LEWISBURG (WVDN) — The 2022 Greenbrier East Spartans football schedule was recently released for public view, and right off the bat fans noticed a lot of similarities with last season’s slate. It also looks difficult.
East has been a regular state playoff contender for the past several years and that should be the case again this coming August, but to do that, the Spartans will have to get through a treacherous slate that coach Ray Lee says will be difficult.
“Our football schedule is a very competitive schedule,” Lee said. “Our opening game is against very tough Point Pleasant team that was a 9-1 playoff team with their only regular season lost to us. Six teams on our schedule were playoff teams last year: Point Pleasant, Woodrow Wilson, Robert C. Byrd, Stuarts Draft which are our first four games all playoff teams.”
Other than the home and road venues, the schedule looks a lot like last season’s with the exception of two new schools coming on board.
“We have two changes to our schedule. We had to replace Buckhannon, Mingo Central. They dropped us off their schedule, and they were replaced by Parkersburg South and Stuarts Draft (Va.),” Lee said.
After the first bye week, Lee thinks the remaining six games will be the tell-all to the team’s playoff chances.
“We have tough opponents after our open week starting with a Hampshire team that’s returning quite a few starters, a tough Oak Hill team that has won our last two meetings, and Ripley which always have very good teams. Then two playoff teams in a row with Parkersburg South and Princeton, then closing out with Lincoln County that’ll be making a challenge for the playoffs this year. We have seven AAA and two AA opponents on schedule,” Lee said.
With Lee’s style and familiarity around the campus now, he knows how and what it takes for his team to continue to be successful year and year out.
“Like always, the bottom line is we have our work cut out for us and we are stressing this to our players the importance of hard work in our offseason workout program now if we’re planning to make a playoff run again this year,” the coach concluded.
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