The Linsly Cadets football team is turning itself into a marquee program.
Big wins and a winning record against an increasingly difficult schedule bear that out. So does the growing number of collegiate prospects graduating from Knox Lane in Wheeling.
In an effort to provide even more exposure for his players while taking advantage of NCAA’s evaluation period, head coach B.J. Depew devised a plan to get his players in front of some collegiate program eyes.
Monday, Linsly hosted a college evaluation spring workout up at the Highlands Sports Complex in Triadelphia.
The Cadets, along with Westinghouse Academy near Pittsburgh, and University High School from Morgantown participated.
“The idea came about because college recruiting is different from state to state in what schools can and can’t do. In West Virginia, we have flex days and we decided to use one of our flex days to do this,” Depew said. “We partnered with two other schools. James Cowart is a Linsly alum and former member of our staff who is up at Westinghouse.”
The Hawks got involved because UHS defensive coordinator Justin Hensley spent time previously on the Linsly coaching staff, so Depew reach out and the Hawks too came north.
“We wanted to partner with some schools to work together and make it potentially a more attractive event than just having one school,” Depew noted. “I’ve seen schools in Ohio group together and do a similar thing in a showcase format.
“It took a lot of planning and coordination. The colleges responded and said it was a great idea. Not everybody was able to come, but we did get representatives from all three (NCAA) Divisions.”
Hail, West Virginia
Getting a Division I representative to attend the evaluation was key, and the Mountaineers were more than willing to make the trek up I-79 to check out the talent on display.
But it wasn’t just WVU that showed up.
The local programs like Wheeling, West Liberty, and Bethany arrived to do their due diligence, but so did three members of the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference in Clarion, Cal (Pa.) and reigning PSAC champion IUP.
Also attending included Mountain East Conference member Fairmont State, along with St. Vincent College and perennial power Washington & Jefferson from the PAC.
“We have eight scholarship schools and three Division III schools,” Depew noted. “Some of that was because of the timeliness of the information we got out and travel availability, but there’s definitely rom for this to grow too.”
Depew noted that, up until two hours before the eval, a rep from Harvard was set to attend, but had to cancel last minute.
Akron was slated to send a rep but was unable to and other FCS and Division II schools were interested and wanted to be kept in the loop for spring 2024.
Evaluation Setup
Depew admitted the setup was similar to a pro-day workout but with a few changes.
Each of the three schools had an entire section of the field dedicated to it, allowing for drills and workouts setup best to showcase the athletes’ skills, as well as technique in different position groups.
“That is what we felt was best given we had three teams combined into one practice facility,” Depew said. “There were elements of a pro day to it.”
The first half of the evaluation was focused on showcasing athleticism, while the second half was more competition-based, allowing the scouts in attendance to watch the three teams compete against one another in 1-on-1 and 7-on-7 drills.
Depew noted it’s beneficial for the younger players just getting their feet wet into the recruiting process if they are so inclined, as well as the older players who have already started hitting the offseason camp circuit.
“All three schools were able to provide info to every college there,” Linsly said. “From our perspective, every kid we have working out got their name, basic info, academic info, and basic email contact out,” Depew said. “For the older ones who are more serious about the process, it got out additional contact information. Kids from all three high schools benefitted and we are really pleased with how it went.”
Depew noted he can definitely foresee the Cadets continuing this type of event next year and is already working on ways to make it better and attract more schools.
