’07 Grad Hoping To Lead Wildcat Resurgence
Under the direction of a new head coach and in a different district, the Rockbridge County High School football team is eager to get the season underway this Friday.
The Wildcats have switched from the Valley District to the Shenandoah District, with shorter travel distances, and they’ll look to Zack Rhodenizer to lead them as he makes his head coaching debut.
Rhodenizer was hired in March to replace Martin Cox, who stepped down after three seasons as the Wildcats’ head coach. Under Cox, the Wildcats were 6-24. This is the first head coaching job for Rhodenizer, a 2007 RC graduate who played football for the Wildcats as an outside linebacker on the team that won the district and regional championships in the fall of 2006 before falling to Richlands 29-28 in the Group AA, Division 3 state championship game.
However, Rhodenizer, the first RC alumnus to serve as the Wildcats’ head football coach, has experience as an assistant coach for RC, from 2017-2022 under then-head coach Mark Poston, and at Staunton River High School for Chuck Poston, Mark’s brother, prior to that. Most recently, he served as a volunteer assistant coach for the Washington and Lee University football team for the last three years.
Last fall, after a winless season two years ago, the Wildcats went 2-8 overall and 2-4 in the Valley District, earning district wins over Harrisonburg and William Monroe.
From that team, the Wildcats graduated 10 seniors, led by all-district secondteam linebacker Gabe Wade, who was also a running back. Other leaders among last year’s seniors were defensive end and tight end Brady Edwards and Jayden Layman, who are continuing their academic football careers at the collegiate level, with Edwards at Division II Ferrum College and Layman, who was primarily a running back and wide receiver after starting last season at quarterback, at Division III Shenandoah University.
Despite those losses, the Wildcats have increased their numbers this year, with 43 varsity players out, up from 35 last year, and some sophomores will play for both the varsity and junior varsity teams.
RC has 19 returning players, and 10 of their 15 seniors are returning from last year’s squad. Adding experience and depth to the roster are 12 juniors, while youth is also abundant, with 15 sopho- mores and one freshman.
The freshman, Taylan Tyree, is one of the leading candidates to be the starting quarterback. Also vying for the position is junior Grayden Brown, new to the team, and sophomore Carson Fridley.
Rhodenizer said the Wildcats’ offense will be “a little bit more on the edge” than last year’s. While the Wildcats had a mixture of running and passing last year, they’ll have “more of a speed-based offense,” Rhodenizer said.
After the Wildcats’ first scrimmage on Aug. 15 at Greenbrier East High School in Lewisburg, W.Va., Rhodenizer said, “As a staff, we were very pleased.”
“There were some things we wanted to work on,” the RC coach said. “When we went back and watched the film, the kids are doing what we asked them to do, for the most part, and there’s always stuff to improve, but we didn’t give up a score on defense. I thought we played well. The offense is coming along.”
Rhodenizer said the Wildcats’ offensive line “is definitely a strong point for us,” with several talented and hardworking players returning. Back to the offensive line and defensive line from last year are juniors Billy Chittum and Piercen Knick and seniors Price Lunsford, Ben Davis, Caleb Robinson, Marquez Flowers and Carlos Yebra. “We’re pretty happy with how they’ve progressed,” said Rhodenizer. “We’re looking for a lot of good things out of them.”
Linemen who are new to the varsity level are junior Nicolo D’Antonio and sophomores Shayde Tomlin, Parker Zollman, Isaiah Ezell, Bryce Taylor and Bryson Brown. Tomlin is an offensive lineman and a linebacker.
The Wildcats also have experienced running backs, returning senior Marshall Earhart, juniors Pat Looney and Eli Sorrells and sophomore Asher Wells. On defense, Wells is a linebacker, while the other three are defensive backs. As the Wildcats’ kick returner last year, Earhart was named to the alldistrict second team.
Running backs who are new to the varsity level are senior Andrew Kelly, junior Joseph Clements and sophomores Marquis Corbin, Marshall Clements and Leyton Brown.
Another key returning player is junior Elijah Watkins, a tight end for the offense and a linebacker defensively. “He’s a good kid,” said Rhodenizer. “He works really hard.”
Leading the Wildcats’ wide receivers who are returning are seniors Trevor Hoke, Cole Dorey and Aiden Meyers, and juniors Peyton Fix and Cameron Whitlock. Wide receivers who are new to the varsity level are seniors John Grim and Keven Jones, juniors Maliq Corbin and Brenden Staley and sophomores Kolin Bennington, Cole Fine, Brennen Tomlin and Harvey Presnell.
Playing at the tight end and linebacker positions are junior returnee Joshua Sperry and sophomore newcomer Cole Hartless.
Returning as the Wildcats’ starting placekicker is senior Tyler Woods, while senior Tyler Watson joins the team as a backup kicker.
Rhodenizer said one of his team’s main strengths is intelligence. “The kids are smart,” he said. “They have picked up a new offense and a new defense fairly quickly, which is a credit to them.”
The RC coach said his players “worked hard in the offseason,” he said. “They’ve worked hard in the preseason.
Rhodenizer said one of the keys for the Wildcats being successful will be focusing on areas they can control. “One of the things that we’re trying to emphasize as a coaching staff to our players is, you need to have a big picture perspective of the game. We may have a holding call, or there may be a bad play, something that’s going to happen…. Go back to the huddle, call the next play, execute your assignment. If we can play within ourselves, if we can keep from letting outside factors influence us, then I think we’ll be in a position to be successful.”
The Wildcats are setting measurable goals, including limiting turnovers, being efficient and limiting penalties and dead ball fouls. “We want goals like that because, if you meet enough of those little goals, big goals like winning are a culmination of all those little things,” said Rhodenizer.
In addition to his head coaching duties, Rhodenizer is the offensive coordinator and works with quarterbacks and defensive backs. The Wildcats return three assistant coaches. Joey Jones is the defensive coordinator for the Maury River Middle School team and will help the varsity team in various roles, Pete Lampman is the defensive coordinator and defensive line coach, and Dan Taylor is the head middle school coach.
New to the staff, Adam Carter will assist with the offensive and defensive lines, while Adam Doll-Hennis coaches linebackers and tight ends. Lyle Pugh is the head JV coach, Robert Schwartz is the special teams coach and does data analysis, and Isaiah Warden coaches running backs and defensive backs. Robert Rhodenizer, father of Zack, has coached with his son before and will coach the offensive line and linebackers.
The Wildcats also welcome two volunteer assistant coaches, David Wells and Landon Joines, a college student who will work mostly with the offensive line while assisting with defense.
Rhodenizer said his assistant coaches “do a great job… They do it for the love of the game and because they want to see the kids be successful. They’re a great group of guys.”
In the Shenandoah District, which now has nine teams after RC and Alleghany joined this year, Rhodenizer said there are “a lot of good programs.”
“I don’t think there is a slouch in the district,” he said. “Everybody plays hard. You’ve got to go compete.”
Although Riverheads is with smaller schools in Class 1, while RC and most other schools in the district are in Class 3, the Gladiators are “a perennial title contender,” said Rhodenizer. Riverheads won seven consecutive state titles from 2016-2022.
Alleghany, which added former Covington High School players after the schools merged two years ago, is also strong, and the Wildcats have had their hands full with Fort Defiance and Staunton in recent years.
Before the Wildcats begin district action on Friday, Sept. 12 at Staunton, they’ll have two nondistrict games. They’ll start the season this Friday when they make the short trip to Bobby Williams Field in Buena Vista to take on local rival Parry McCluer at 7 p.m. In their home opener next Friday, Sept. 5, the Wildcats will play host to Turner Ashby, the Valley District champion last year.
Looking ahead to the matchup with the Fighting Blues in the opener, with the hope of snapping a two-game losing streak to PM, Rhodenizer said, “I don’t think you can take any high school football game for granted, but honestly, the first game, being a cross-town rivalry, the atmosphere is great. We’re looking forward to the season in general, but especially that game. It’s important to the kids and the community. It’s just a cool atmosphere, an impressive atmosphere.”
