(Photography courtesy of Tina Quesenberry)
Max Meadows…The Pioneers had a very impressive 9-4 season last year. That squad made it to the state quarterfinals. They lost in that quarterfinal game to Galax at Galax, the team they had defeated in the regular season 31-20. The biggest difference was the Pioneers had to play without their star player Colby Rider who had broken his collarbone the week before in a game against Chilhowie. The Pioneers lost 12 seniors off that team, so they are rebuilding.
This Fort Chiswell team is under the direction of head coach Todd Tiller. Tiller from Bee, Virginia is in his third season as the headman of the Pioneers and fourth overall. He has a 9-14 record with the Pioneers and is also the defensive coordinator. Not only did they lose all those seniors, they also lost their offensive coordinator Seth Padgett. Padgett is now head coach in California at Santa Rosa Academy in Menifee. That’s about fifty miles north of San Diego.
This year’s team has just five seniors. They only had 34 players to come out which was a disappointment for a school that is moving up to Group 2A Division from their 1A classification. You would have thought after their great season that more would have turned out.
Fort Chiswell will be not only counting on those five seniors, but are a junior laden team. Those 11 juniors will have to come through for the Pioneers to have a winning year. Last year they averaged right at 30 points a game while giving up 25 per game. In Rider alone they lost their leading rusher and leading scorer. He was second in passes caught and also led the team in tackles as well as their leader on and off the field. Offensively they averaged over 360 yards per game.
Coach Tiller’s assistant coaches are James Whitlock, Josh Wingate, Josh Shrader, David “ Doc” Meredith and Chucky Brown. The middle school coaches are head coach Danny Dunford and assistant coaches Chris Hanks, Ricky Poole and Steve Lowe. They also will help on varsity game night.
Coach Whitlock is in his 18th year and his 13th at Fort Chiswell. He is in charge of the offensive and defensive lines. Coach Wingate will help with play calling, wide receivers and outside linebackers and is in his 6th year. Shrader is starting his second year at Fort Chiswell after two years at Bland Co. He will be coaching defensive backs and quarterbacks. Coach Meredith will be in his first year at Fort Chiswell but has coached for 28 years. He has been at Carroll Co., Grayson Co. and Radford to name a few. He will be the offensive coordinator and help coach linebackers. Chucky Brown is in his first season with the varsity, He will help with offensive and defensive line. He had been on the middle school staff for six years.
Coach Tiller said, ”We will be multi sets on offense. We will run some veer and some spread packages.” On defense coach remarked, ”We will play a 35 or 40 defense. That’s depending on whom we are playing. We lost some real good players that helped lay a foundation back here for the Pioneer football program. Our five seniors will be heavily counted on and our juniors will have to come through for us. There are some sophomores and a few freshmen that will have to play.“
They will play George Wythe, Radford, Auburn, Graham and Bland Co. all at home. Their away schedule will see them go to Rural Retreat, Floyd Co., Galax, Tazewell and Grayson Co.
Coach Tiller remarked, ”Our schedule is close to what we had been playing. Instead of Narrows we will face Auburn, Floyd has replaced Parry McCluer and Tazewell will replace James River.“ He then said, ”George Wythe and Galax will both be very tough as usual. Both are well coached and have a big-time running back returning. Rural Retreat lost some good players but they run the veer extremely well. Floyd I hear are physical and Coach Beale has been there for long time and is a fine coach. Auburn I don’t know that much about other than their head coach was with former Auburn head coach Jack Turner, and they will be strong and probably will use the wing T.” Coach then added, ”Graham is loaded from what I’ve heard. Cooke the running back is as good as any one we will face. Grayson Co. is well coached and always plays us tough. Coach McPherson does a great job there. Bland Co. lost some good kids but Coach Hart has done a fine job for them. Tazewell will have a new coach and I heard they are kind of like us, in that they are down in numbers.”
Coach was asked more about his team and he said, ”We are actually more athletic than last year at the skilled positions. We are thin on the offensive and defensive lines. We would like to be 60-40 run to pass. We seem to be comfortable in the new offense at running and passing.“
It’s likely the Pioneers offensive starters will be Logan Smith, Billy Shrewsberry, Jon Gregory, Hayden Hawks and Jonah ”Loopie” Turpin. Brody Crockett will be at quarterback with Tanner Bailey, Aaron Crawford and Anthony Morris at wide receiver/ tight end. The running backs are Sean Morgan and Tyler Jakubiak. The Pioneers will use Bailey and his younger brother freshman Dylan at quarterback as well. Denver Brown will see time at tailback. Logan Newman and Zach Johnson and Ethan Woods will be backups at wide receiver. Look for Josh Brown, Mark Arnold and Garrett Chrisley to play on the offensive line.
On defense Coach Tiller remarked, ”We will go with Shrewsberry, Gregory and Chrisley upfront. Our linebackers will be Tanner Bailey, Crawford, Jakubiak D, Brown and Ethan Woods. The secondary will consist of Logan Newman, Anthony Morris and Sean Morgan.“
Fort Chiswell will also use Zach Johnson, Dylan Bailey, Brody Crockett, Ethan Hawks and John Poole on defense as well.
The Pioneers as previously stated are down in numbers. They will depend on a lot of non-seniors. They are learning a new offensive system. They have some versatility and are more athletic.
Coach Tiller remarked. ”The kids hit the weight room again like last year. I think we are stronger team wise and more athletic and have more speed than we did.“ He added by saying, ”We got three transfers from George Wythe: Denver Brown, Josh Brown and Zach Johnson. They will help us and all three are athletes. Our goal is to get back to the playoffs. We are in a very tough region. We have Giles, Glenvar, State Champions Appomattox, Martinsville and Radford to name a few.”
This year’s edition of the Fort Chiswell Pioneers is retooling and rebuilding in various ways. To go from winless to nine wins is a remarkable turn around. Nine wins again with only five seniors will be very difficult. A five-win season is not out of the question and a playoff appearance is not out of reach. They need to have people to step up and stand out for that to happen. A bounce of the ball one way or another may just be the difference for this squad.