2025 High School Football
Bluefield to be tested by strong early-season schedule
Season 1, Episode 2
•
Sports
Under the leadership of Fred Simon, the state's longest-tenured head coach, the Bluefield Beavers are preparing for the 2025 season after a resilient 2024 campaign where they reached the Class AA quarterfinals and gave eventual champion Frankfort its most competitive playoff game. The offense returns significant talent, headlined by sophomore quarterback Max Simpson, who passed for over 1,300 yards as a freshman and has already received a Division I offer, and junior running back Willis Wilson, the team's leading rusher from a year ago. A primary challenge for the Beavers will be the development of a young and inexperienced offensive line, which returns only a sophomore tackle and a senior center to starting roles. This new line will be tested immediately, as Bluefield faces an exceptionally difficult five-game stretch to open the season against opponents who all qualified for the postseason last year, including a Virginia state champion and two West Virginia semifinalists.
Up Next in Summer Previews
-
New coach, same expectations at Princ...
Nathan Tanner takes over as the new head coach of the Princeton Tigers, returning to his Southern West Virginia roots after a successful six-year tenure at Parkersburg South that included a state runner-up finish. Tanner inherits an experienced and successful program, not one in transition, that ...
-
Greenbrier West motivated to return t...
After a state runner-up finish in 2023, the Greenbrier West football team is focused on a major rebound for the 2025 season. An injury-riddled 2024 campaign led to a 5-5 record, snapping the school's five-year streak of playoff appearances. With a renewed emphasis on conditioning, the Cavaliers a...
-
Independence hopes to amp up their of...
The comparisons are easy to draw between the group of Independence Patriots that will take the field this fall to the one that brought the Class AA state championship trophy back to Coal City in 2022. Several seniors and multi-year starters are back for John H. Lilly's club. With four consecutive...