This history is rich, just not with this group.
After waiting out a list of legal injunctions and appeals, Bluefield is ready for playoff action after missing the postseason a year ago. The Supreme Court ruling favored the Beavers who went from traveling in round one to hosting a playoff game.
Well, sort of.
The playoff delay resulted in Graham, the school Bluefield shares its stadium with, getting preference to play on Friday night. As a result the Beavers will open the 2024 playoffs at Hunnciutt Stadium in Princeton. It’s just the latest challenge hurled in the direction of a younger Bluefield roster that took its lumps in the regular season, finishing with a 4-5 record on the back of a brutal schedule the featured seven Class AAA or AAAA teams.
There’s a hope that the rigorous schedule will make up for the lack of playoff experience on a team that relies heavily on freshmen and sophomores to produce.
“Let’s just do our best to get better and just see how this plays out,” Bluefield head coach Fred Simon said. “I had never experienced anything before like Covid and this is, it’s just something that’s different for me. If I had a seasoned veteran group that was undefeated, it’s a whole different ball game compared to the situation we’re in now. So I’ll make the most of it and you never know, we’re in the playoffs. We’re still in the playoffs, it’s the same situation. You gotta win it on the road or home and I’m happy to begin with. We’ll do our best to make the most of our situation.”
The bye week was beneficial for the Beavers in getting healthy.
Their last regular season game, a 28-20 loss to James Monroe, was on a Thursday providing an extra day of rest. It may prove useful as the Beavers lost their most productive skill player, Willis Wilson, to an ankle injury in that game. Simon is unsure if he’ll be able to go Friday but the week off aided his cause.
“I don’t think it hurts but at the same time I don’t think it’s benefited a bit,” Simon said. “We had (Wilson) get hurt with an ankle injury against James Monroe so we’re trying to get him healthy again, but that’s not gonna be easy, because there’s pretty tough ankle sprain. But other than that, everybody’s good to go. There’s nobody hurt. Just not getting play hurts. We’ve had guys miss time all year with injuries. Jeff King missed some time so we know who can handle more of the carries when our guys are hurt.
“It gives us an opportunity to give more touches to a Kisean Smith or Ty Patton or Tyrese Powell and see what they can do with it. Truthfully I’d have rather played straight through.”
The Beavers are led by a pair of young emerging stars on offense.
QB Max Simpson has thrown for 1,146 yards while completing 60 percent of his passes. Wilson leads the Beavers with 931 scrimmage yards (704 rushing, 227 receiving) to go along with 10 total touchdowns. Ty Patton has 423 yards rushing as a fullback while Jeff King is the team’s leading receiver with 376 yards.
Despite those outputs, the offense has struggled to find consistency, averaging 20.3 points per game, a total buoyed by three 40-point explosions. The Beavers were held to seven points or less in four of their nine contests.
“We have to pretty much protect our quarterback and not put the freshman in a situation and get your butt beat,” Simon said. “We need to be a little bit smarter with our calls to help him out some to make sure we can execute what we’re trying to do. The James Monroe game left a really bad taste in my mouth. it’s a game that I felt we should have won and we didn’t. That can be a good thing going into the playoffs. The main thing is we’re in the playoffs. It doesn’t matter, and we learned our lessons from that and we just got to get things right and see what happens.”
While this Bluefield team is largely inexperienced in the postseason, Simon has plenty of experience as a head coach, having won five Class AA titles since 1997. That’s given him the ability to assess what his team needs to do on both sides off the ball in order to deliver the program’s first playoff win since 2021.
“We have to do our best to not let these teams in the end zone and I mean period,” Simon said. “Offensively we need to get into a rhythm and get some things going and put some points on the board, too. I think it’s a combination. Our special teams, we missed an extra point and a field goal in the last game and that was huge. Â I mean we had crucial turnovers for touchdowns and we come right back and fumble after we’ve given up a touchdown. We’ve got to be better on the turnover deal and I think we got play with more effort. I think we’ve got fundamentals but effort will be a key.”
Bluefield will open the Class AA playoffs against South Harrison on Friday at 7 p.m. at Hunnicutt Stadium in Princeton.
