By Duane Cochran
For the Times West Virginian
FAIRMONT —
When his peers tabbed Mike Lopez’s Fairmont State football team to finish seventh in the nine-team West Virginia Conference this fall in the league’s annual preseason coaches’ poll announced Monday the fourth-year FSU boss wasn’t the least bit surprised.
“Hey it is what it is,” said Lopez, whose Falcons were 3-8 overall last fall, 3-5 in the league and finished sixth in the final conference standings for the third straight year. “Our football team right now has a 3-8 feeling. We wear that 3-8 tag until it goes away and we can turn some things into a positive. There’s no question right now that’s about where we deserved to be picked. No question.
“Now the good thing about each new season is it brings an opportunity to better yourself. Right now we have that opportunity and it’s up to us in the coming weeks and months to do something with it.”
To no one’s surprise defending WVC champion West Liberty (11-2, 8-0) was picked to repeat this fall as the league’s top team. The Hilltoppers return a plethora of talent from a squad which made it to the quarterfinals of the NCAA Division II playoffs in 2009.
West Liberty, which is ranked third in the nation in preseason polls by both The Sporting News and Lindy’s and eighth in the American Football Coaches’ Assocation’s Top 25, returns 15 starters, including standout senior quarterback Zach Amedro, who finished second last fall in the voting for the Harlon Hill Award (Division II’s top player). The Moundsville native rewrote the WVC’s single-season record book in 2009 by throwing for 4,945 yards and 49 touchdowns. He needs just 1,210 passing yards this fall to replace former Glenville State star Joey Conrad as the league’s record holder for career passing yards.
If West Liberty, which received eight of nine first-place votes in the league’s preseason poll, is able to repeat this fall it will be the first back-to-back conference titles in football for the Hilltoppers since 1970-71.
Shepherd (6-4, 5-3) garnered the remaining first-place vote in the poll and is picked to finish second in the conference this fall. Veteran head coach Monte Cater, the winningest coach in league history (161-80-1 in 23 seasons), returns 38 lettermen this season.
The Rams are followed in the preseason poll by the University of Charleston (9-2, 6-2), Glenville State (7-4, 6-2), Concord (6-5, 4-4), Seton Hill (1-10, 0-8), FSU, West Virginia Wesleyan (2-8, 2-6) and West Virginia State (3-7, 2-6).
Concord, which made a remarkable turnaround last season under first-year coach Mike Kellar, will be the first WVC squad to play a game in 2010. The Mountain Lions open the season Thursday, Aug. 26 at home at 6 p.m. when they host Southern Virginia.
Four other conference schools, West Virginia Wesleyan, Charleston, Shepherd and Seton Hill, will open their seasons on Saturday, Aug. 28. Wesleyan will host St. Paul’s, Charleston will visit Tusculum, Shepherd will be on the road at Shippensburg and Seton Hill will host Bowie State.
Fairmont State and Glenville State will kickoff their 2010 campaigns on Thursday, Sept. 2. The Falcons will visit Clarion (Pa.) University for a 6 p.m. game at Memorial Stadium, while the Pioneers host West Virginia Tech at 7 p.m.
West Liberty and West Virginia State will be the final two teams to start their seasons and both will do it on Saturday, Sept. 4. The Hilltoppers will host Edinboro (Pa.) University at 1 p.m. in a much-anticipated rematch of their wild 2009 Division II playoff game which West Liberty won by a remarkable 84-63 score. The Yellow Jackets, meanwhile, travel to Dayton, Ohio to tangle with Central State University at 6 p.m.
