Doddridge County football welcomes high expectations

DODDRIDGE COUNTY, W.Va (WDTV) - Doddridge County has built a dominance in Bulldogs football over the last few years. As Coach Burnside says, the goal isn’t Wheeling Island. The goal is to win it all. That’s the type of success the green and yellow are chasing this season.

“You know what kind of young men they are, which are top level kids, and you know they came out and took it seriously. You know they have worked hard.”

Continued success creates higher standards.

“The expectations have risen for this team, for the community, for the coaching staff.”

It’s a welcomed expectation from the Bulldogs, especially to the seniors who have seen this team through several state semifinal appearances and a trip to the island.

“We want to meet the expectation. We don’t want to go sub par we want winning. I wanna leave a ring, Wheeling Island, Trophy, State Champions. It would mean more than anything to go out like that.”

What’s special about the bulldogs football expectation is the support of the community behind it.

‘The whole community has come together to support our football team. It drives us a ton cause you have a bunch of people supporting you and you have a bunch of people watching you in and out of the stadium to make sure you’re doing the right things.”

“It’s amazing. We see them when we go to the store, we see them when we walk out of our house they’re always saying what’s up, they’re awesome, it means the world having great fans who know who you are on and off the field.”

This year’s team is senior heavy, similar experience to last fall, housed a very seasoned line, but it also has some key guys gone that the coaching staff is looking at younger players to take advantage of the opportunities those gaps have left. Stepping up is key, and the willingness to do so is motivated by the dedication of the coaches.

“That like a father figure to us, basically giving us our family time we have, talks starting off every practice, it’s just great to have that feeling.”

Right now, the focus is uniting as a team and the rest will come.

“The greatest thing I think is having the mentality that we can go out there and try to beat anyone we can, and I think if we have that mentality, we can do that.”

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