The young men of the West Virginia Highlanders FC have a major opportunity awaiting them Saturday in Dublin, Ohio.
It’s there, where head coach Ryan Wall’s charges will face Ohio Premier with an Ohio Valley Premier League Valley Conference championship on the line.
A win yields three points, giving WVH 20 points and a 6-2-1 record. It also secures the team a spot in the OVPL championship match against the winner of the River Conference.
There, the Highlands will face either Evansville Legends FC or Northern Kentucky FC.
Evansville currently leads the River Conference with 22 points and a 7-1-1 record. Northern Kentucky is just behind with 19 points at 6-1-2.
“If we win on Saturday, we’ll secure the conference outright, and we’d play the winner of the River Conference, likely in Cincinnati, the following week,” Wall said. “I honestly couldn’t imagine we’d be in this position.
“I thought we’d be competitive; that was the goal, and to entertain our fans that came to our home matches.”
Wall had a good feeling about his assembled players in the preseason, despite a myriad of ages, backgrounds, and playing levels.
A preseason friendly against Appalachia FC out of Morgantown showed promise after the Highlanders secured a 4-1 win on the East Wheeling pitch.
But the regular season started off with a 1-1 tie against the Croatia Juniors, followed by a 2-0 blanking against Blast FC out of Columbus.
Not the start the coaching staff was looking for, but Wall and company didn’t panic. They knew the talent the roster featured. It was just a matter of putting people in the right places to allow them to flourish.
“We had a bit of a rough start,” Wall admitted. “We went on the road and tied our first league game and then lost the next. But (assistant coach) Brandon (Regan) and I, we changed a few things up. We moved some pieces around.
“We had some idea of our players initially, but we were literally 2-3 weeks spent finding out just who some of them were. Once we discovered that, we were able to put them in strategically better positions.”
Different Roster Makeup
The OVPL is a U-23 pre-professional league that features a large number of collegiate soccer players. But it’s not limited to only college-age players.
Several members of the Highlanders roster are recent graduates. Some still are still in high school.
They are not only rostered, but also competing and, in some cases, starting for the club.
“We pulled in six high school players on the roster, and most have seen minutes,” Wall said. “The’ve been a big success, and it’s great for them because they are getting level to college-level competition before graduating and playing in college.”
Some of that youth has a distinct Wheeling flavor as both current and recent Wheeling Park graduates line the roster.
The Meredith brothers, Clayton, currently playing for Grove City in the PAC, and Coleman, a 2021 graduate and state player of the year, are both fixtures in the Highlanders starting 11.
Current Patriots’ Taylor McFarland and Brody Wall also contribute regularly.
“I’ve seen a couple of guys from the high school ranks on other teams, but we’re one of the few were they play a prominent role,” Wall said.
Naturally, that has drawn the attention of some of the top players in the region, making inquiries about trying out for the club.
The summer season is about over, but for the winter and spring seasons, Wall is expecting a big increased in interested players looking for a spot.
“We’ve kind of been inundated by players who’ve heard about us now,” Wall said. “The summer season is almost over, but next year, we’re going to have a lot of people and likely high caliber of players coming to us.”
The overall success of the club has led to expansion.
Wall also coaches a group of 17-year-olds that he’s worked with for the last 7-8 years. That group is now operating under the Highlanders umbrella as its U-18 academy team.
“We’ve brought them under the Highlanders banner,” Wall said.
It could also serve as a pipeline for some of the top U-18 players to work their way up to the U-23 team in the future.
Follow along with the Highlanders FC exploits and news on its Facebook page or its website.
