PHILIPPI, W.Va. -- The Alderson Broaddus Football team released their 2022 schedule on Monday. This will be the third season of Mountain East Conference competition for the Battlers, and the 10th season for the program since returning in 2013. AB will be led by Head Coach Travis Everhart, and a slew of additional coaches who joined this offseason.
"We are really excited about the 2022 schedule," Head Coach Everhart said. "Especially with the variety of a few Thursday nights and home games under the lights. A lot of progress has been made with this ball club over the last few months and our team welcomes the challenge to showcase their hard work in 2022!"
Alderson Broaddus Football will open the 2022 season at home against Mercyhurst on Saturday, September 3rd. The Week 1 kickoff will be at 6:00 PM. Homecoming for AB will be on Saturday, October 1st when the Battlers host West Virginia State. Senior day will be on Saturday, November 12th when the defending champions, Notre Dame College visit Philippi. Other home contests for Coach Everhart's squad include a Week 3 matchup with Wheeling, a Thursday night contest with Fairmont State, and rivalry game against West Virginia Wesleyan on October 22nd.
The full schedule can be found at www.gobattlers.com under the schedule section for Alderson Broaddus Football.
The spring season ends this Saturday, April 9th when AB Football hosts the Spring Game Scrimmage. Kickoff for the game will be at 3:00 PM from the Multi-Sport Performance Stadium.
It's going to be another long season for AB football. I think they'll improve some, but then again they only won one game (@ WV Wesleyan) last season (see story below). I predict a two win season in 2022. As an eternal optimist I'll gladly take any improvement. Go Battlers!
PHILIPPI, W.Va- The Alderson Broaddus Football team battled adversity in 2021. This year marked the second season of competition for the Battlers in the Mountain East Conference. The Battlers made history, winning their first Mountain East Conference game with a road victory over West Virginia Wesleyan on October 23rd. AB also had the distinction of leading all divisions with six blocked punts on the season. Head Coach Travis Everhart sees a lot of progress both on and off the field being made that can be built upon in the future.
"A big part of what we have been trying to do here is build a positive team culture and build relationships," Coach Everhart said. "I was very excited to see our player-led game nights on Friday nights, how our player to player relationships grew throughout the course of the year, and how our player to coach relationships were built by getting each coach together with a different position group every week. It was awesome to see the gratitude of our players for each individual opportunity that was presented throughout the season. Every week we wrote down what we were grateful or thankful for. It has been great to see the lessons that are taught being used on a daily basis throughout our program."
The highlight of the AB Football season was the Week 8 contest against West Virginia Wesleyan. The Battlers went to Buckhannon and defeated the Bobcats, 49-20. Graduate Senior Quarterback Jaylen McNair (McGaheysville, VA) had his best game of the season, throwing for three touchdowns with 233 yards.
McNair was the primary Quarterback for the Battlers this season, playing in 10 of the 11 contests, and throwing for over 1,100 yards. The running game was split among several players. Junior Anthony Billups (Cleveland, OH) led the Battlers with 322 yards. Freshman LeShon Brooks (Savannah, GA) eclipsed the 200-yard mark with a total of 206 yards on the season. Freshman JayLen Parham (Virginia Beach, VA) finished with 184 yards. Senior Robert Johnson (Sierra Vista, AZ) finished with 374 receiving yards and four touchdowns, both led AB receivers. Junior Melique Jeffrey (Frederick, MD) and Graduate Senior Terrance Tate (Huntington, WV) both finished with three receiving touchdowns as well.
"I was very proud of how our offense grew from week to week," Coach Everhart said. "I was also very impressed at how Jaylen McNair led a very young group of young men. Most of the year we started four true freshmen on the offensive line along with some very talented freshman running backs. That group got better every week and we knew when we had a string of games late in the season where we went over 100-plus rushing yards a game and did a great job protecting. By protecting it allowed our quarterbacks and wide receivers to have some big games down the stretch."
The Alderson Broaddus defense was led by All-MEC Honorable Mention Sophomore Tracey White Jr. (Upper Marlboro, MD). The linebacker finished with 66 total tackles on the season with 4.5 tackles for loss. Senior Ga'Von Burks (St. Louis, MO) was the other Battler to also pass the 50-tackles mark with 57 total tackles. Eight different Battlers defenders picked off a pass.
The special teams were spearheaded by Senior Austin Hampton (Virginia Beach, VA) and Freshman Joao Lima (Wheeling, WV). Lima collected 68 punts for a total of 2,400 yards. Lima's longest punt was 70 yards, which is the second longest punt in AB Football history. Austin Hampton made three field goals on the season, with his longest kick from 38 yards. The Battlers led all of Division II as well as the entire NCAA with six blocked punts. For perspective, Coastal Carolina led Division I FBS with four blocked punts.
The returning players and the youth is where the coaching staff sees potential for the future.
"I think we got better from day one to the last day of the season. I feel like we need to keep progressing all the way around. I am excited about our youth and their drive to be the best every day. We need to keep working hard and finally take advantage of the full off season this spring. It will be great to finally get an off season in the weight room to develop the talent we currently have on the roster. We need to also continue to grow as individuals and as great teammates to get the Battlers over the hump in 2022."
AB's final opponent of the season, Notre Dame College advanced from the MEC to the NCAA Division II Football Playoffs.
I would think any thing less than 2 wins is completely unacceptable. And to me that is a very low bar. These last three years have been brutal and quite frankly, we need to show some sort of life. It is year three with this coach, and I would think we should be able to get 2 wins or more to show that we are making progress in year 3. There are some good programs in this conference, but there are several that we should be doing a better job competing with.
I saw the coach's interview after the first day of practice.
He talked about the "great incoming freshman class and how most of those will play a lot of minutes this upcoming season".
This seems to be a reoccurring theme every season.
On another note: I saw the story on some of the upgrades on the facilities. The football facility looks real good and that is the best I have seen Rex Pyles Arena look in a long, long time.
Turning the ball over 7 times is ridiculous on all levels. We moved the ball at will on them and really blew a chance to win the game. We outgained them in yards but the turnovers were just unreal. Bad teams do those things. The defense still takes poor angles and lacks proper fundamentals. We still don't make open-field 1-on-1 tackles.
With that said, we certainly have improved in talent. We blew an excellent opportunity yesterday. I doubt we win this week being we still have obvious flaws and that we are playing on the road on a short week. But I saw some of West Liberty on Thursday and this certainly isn't mission impossible especially if we can cut down on the turnovers.
Six interceptions. This is a joke! 10 interceptions in 8 quarters of football. 13 total turnovers in two games. And these were more than 2 winnable games. The defense wasn't great, but they made stops when we needed them to. And considering the 6 interceptions and how long they were on the field, I was quite pleased that we had a chance to win going into the next-to-last possession before we threw a pick-6. Skinner threw more interceptions tonight than he did completions. We have won 1 freaking game under this coach here in 3 years. The jokes write themselves.
The best coach we had in a fall sport left in the spring for another D2 job that being our men's soccer coach who could figure out how to actually win contests. What a novel approach! There is obvious a problem in Philippi.
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