LUCASVILLE — Of the 35 players on the 2022 Valley Indians varsity football roster, 12 are seniors.
Those seniors include Justin Moore, a ‘23 Boston University commit and Division VI OPSWA all-Southeast District First Team selection a season ago, Lakota Davis, an OPSWA special mention, and Colt Buckle, an SOC II honorable mention.
These three seniors discussed how they and their teammates their preparation leading up to their senior season at the Valley football media day last week.
“A lot of intensity, we’re having a lot of fun,” Buckle said. “We’re ready to go and hoping to have a lot of success this season.”
“It’s been really good. Our strength and conditioning coach and our coaching staff have us in the best shape we’ve ever been in,” Davis said. “Practice has been good, good intensity. Everyone on the team has been showing up and putting the work in.”
“It’s been good. We’ve been going hard the whole summer,” Moore said. “In the weight room, conditioning — as soon as we got pads on we were hitting. It’s been a really good offseason.”
Another member of their senior class is George Arnett, an SOC II first team selection during his junior year.
A senior group that’s gained plenty of game experience over the course of their careers is using that as a basis for leadership.
“All 12 seniors are leaders. We’re a really athletic group,” Buckle said. “We’ve had a lot of success so far and we want that to carry into this year.”
“The senior class has a lot of experience. We’ve all played basically since our freshman and sophomore seasons,” Davis said. “Holding everyone accountable and making sure we lead by example with the work we put in.”
“We’ve been friends since elementary school, grew up together,” Moore said. “We know how to work together and we try to teach the younger guys below us the things they need to know.”
Valley opens the season at home on Thursday, August 18 against Portsmouth — the annual opening game in Scioto County. It’s the first time the game will be played in Lucasville since 2018, a game that saw the Trojans 57-40 victors.
The Indians travel to Coal Grove and Piketon following the Portsmouth game — before hosting Eastern and Piketon in weeks four and five.
In SOC II play, Valley travels to Oak Hill, Portsmouth West and Wheelersburg and hosts Waverly and Minford.
This has been the first offseason in which the Indians have used the program’s new indoor facility.
Their seniors are it’s a stepping stone into a successful regular season and fourth-straight appearance in the OHSAA Division VI playoffs.
“It’s been awesome, a big help,” Buckle said. “We’ve gotten stronger and faster during offseason work outs, should help us a lot for when the season starts.”
“It’s been awesome. It’s huge, anytime we need it we can use it,” Davis said. “The weights are better than what we had before and we can use it for practice if it’s storming.”
“For sure an SOC championship,” Moore said, of his team’s goals. “I want to win as many games as we can and go far this year.”
Reach Jacob Smith at (740) 370-0713 ext. 1930, by email at [email protected], or on Twitter @JacobSmithPDT © 2022 Portsmouth Daily Times, all rights reserved
