BLACKSVILLE, W.Va. — The Clay-Battelle Cee-Bees have started their three-week football camp to prepare for the upcoming season.
Led by head coach Ryan Wilson, the team is getting a refresher on the schematics of the offense and defense in order to become more comfortable with their playbook, from changing the way the defense is being taught to their various offensive formations.
“You can tell they were more comfortable with the offense and defense out there, knowing where to go and where to be and [things] like that. We have many formations that we throw and we can go from a power game to a spread game. We just try to find what seems to be working for us against who we are playing,” he said.
The team has been competing in local 7-on-7 tournaments, including one at West Virginia University, and is hosting a tournament on their home field this week. These off-season activities were not available last season, and Wilson is nothing but excited to be back.
“We couldn’t do any 7-on-7s with any other schools, it was just us. We went to WVU and that was a super experience. It’s just exciting to be able to do those kinds of things and watch the kids get to play,” Wilson said.
Although the team was scheduled for 10 games this season, the team’s season opener against Parkersburg Catholic has been canceled. However, Wilson is not too upset as he is just happy to be playing football again.
“The nine games we have is more than we had last year. We’re excited just to be out playing games and we’re excited just to be out playing a scrimmage game,” he said.
The team will also have a battle for quarterback between Drew Boczek and Carson Shriver, who also see time within the offense at other skill positions. Boczek also plays on the defensive side in the secondary.
However, the unit that stands out to Wilson is his experienced offensive line that consists of all upperclassmen.
“I really like the offensive line, they’ve done a nice job in the off-season. They’re a group that knows what they’re doing; they know our offense very well. Our offensive line is a special group. What I see out of our group, they enjoy that competition. I think they are a very close-knit group just from hearing them talk in the locker room,” he said.
It is not just Wilson who believes this, but one of the offensive linemen’s upcoming seniors, Allen Nestor, agrees.
“This season we really should do amazing. We’ve put in a lot of work and try to hit the weight room as much as we can. We just really try to do everything, working drills or footwork, to better ourselves so that we as a unit can go out and really show what Clay-Battelle football is all about, how our family is really a beast on the football field,” Nestor said.
Clay-Battelle will begin their season on Sept. 3 against East Hardy.
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