Nelsonville-York Athens Messenger Preview

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AHS_Stephens
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Nelsonville-York Athens Messenger Preview

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Nelsonville-York eyes another title with veteran leadership
By Eric Decker

Boston Field

Nelsonville-York prepares for another title run with the inspiration of the past sitting beside them.
Messenger Photo by Eric Decker

It’s that time of year to start taking a look at some of the local high schools and their outlook on the upcoming season.

One of the more storied programs in Athens County, Nelsonville-York, is starting up a campaign to grab the Tri-Valley Conference (TVC) title for the second consecutive year and their fifth since 2016 when Rusty Richards took over the reins as head coach.

Things are starting to look normal again for the Buckeyes in terms of expectations and performance, but they have their fair share of new cogs to their system that they need to rely on.

The biggest change that they’ll see comes at arguably the most important spot.


Makhi Williams is taking over control of the quarterback position for his junior year after being used as a skill position player the past couple of seasons. The position is new for Williams, but his coaching staff has no shortage of confidence that he’ll be able to slide in seamlessly.

“Makhi is an athlete, he’s got tremendous speed. Throws a real nice football and he’s played two years of varsity football,” Richards said. “Not at quarterback, but at other positions. He started at defensive back for us so he’s been out there under the Friday night lights so that does help. Since summer, the first seven on seven to today, it’s a night and day difference and he’s getting better every day so we like what we’re seeing right now.”

While they admittedly have some unknowns coming into a key spot on the offense, there’s absolutely no doubt about the production from their leader on defense.

The Buckeyes return the TVC Defensive Player of the Year with Leighton Loge heading into his senior season. Even with being the best defender in the division already, there’s always a different set of emotions and expectations heading into someone’s last ride in high school.

“It’s crazy, I remember freshman year just staying in and working out and everything,” Loge said to the Messenger. “Now it’s senior year and I’m definitely going to take it all in but Week 10 we’re here against Athens… it’s going to be a good one.”

Richards knows the value that he has with Loge and intends to use him to his full potential while he still wears the word Buckeyes on his chest.

“He’s like a throwback, he’s just everywhere but he’s good enough that he could probably play all 11 positions on defense. He’s probably our best linebacker, he’d probably be our best safety and probably be our best defensive end,” Richards said about his star senior. “He plays outside linebacker for us. Does a great job of shutting down that half of the field and his leadership has been big. He’s one of the first ones winning sprints and he’s good with the young kids. You go as far as your seniors take you and we feel like we’ve got a pretty good senior group.”

It’s already a pretty accomplished senior group, which bodes extremely well for knowing what it takes to be a championship team. More than that, this is a senior group that understands how to deal with adversity.

After losing their first three games of the season in 2021, the Buckeyes were able to rip off eight straight wins to capture another TVC title before falling to Fort Frye in the playoffs.

While knowing how to deal with adversity is great, you don’t want to ever willingly put yourself in that position when it’s not necessary.

“We had a couple of plays last year, lost 7-6 to Trimble. 14-6 to Liberty Union where that could’ve maybe been 2-1. The biggest thing when you do that is to keep pumping them ‘Hey, we’re going to win the league.’ We’d like to start off the year a little better this year so it starts with our seniors, it starts with summer workouts and we’ve had a good preparation so far, so we just need to stay healthy at our scrimmages and we should be fine.”


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NY BUCK
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Re: Nelsonville-York Athens Messenger Preview

Post by NY BUCK »

Good read. Excited to see what 4 can do at QB. This team is fast. Reminds me of the 2017 team. Ready to get the season started.


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noreply66
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Re: Nelsonville-York Athens Messenger Preview

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Go Bucks


GO LOGAN..The anti-Christ is among us
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cbolt
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Re: Nelsonville-York Athens Messenger Preview

Post by cbolt »

How did the scrimmage go today?


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TRENCHFOOT
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Re: Nelsonville-York Athens Messenger Preview

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TTT


loganlocos
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Re: Nelsonville-York Athens Messenger Preview

Post by loganlocos »

NY BUCK wrote: Sat Aug 06, 2022 6:19 pm Good read. Excited to see what 4 can do at QB. This team is fast. Reminds me of the 2017 team. Ready to get the season started.
I was really impressed with him in the Logan scrimmage. Good luck to the Buckeyes this year.


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NY BUCK
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Re: Nelsonville-York Athens Messenger Preview

Post by NY BUCK »

loganlocos wrote: Mon Aug 08, 2022 9:00 am
NY BUCK wrote: Sat Aug 06, 2022 6:19 pm Good read. Excited to see what 4 can do at QB. This team is fast. Reminds me of the 2017 team. Ready to get the season started.
I was really impressed with him in the Logan scrimmage. Good luck to the Buckeyes this year.
Good luck to the Chiefs as well!


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Re: Nelsonville-York Athens Messenger Preview

Post by Geronimo »

Is the Herald Dispatch putting a preview out this season on OVC schools plus WVa and Kentucky?


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