Wood sophomore quarterbacks Neal, Yurish look to continue growth

WINCHESTER — It’s pretty rare to find a team go through an entire season with two freshmen atop their quarterback depth chart.

After a 2023 season in which starting quarterback Owen Neal and backup Aidric Yurish helped the James Wood High School football team achieve a 4-6 record and double its win total from the previous season, Colonels second-year coach Todd Wilson can’t wait to see what they’ll do in 2024 as sophomores. James Wood will open its season on Aug. 30 at Warren County.

Thursday marked the first official day of football practice for Virginia High School League teams. A few players weren’t present for James Wood, but the Colonels will have about 90 players in ninth through 12th grade. On a team with just four returning starters on offense and three on defense, Wilson expects strong competition for playing time all over the field, adding that the returning starters won’t have anything guaranteed to them because of the quality of the team’s depth.

The competition for playing time will include the quarterback position, and Wilson couldn’t be happier about it. The sons of two James Wood assistant coaches are good friends and figure to again make each other better in the preseason and the regular season, just like they did last year.

“There’s no animosity, there’s no friction. It’s great for the program,” said Wilson as he stood inside James Wood’s weight room, shortly after a 1:30 p.m. storm warning forced the Colonels inside after beginning their day at 8 a.m. “Sometimes in programs, you have a kid that shows up and he’s like, ‘I have no competition, I don’t have to work hard, there’s nobody on my heels. I’ve got the job.’

“Owen coming back as a returning starter, he still knows he’s competing for that job this year. Him and Aidric are in the same grade and are both high-IQ football kids. It’s not like (Neal) can relax and say, ‘I’ve got this in the bag.’”

Neal has the edge in varsity experience. He completed 96 of 217 passes for 1,435 yards, nine touchdowns and 13 interceptions last year. Yurish was just 2 of 5 for 65 yards, one touchdown and one interception for the varsity, but he took most of the JV snaps last year.

“Both of them saw a lot of game experience last year, and that bodes well for confidence, for competition,” Wilson said. “We’re going to let them battle that out, go through two scrimmages, and who is the best leader and has the best command of the offense will be dubbed the starter in Game One.

“But when you have two quarterbacks like we have, you feel a lot more comfortable with your football program. We know, whoever the Day One starter is, if that guy goes down, the next guy up, we feel very confident he can get the job done as well.”

Neal is certainly glad to have a year of experience under his belt.

“I think the biggest adjustment was just the speed that everybody plays going from middle school straight to varsity,” said Neal of 2023. “The game is way faster. You can’t wait to make your reads, or you’re getting hit.”

Neal said after taking his first hit in last year’s season opener against Warren County, that’s when he felt he was truly ready for the increased speed of the varsity game. James Wood won that contest 14-10, with Neal throwing for 171 yards. Neal only completed 11 of 26 passes that game but was victimized by at least five drops.

Neal said one of his favorite games came against Class 4 Northwestern District champion Handley. He completed 15 of 23 passes for 261 yards and had a 76-yard TD pass in a game the Colonels led 28-27 in the third quarter before ulimately falling 42-28.

He enjoyed everything about the week-to-week process.

“Battling every Friday, being with people I worked with all offseason, that was probably the best thing for me,” Neal said.

Wilson said Neal never really got rattled, but as the year progressed, he felt he increasingly got better at handling adversity.

“You could tell when he did make a mistake, he didn’t dwell on it,” Wilson said. “He moved on. He knew why he made the mistake, he corrected the mistake, and he can tell the coaches why he made the mistake. Those are things you learn as you go through the season, because you’re getting a better understanding of the offense.”

Yurish said it meant a lot to him to see how much James Wood’s players support each other, and how much the coaches support the players. And the time Neal and Yurish spent together played a big role in how much they enjoyed their freshman year.

“It was awesome,” Yurish said. “It’s always fun competing with Owen, because we’re like best friends. We can say to each other, ‘You did this good, you did that good.’ It just helped because we could both coach each other up.”

Both players have pretty good people to learn from. Neal’s father, Jared Sr., is a former quarterback at Shenandoah University who was a volunteer coach in the 2021 COVID season and is now a paid assistant for a second year, serving as James Wood’s offensive and defensive line coach. Neal’s older brother Jared was a two-year starter for the Colonels and a backup quarterback as a freshman last year at Shenandoah. Joey Yurish is in his fourth year as the Eagles’ offensive coordinator after previously serving as the head coach of Hedgesville (W.Va.).

“I’ve got Coach Neal to help with the blocking scheme,” said Neal of his father. “If I don’t know something or if I’m confused by something quarterback-wise, I can go to (my brother) J-Dub. He knows how I think and what makes sense in my mind, and makes things simple for me.”

Yurish joked that it doesn’t help that much having his dad around because “he’ll always be yelling at me.” But then Yurish turned serious.

“It’s awesome having my dad here, because I can share moments with him,” Yurish said.

Wilson liked how both players prepared for this season, even though they’re busy with other sports. Neal plays basketball and baseball and Yurish plays basketball. Wilson said both have become much stronger through weight room work, and have developed into stronger leaders.

Neal said he also worked on his fundamentals and knowledge of the game. Yurish’s offseason included a camp in Pennsylvania run by a national organization, QB Universe, and he spent time running and focusing on his footwork and field vision. He’s also playing as a cornerback now, which he said has helped him as a quarterback because he has a better idea of what defenders are seeing and thinking about.

Wilson is looking forward to seeing how things will play out with the entire team as they look for players to step into bigger roles. Wilson — an assistant for four years prior to taking the head job — said this is the best depth the Colonels have had. Last year’s team had close to 80 players come out to play football, and a group of nearly 40 freshmen have been added to the mix this year.

James Wood has to replace expected losses like graduated middle linebacker Zach Smith, the 2022 Winchester Star Defensive Player of the Year who led Winchester-Frederick County players in tackles as a junior (139) and senior (113), and leading rusher Elijah Richards (968 yards on 211 carries). The Colonels also have to make do with an unexpected loss. Justin Gwinner led the area in interceptions last year with six and had 459 yards and three TDs receiving, but he will not play this season due to an injury.

Wilson is excited about what senior Kobe Mason can bring as a running back after carrying the ball 44 times for 263 yards (6.0 average) and four TDs and added a few other players could get carries. Burly junior Dominik Ramirez could play a big role after taking direct snaps in James Wood’s heavy package last year (68 carries, 336 yards, 12 TDs) and earning Second Team Class 4 All-Northwestern District honors.

Defensively, James Wood will be led by Second Team All-District selection and senior linebacker Vincent Salvati, who ranked sixth in the area with 87 tackles last season. Salvati — who could get some carries as well as an H-back/running back — liked what he saw from the team in the offseason, and he’s looking forward to the future.

“It was excellent,” Salvati said. “We had really high numbers (of players participating), a lot of young guys. The team has been working super hard, and we’re super excited for this upcoming season. The coaching staff has been doing an excellent job of making sure the guys are in the right place at the time, and doing things properly.”

James Wood’s scrimmages are on Aug. 17 vs. Hampshire (W.Va.) and Aug. 23 at Clarke County.

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