RACHEL, W.Va. — The list of accomplishments and achievements for the 2023 North Marion football team is lengthy and memorable. The top-seeded Huskies played in the state championship game for the first time since 1997. Their 12 wins tied for third-best in program history. Landon Frey earned national acclaim for his one-handed catch in the final minute of the title game. When the clock hit triple zeroes in Wheeling, North fell one play and one point short of a Class AA championship, falling to Fairmont Senior, 49-48.
“Those last two playoff games, particularly the semifinal game with Weir, I think the atmosphere was amazing,” said North Marion head coach Daran Hays. “In our community you couldn’t drive through town without seeing the signs and everything else. Dating back to being a 24-year-old and getting hired for the job, it was great to see it go full circle. Obviously, I am haunted by not being able to finish it out.”
As Daran Hays enters his 16th season leading his alma mater, many younger players will step into the lineup for the Huskies. North lost six players that earned Class AA first or second-team All-State honors — four to graduation [Frey, Aaron Hoffman, Casey Minor, Nathan Miller] and two that transferred to county rival Fairmont Senior [Landon Cowger and Brock Martin].
“We are who we are. We have who we have. And we can control what we can control.
“From a personal perspective, I think that this gives us the opportunity to have the best coaching year that we have had in 16 years because everybody expects us to take a big step backwards. But we return three linemen that started in the state championship game. We return a really experienced linebacking corps. We return a leader in Noah Hess that we are really excited about. Josh Holden, because of injuries, started in the state championship game and had an interception in the first quarter of that game. So there’s a lot of positives.”
Senior running back and defensive back Trevor Mullett will be counted on for additional production after scoring nine touchdowns in a reserve role as a junior.
“He is way more physically developed than he was his first year here. He is only a three-year football guy. But he sees it probably as well as anybody we have had.”
With multi-year starter Casey Minor onto the college ranks, competition is open for the starting quarterback spot.
“Hopefully we can get a quarterback that will contribute to that running game and run it themselves and make the appropriate reads in the RPO [run-pass option] game to get those extended handoffs like we like to give our H’s.”
The main challenge for Hays and his coaching staff as the season nears is to find ways to best teach the game to younger players.
“Whether it be auditory learners, kinesthetic learners or visual learners, we try to teach accordingly. Obviously, we are all some aspect of all three of those. What we find nowadays is that kids are far more kinesthetic and like to get out and do. But some kids need to hear it. Some kids need to see it on video. Some kids need to see it on a white board. Some kids need to ask questions.
“I think you have to find that appropriate balance of how you teach and how you make the football team your classroom.”