off under the Friday night lights.
Coss isn’t referring to spring workouts in the weight room, however. He is talking about his time as coach of the West Greene baseball team that won nine games, just two fewer than the program’s victory total (11) for the 2010 and 2011 seasons combined. This past spring was Coss’ first year of a second stint with the Pioneers baseball team. He and the Pioneer football team didn’t enjoy nearly as much success in 2011, going 0-9 overall and 0-8 in the Tri-County South Conference.
“I (held multiple coaching jobs) here before back in the 1990s. When I started here, I coached football, baseball and wrestling,” Coss said. “I wanted to take the baseball job to get some winning going. This past year was nine wins and my goal is to get that carried over to football.”
While Coss hopes to bring his spring squad’s improvements with him when it comes to wins and losses, one similarity he hadn’t counted on was two rosters of nearly the same size. The Pioneer baseball team featured 15 players, and this year’s West Greene football team includes just 21 members.
Four student-athletes boast membership on both squads, including seniors Matt Johnston (6-3, 175) and Donnie White (6-2, 190) and juniors Dalton Wildman (6-0, 175) and Trevin Bedilion (6-3, 240). Each is expected to start for Coss.
Wildman is back for his third season as West Greene’s starting quarterback and Johnston is expected to be one of his favorite targets at split end. White will be one of the team’s primary ball carriers. Other running backs looking to rack up carries in 2012 include sophomores Donovan Weaver (5-6, 145) and Caleb Miller (5-9, 165), and junior Wyatt Bowman (5-10, 160).
Bedilion looks to be the starter at right tackle, while the left tackle starting job looks to belong to sophomore Will VanNorman (6-1, 250). The interior portion of the line is expected to be manned by junior left guard Bray Jackson (6-0, 195) and senior right guard Cody Jacobs (5-11, 205). Jackson’s twin brother Beau (6-0, 190) will be charged with the starting center position.
“Our offensive line is a strength for us,” Coss said. “They probably have the most experience of any group we have here. With our smallest guys being around 190 pounds, our size isn’t bad for Class A either.”
Defensively, Coss is counting on the team’s linebackers to lead the way when the opponent has the ball. Bray Jackson and Jacobs have the lead on the starting inside jobs, while White, Miller and Weaver are all going to see reps at the outside linebacker.
This past offseason the Tri-County South Conference underwent some fairly significant changes with California and Monessen, a pair of perennial playoff qualifiers, replaced by Avella and Bentworth, two programs that had a 1-17 combined record last year. The lone win came when Bentworth took down Avella in a Black Hills Conference meeting.
While Coss believes his team can break out of its current 18-year playoff drought, he knows that his limited numbers don’t make the task easy.
“It’s our goal to get to the playoffs every season. Everyone starts with that as a goal at the start of camp,” Coss said.”If we get any injuries at all, that sets us way back again.”
The Pioneers kick off the 2012 season on Friday, Aug. 31, when they welcome Bentworth to the Tri-County South with a home game at Kennedy Field.
Kickoff is scheduled for 7:30 p.m.