MORGANTOWN — Five years ago, Trinity Christian didn’t even have a football team.
Fast forward to present day and now the Warriors are getting ready to graduate the first class in school history to play four years on the gridiron.
“It’s really exciting to be the first class to go through their school career actually having a team,” senior running back/safety Levi Teets said. “It’s exciting to help build something at the school for the future.”
In the future, many of the Warriors might just look at Teets as a founding father of the football program.
Teets, a second-team all-state pick last season, returns for his fourth year in a program that won just two contests when he was a freshman.
“That first year, we won the first two games and thought we were really nice,” Teets, who will also play at slot receiver this year, said. “Then we lost eight straight. After that freshman year, I was questioning if we were ever going to be good.”
His sophomore year, the Warriors won four games in a COVID-filled season and then last year things changed. In 2021, the Warriors went 7-3 on their way to their first-ever playoff appearance.
Part of that change came from Teets, who has played tackle football since the third grade, and the rest of the team decided to change the attitude around the program, along with head coach Chris Simpson.
“The first two years we really weren’t that successful,” Teets said. “The football program honestly wasn’t taken that seriously around the school. But last year, us actually being able to make the playoffs, showed that we are a serious program and people actually have to look out for us.”
Teets said that last year, he thinks the Warriors caught teams by surprise. That won’t happen this year, as the program returns nine starters.
“I think a few teams thought we were an easy opponent; they were going to be able to put their backups in and score some touchdowns,” Teets said. “But we came with a different energy. We took it a lot more serious last year. In the weight room, in practice, and that showed on the field. We were a lot more aggressive and played a lot more as a team.”
Quite frankly, that was the opportunity that Teets had been waiting for from the moment he came to TCS. The school didn’t even have a middle school program when he was in seventh grade, but during his eighth-grade year the middle school program started with an eye toward having a team during Teets’ freshman year.
It’s a good thing that happened, because Teets likely would not have continued his education at Trinity if not for the football program.
“Football has been a big part of my life,” Teets said. “It’s one of the reasons that I wanted to stay here and help build something. If there wasn’t football, there’s a pretty good chance I wouldn’t be here.”
Now, the 5-foot-7, 160-pounder, is a force to be reckoned with on the field. Simpson said that Teets not only has his respect but the respect of the entire team.
“He’s just a dynamic kid,” Simpson said. “He is so talented. We allow him to make all the defensive secondary calls. He is such a special player for us.”
In fact, Simpson has big dreams for Teets after graduation.
“If he doesn’t coach one day, I have failed,” Simpson said. “You don’t always get kids who understand the game at that level. He teaches all the young kids in the secondary where to be. It’s like having another coach on the field.”
Despite all the awards and accolades from the state and his coach, Teets said he is focused on winning. He said he doesn’t care about statistics or how many times he touches the ball during the game.
“I like having the ball in my hands,” Teets said. “But if someone else is open or running better, I’m happy to block. I just want to win. My main goal is to lead the team back to the playoffs and hopefully win a game there this time.”
By ERIC HERTER
TWEET @DomPostSports
