2025 prep football previews: Winfield looks to get back to winning campaigns

The first two Generals teams Eddie Smolder coached, in 2022 and 2023, are lionized there. Winfield fell short of the price of admission, though, last season, finishing 4-6.

“The past is the past, and you can’t go back and relive it,� Smolder said. “You can always learn from it. This year’s a brand new year, and we’re excited about it just being 2025.

“That’s the great thing about sports is, year after year, it’s a brand new year. It’s a new season for everybody.�

Winfield is aiming for this season to look less like 2024 and more like the two before it. The Generals won their playoff opener to advance to the state quarterfinals in each of those two campaigns.

Winfield’s upperclassmen remember what that experience was like – and surely hunger to participate in it again.

“So 2025 has a question mark beside of it, but I can tell you our kids are working hard to get 1% better and our coaches are doing the same thing,� Smolder said. “And that’s our main goal on a daily basis. That’s called focusing on the process.�

One of the challenges that ethos seeks to meet is filling holes, left by both graduation and transfer. Winfield must replace its quarterback, its leading receiver and four of its top five rushers from last season.

Easton Pinkerton, who led the Generals in both passing and rushing in 2024, graduated. Leading pass-catcher and fourth-leading rusher Aiden Hernandez transferred to Herbert Hoover and No. 2 rusher Chris Radcliffe moved on to Nitro.

Winfield, too, is moving on with the 50 or so Generals still wearing green on its campus on the banks of the Kanawha River.

“Whenever you lose, you learn, and these kids are hungry, working, getting better,� Smolder said, looking out over a Generals late-July flex-day morning workout. “They're really close as a team, the kids we have on our team are really proud to be Winfield kids, and they love our community and our school and our program, and we love those guys. We're gonna ride or die with ‘em.�

Smolder doesn’t expect radical changes to Winfield’s offensive philosophy, even with shifts in personnel.

“We’re gonna run the football and throw it quick,� he said, “and throw play-action when we need to.�

As of late July, Winfield had two quarterbacks in the mix to take snaps – junior Jared Miller and sophomore Brodee Belcher.

Miller (6-foot, 180 pounds) saw time for the Generals last season before suffering an injury that ended his campaign early. Belcher (5-11, 155) got plenty of snaps as a freshman QB at Logan in 2024.

Whichever isn’t calling signals at a given time could play another skill position, Smolder said.

Junior Gannon Boggs (5-8, 168) is the lone returnee among Winfield’s top five rushers, putting up 392 yards and two touchdowns on 44 carries last season. Miller is the Generals’ second-leading returning ballcarrier with 48 yards on seven totes in 2024.

Senior Dylan Paxton (5-11, 180), junior Carson Samples (5-8, 160), freshman Levi Craigo (5-11, 160), junior Clayton Cramer (5-9, 170) and Belcher might also see time as a wing or in the backfield, Smolder said.

Junior Aiden Tate (6-0, 160), junior Pierce Worline (5-7, 140) and junior Tyler Laughery (5-10, 140) are experienced wideouts. Seniors Drew Mann (6-2, 200) and Brock Graziani (5-11, 175) are “seasoned� tight ends, Smolder said.

Mann’s 165 receiving yards and three house calls through the air last season are both tops among Winfield returners. Tate had 120 receiving yards and two TDs.

“Every position’s a battle� on the offensive line, Smolder said. Junior Aiden Oliver (6-1, 235), senior Jaxson Swiney (6-2, 220), senior Chase Riggs (6-2, 255), senior Ayden Douglas (5-9, 230), junior Lucas Howell (5-10, 195), senior Weston O’Callaghan (5-9, 200) and freshman Jacob Warner (6-4, 362) drew mention from Smolder as players working for playing time up front.

"We've got some depth there,� the coach said, “it’s just the matter of putting the pieces where they're supposed to go, and fitting it where it best fits our team.�

Worline and Tate will be integral pieces in the secondary. Howell, sophomore Talon Westfall (6-2, 180), Samples, Paxton, Boggs, Belcher, Graziani and Cramer populate a deep and experienced linebacking corps.

Smolder said Winfield will return five of the seven members of its defensive line rotation.

Juniors Jaxin Alexander and Brayden Wissler are back as kickers. Wissler (5-11, 160) was 24 of 26 on extra points in 2024 and Alexander (5-11, 161) connected on 8 of 9.

Mann and Miller punt for the Generals.

Owing largely to changes wrought by the WVSSAC’s addition of a fourth class and the makeover of the Cardinal Conference, Winfield had to regenerate half its schedule. Chapmanville, Wayne, Logan, Sissonville and Scott are gone from the docket, replaced by South ÂÒÂ×ÄÚÉä, Magoffin County (Kentucky), Ripley, Shady Spring and Riverside.

The Generals' schedule retained Lincoln County, Herbert Hoover, Princeton, Nitro and Point Pleasant.

“Excited about our schedule,� Smolder said. “It's different. We've got some new teams, which is good. We'll roll through it and put the ball down.�

Winfield’s motto is “above the line.� It appears on the back of shirts the Generals wear in 7-on-7s and social media hashtags, but it’s more than a pithy saying, Smolder said – it's about how Winfield prepares one step at a time to have success come November, and beyond.

"We talk about winning all the time,� Smolder said. "It’s winning not only on Friday nights, that’s the ultimate at the end, but we want to win each practice. That’s by getting 1% better. We want to win that weight-room session. We want to be 1% better based on our energy, our effort, our attitude, how much effort we put out, how much weight we do.

“So it’s a continuous thing of trying to be 1-0 each day. And that’s practicing habits for life and giving them tools, giving examples of becoming better young men for the future. And that’s what ultimately it’s all about.�