Josh Sims may just be the right man for the job in Martinsburg.
The administration at Spring Mills certainly felt so when its members hired him to be the school’s third head football coach in a 3-year-span last offseason.
The Cardinals were coming off a 7-5 season that saw the recently-formed school win its first playoff game, a 28-27 win against Greenbrier East.
Martinsburg ended that season the next week, 70-0. The Bulldogs do that to a lot of teams. But when you share the same city with the Class AAA juggernaut, you get a first-hand view of how far your team needs to go.
“In AAA football, no matter how good you are, eventually, you have to get through Martinsburg,” Sims noted. “It’s a good gauge on finding out where your strengths and weaknesses are.”
Both the job and area appealed to Sims, who took the position without visiting the area.
The greater Martinsburg area and Berkeley County as a hole is growing rapidly. Being a stone’s throw from Washington D.C. helps.
The county already features two of the state’s top AAA programs in the aforementioned Bullodgs and nearby Musselman.
“The entire situation was very attractive to me in a lot of ways,” Sims said. “You have a brand-new school in a big-time growing area and the opportunity of starting something new in that atmosphere, building in the right way on character, was too good to pass up.
“I felt really good about the direction they wanted to go after meeting with the administration. Building this on character is very important to me.”
Strong Foundation
The young coach has known success on the field as a player and a coach. If his name sounds familiar, it should.
Sims captained the 2005 Class AA all-state team as a dual-threat quarterback at Magnolia High School, playing for Coach Mark Batton.
He walked on at WVU and found success before an injury ultimately did him in. But he learned from some of the best in Rich Rodriguez, the late Bill Stewart and Jeff Casteel.
Upon graduation, he returned to coach at his alma mater and was named the youngest head coach in WV soon after. Sims responded by guiding the Blue Eagles to the 2015 Class A state championship.
Following that season, he took a teaching and assistant coaching job at Morgantown High School, serving as offensive coordinator.
Sims is taking what he learned at two schools steeped in tradition and applying his own stamp on the Cardinals’ budding program.
“I don’t think there’s a player or coach anywhere who’s had success without having good coaches and mentors and I am extremely lucky in that facet,” Sims said. “I was able to be coach by Dave Cisar, Mark Batton, (Dave) Doc Chapman at Magnolia and a lto of our offense is geared toward a lot of what they taught me.
He’s not the only Blue Eagles’ product on the coaching staff either.
Justin Fox, the 2010 Kennedy Award winner and quarterback from Magnolia’s Class AA state title team is also on the staff.
Fox was living in Martinsburg and when he discovered Sims took the job, he called up his friend and the two started talking football.
“We actually called Coach Batton after the first win and sent him some pictures,” Sims said. “He was tickled to death to see two of his former quarterbacks together.”
Providing Stability
For Cardinals’ quarterback Keon Padmore-Johnson, the two were likely just what he needed.
Padmore-Johnson had a strong season as a sophomore before a leg injury cost him the entirety of his junior season. Coming into his senior year, he was facing the prospect of having his third head coach.
He could use a little consistency. What he got, while new, was the combined knowledge and experience of two successful all-state quarterbacks. If you’re looking for a reference and brains to pick, that’s a good place to start.
The feeling was mutual from the coach’s perspective too.
“We knew kind of right away he was very special,” Sims said. “Obviously, you see the speed and size and think he’s a scrambler.
“But we’re impressed with his ability to throw the ball. His accuracy is supreme, and his football knowledge and IQ are incredibly good. He checks all the boxes.”
Padmore-Johnson will only benefit from the Sims/Fox combination for his final season. But the program at large has Sims’ attention for the foreseeable future.
He wants to provide the school and his players the stability they’ve been lacking and keep the program moving in the right direction.
“Stability was kind of a big thing the administration was looking for,” Sims said. “They wanted someone planning on putting down roots. I’d moved around a bit and was ready to cement myself in a place.”
Delayed Yet Strong Start
While COVID restrictions eliminated nearly all preseason work and then severely limited that could be done this summer, Sims is looking to streamline things across the board, starting with the middle school program.
Unfortunately, the middle school season was scrapped because of the pandemic, putting some of his plans into a holding pattern. But the plan is solid and should prove fruitful as time goes on.
“Obviously, there was a missed opportunity there with the season being canceled this year,” Sims said. “But we’re wanting to get consistency with our numbers, our schemes and our technique and that will start with the middle school.
“There have been a lot of positive, not only at the high school level, but in the middle school and the community at large.”
But on the high school level, the Cardinals are already showing promise.
Sims’ team is sitting at No. 9 in the Class AAA ratings with a 5-2 record. Only losses to Frankfort and a tough loss to Martinsburg mar the team’s record.
This week, like last, Berkeley County is in orange on the COVID map, costing the Cardinals a home game against Oak Glen and a road trip to Musselman.
“We weren’t going to have a bye, so we treated (last) week like a bye week,” Sims said. “We calculated that we’d been practicing full go for 16 straight weeks, including the summer.
“Bye weeks late in the year are incredibly important because they help you get healthy and recharge your batteries. We’ve been fortunate in the injury department, but there’s always some of the bell cows that could use a few easy days to heal up.”
The regular season finale, should the map cooperate, will be on the road at Morgantown.
