by Jamie Harris
The Berkeley Springs High School football program has a new head coach once again.
photos by Lori Younker
Former head coach Terry Rea departed last spring for the head coaching job at Washington High School in Jefferson County. Which led Berkeley Springs into hiring veteran coach and former Washington assistant Wes Eddy to take over the reins. Eddy becomes the Indians fifth head football coach in the last 12 years.
Eddy has experience as a West Virginia head football coach with stops in Webster County, Princeton and East Fairmont, along with assistant jobs at Hedgesville and Washington and other schools in the state. Eddy wants to be able to put Berkeley Springs in a position to be within the Class A A top 20 and have opportunities to qualify for the playoffs on a yearly basis.
The Indians graduated nine seniors from last fall’s team. Two of the seniors are trying their skill at the college level as Hunter Ambrose (Fairmont State) and Cole Bernhard (Glenville State) started the chapter this past week.
Coach Eddy welcomes back several key returners who saw plenty of playing time last season. Junior quar- terback Aiden Cain is back as the starting quarterback. Cain will be backed up by sophomore Jackson Ambrose. Senior Conner Duvall and junior Steve Aulabaugh will handle the fullback position. Three players will handle the main running back position as Chase Yackowski, Isaiah Hutchinson and Jonah Kirk will look to provide a solid running game. Adam Rippeon and Luke Burch will split time at the tight end position.
The split end position will feature senior Holden Gurson and freshman Kyle Moore. Both receivers bring some much needed height and speed. The offensive line returns Landon Helman, Remi Sites, Krystian Norris, Lukas Purdy and Seth Armentrout.
Eddy will hand off defensive play-calling to Paul Price, who comes to Berkeley Springs after stops all throughout the WVIAC and Mountain East Conference and with over 40 years of coaching experience. “Coach Price and I would catch up, talk ball when he was at Con- cord and I was at Princeton all the time,” said Eddy. “His daughter is a pharmacist in Morgan County and his grandchildren live here, so it was a natural fit for him to spend more time with his family and still be involved with football.”
The defensive line has numerous players battling out for minutes. The inside line- backers will be Duvall, Aulabaugh and Helman. The outside linebackers will be Norris, Rippeon and Burch.
The secondary is athletic and has good height. Cain, Gurson, and Moore will see time at corner. Yackows
ki, Hutchinson and Kirk will man the safety positions. Ambrose will provide depth at the safety positon.
The special teams kicking duties see Aiden Cain and DJ Hinkle battling it out. The place kicking duties are also a battle between Axel Robles and DJ Hinkle.
“The sky is the limit for this group. If leadership from the players continues to develop the Indians will be back in 2023,” stated Coach Eddy.
Berkeley Springs opens the 2023 season this Friday, August 25 at Petersburg. Kick- off is slated for 7 p.m.
