High school football previews – West Muskingum Tornadoes

ZANESVILLE, Ohio — The West Muskingum Tornadoes are heading into 2017 with new hope and a new confidence thanks to a coaching change and a deep senior class.
Head coach Josh Whetstone is in his first year leading the Tornadoes, and despite a winless 2016 season, he says he is focused on his team getting better each day during the off-season.
“We’ve progressively gotten better every single day which has been really exciting for us. We’re playing crisp ball right now, which is nice. We’re looking forward to getting against some different colors though, start playing some other teams. We’re looking forward to that,” said Whetstone.
Despite it being his first year as the head coach for West M, Whetstone has been a teacher at the school for several years and was also previously an assistant coach on the football team. He says his familiarity with the school and this group of players has helped make the transition smooth, and a welcomed change by the players.
“I’ve been in the building for seven years. I’ve coached here before, and I’ve been with these guys here before so a lot of the guys know me. So we really haven’t had a lot of problems. As a matter of fact, most of them have been pretty excited about it, so I think the transition has been very well received,” Whetstone added.
As for his quarterback, senior Matt Burnett says that he is happy to have coach Whetstone back. He believes the Tornadoes offense will thrive under his leadership, and will keep opposing defenses off-balance throughout the season.
“It’s great. We’re happy to have him, glad he’s back. The offense, it’s definitely new, but everybody seems to be picking up on it pretty fast so that’s good. The offensive and defensive line, they’re firing out. Me as the QB, my receivers are running the right routes, I know where they are. The timing is good,” Burnett explained.
Burnett is just one in a large group of seniors returning in 2017 for West Muskingum. He’s taken on a leadership role that has been embraced by the entire class, and Whetstone attributes the successful off-season to that senior leadership on his roster.
“They’ve been awesome. They’ve been pretty much taking over the team and leadership roles. I haven’t had to ask any one of them to step up, they’ve been pretty well stepping up themselves which has been awesome to have here,” Whetstone said.
Senior play-maker Grant Murrey says the senior leadership is key to making sure that he and his classmates go out on a high note.
“I’d say leadership is one of our strengths. We have our senior class all stepping up cause we haven’t had a successful year these past three years, and we just want to end on a really good note.”
Senior offensive and defensive lineman Austin Parry praised the leadership that Burnett and Murrey have displayed throughout the off-season.
“I feel like as a team we’re doing really good. We’re coming together as a family, we’re putting our hearts into it. And I know the seniors, Matt and Grant have both been stepping up ; Owen (Iden) everybody’s been stepping up.”
The Tornadoes kick off of their season on Friday, August 25th away to East Knox.
2017 Schedule
08/25 @ East Knox
09/01 New Lexington
09/08 Philo
09/15 @ Morgan
09/22 @ Sheridan
09/29 John Glenn
10/06 @ Maysville
10/13 Crooksville
10/20 @ Tri-Valley
10/27 Monroe Central