Football Feature: Wilmington Hurricane

Football is a tradition for three Wilmington seniors, and this season, they will add the final chapter to their football stories at the high school level as Will Welsch, David Henry and Colt Briggs all embark on one last season playing football together for the Hurricane.
    
This group has been through the gauntlet of playing in the Fort Ancient Valley Conference, but this season there is a bit of a twist to their league play as the Hurricane are now members of the newly formed Southwest Ohio Conference. Winning that conference's first championship is the goal this season for not only the three seniors interviewed, but the entire Hurricane program.
    
"I'm looking forward to competing and hopefully winning a conference championship," Henry said. "That's something I want us to accomplish as a team, along with making the playoffs. We are looking forward to just playing well."
    
Also, the seniors are looking forward to taking the field with new teammates.
    
"I'm looking forward to playing with new teammates," Welsch said. "Our sophomores are new, and I'm looking forward to joining them and becoming a new team this year. It's going to be fun."
    
"I'm anxious to be under the Friday night lights one last time," Briggs said. "It's going to be a good time. I love competing … the feeling you get when you beat a person at something they tried to beat you at. It's a superior feeling.
    
"My favorite place to compete on the football field is defensive line, for sure. Hitting people … offense is a chore, but defense is fun. Defense is where you can play your hardest."
  
Briggs' teammates also spoke about the competition of football and where they like playing football most on the field.
    
"I love to compete. Competing is my favorite thing to do," Welsch said. "I also play basketball … competing is just fun. I love playing defense … I love hitting people, getting interceptions and knocking down passes … it's fun."
    
"Like they said … competing and knowing you are one of the better athletes in the school, that means a lot," Henry said. "Defense is where you can just knock people off the ball, and that's where I want to be."
    
With the conversation about competition, the topic soon turned back to a conference title for the seniors in their final year.
    
"I want us to win the conference," Welsch said. "We have a good chance to win it if we play like I know we can."
    
"No doubt, I want to be a conference champion my senior year," Briggs said. "I don't want to lose a game at home, and I want to see a home playoff game for the first time in Wilmington. Those are my goals for this team."
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"I agree with them with the goal being a conference championship and going undefeated at home," Henry said. "I want to give our fans a good show."
    
With a conference title as a goal, the players had to get their start in football somewhere, and they all three spoke about their football upbringings.
    
"My brother told me to play some football, so that's how it began for me in elementary," Welsch said.
    
"I played in elementary, and it just went from there," Henry said. "I just kept playing and have always played in Wilmington."
    
"Football is a family thing. I've grown up since day one watching football," Briggs said. "It runs back into the family. It's a tradition."
    

[[In-content Ad]]In talking about their football start, that brought the topic of a favorite moment, and each player had their own personal answer.
    
"Every game really is a great memory," Henry said. "Just playing under the Friday night lights, playing with your friends, your brothers ... making friendships everlasting."
    
"I'll never forget my sophomore year at Hillsboro when one of our former coaches got so excited before kickoff he head-butted a player with a helmet on and split his forehead open," Briggs said. "That was something that was definitely game-changing."
    
"My sophomore year I picked off Eric Martin (of Turpin) for my only interception of that year. I was so happy … that's my favorite moment."
    
But with the season just a week or so away, the lights of Friday nights are on the minds of the Hurricane senior trio, wanting all their hard word to pay off one last season.
    
"The atmosphere of Friday nights … no matter what, everyone is hyped. The band is hyped, everyone is ready to play," Henry said. "Everybody is watching you, and you know the spotlight is on you to shine, so that's what you want to do. That's your chance to unleash all the hard work you put in.
    
"I just want to know we put in all the hard work and something came out of it. Just to know we laid it all out there and knowing we enjoyed it."
    
Briggs also spoke about Friday nights.
    
"You spend so many hours practicing, and when you get under the lights you know there are a thousand people there to just watch you," Briggs said. "You know they are there for you, the team, and you look up in the stands and it's a feeling you don't get with any other sport. It's just something that's special.
    
"I'm also grateful for our coaching staff … we know they are steering us in the right direction. They coached and played in state championship games, and we know we'll be the best conditioned team, and we'll be ready to play every Friday when we are under the lights."