DRESDEN — Friday will be bittersweet for Cameron West.
While this Muskingum Valley-Licking County All-Star football clash will be his fourth, it will likely be his last.
West led Tri-Valley to a 10-0 regular season in 2025 with one of the most explosive offenses in Muskingum Valley League history, but he chose to leave coaching on May 20 to become the high school’s head principal. He previously was assistant principal.
Offensive coordinator Josh Wright, a 30-year veteran of coaching who is in his second stint in Dresden, was approved by the school’s Board of Education at its June meeting as West’s replacement.
West and Wright will join a conglomerate of MVL coaches in the game that also features Philo head coach Dirk Lincicome, for whom Wright coached offensive line and called plays during a long stint prior to his return to Dresden.
“It’s a crazy time for him and a massive change, but he bleeds black and gold and wants the best for the school, not just the football program,” Tri-Valley quarterback Max Lyall said of West. “He is my guy. I was water boy for him when he was my oldest brother (Jack’s) middle school basketball coach, so we go way back and couldn’t be happier for him.”
It also figures to put a premium on this game, at least for the seven Tri-Valley products.
Running back Jayden Wallace, receivers Keaton Hahn and Kade Hindel, fullback Ashton Winner, two-way linemen Chris Gargasz and Gavin Spiker will join Lyall on a team that looks to extend its series lead. The game is set for a 7:30 p.m. kickoff at Licking Heights.
“He has taught me so much about the game of football, and I credit him for where I am today, and the reason I am going to be a college football player,” said Lyall, who along with Hahn, Gargasz and Spiker signed with Walsh. “I’m glad I get to play one last game for him and hopefully come up with a win.”
West is looking forward to one last run with his record-setting seniors who, a second-round playoff exit aside, left as one of the school’s most successful classes. They won three MVL-Big School titles in four years and never missed the postseason.
He called that group “pretty special,” and expressed eagerness to see how they combine with other top players in the area. All but one player on the roster, Zanesville lineman Canon Mercer, is from the MVL.
“So it’s going to be really fun to have one more,” West said. “It’s kind of bittersweet for me in terms of this is the last head coaching for me in terms of job change. But it will be really fun.”
West, who will remain on Wright’s staff as a volunteer assistant, said he pursued the head principal role because he felt the school needed a leader overall. The urging was enough to chase him from a job once held by his mentor, Justin Buttermore, and one whose success has continued since he left following the 2017 season.
“Having the potential to lead not just a football team but to potentially lead teachers, kids and a whole school was something that I was kind of looking forward to,” West said. “It happened a lot sooner than I anticipated. We had some movement at the end of the year (with retirements) where it kind of just opened up. It was definitely something I had not thought about a ton as of six months ago.”
In the meantime, there is a matter of a streak at stake.
A 40-26 win in 2024 behind Most Valuable Player Riley Woodie, of Coshocton, ran Muskingum’s streak to three straight. West urged his team afterward that he fully intended for them to enjoy the All-Star experience, but that winning still remains paramount.
West between three times coaching and once as a player, has never lost in the game.
“I’m not sure if there is a formula for an All-Star game,” West said, when asked if there is key to winning one. “It’s having a good group of kids who (have chemistry). I think this group, just being around them, in one day it seemed like they all really liked each other. It’s not like, ‘Hey you’re from Sheridan, I hate you.’ It’s, ‘You’re from Sheridan so you are a good football player.'”
This team will be led by its star quarterbacks.
Lyall (6-3, 215), a first-team All-Ohioan in Division III, New Lexington’s Isaiah Stephens (6-1, 190), the Division IV Southeast District Offensive Player of the Year, and West Muskingum three-year starter Jake Anton (6-3, 170) will direct an offense that includes two 1,000-yard receivers in the 6-4, 175-pound Hahn and New Lex’s explosive Bentley Hanson (5-11, 175).
Sheridan’s big play man Evan Anderson (6-2, 205), Tri-Valley slot Kade Hindel (6-1, 205) and sticky-fingered Andrew Glaub (5-9, 175), from John Glenn, are also among a deep receiving collective.
The running back corps is headed by four All-Ohio picks in Wallace (5-10, 190), New Lexington’s Carson Kellogg (5-9, 170), Philo’s versatile Talon Preston (6-1, 185) and West M’s square-jawed Carter Winland (5-10, 220), who will play at Baldwin-Wallace.
Preston left as the Electrics’ fourth-leading rusher in school history with 2,618 yards and ranks third in career touchdowns (37) and points (230).
Stephens and Hanson were part of the Division IV-VII Ohio North-South All-Stars with Anton, teammate Wes Houston and Preston, while Spiker was in the Division I-III game as a lineman. Anton was Defensive MVP in the game from his safety spot, while Hanson is also renowned for his cover skills at cornerback.
Anton, Glaub and Hanson figure to factor heavily on defense, where Sheridan middle linebacker Shawn Griffey (6-4, 240) and Houston (6-2, 245), signed with West Liberty, headline a rugged front seven. It also features pass-rushing standout Gargasz (6-2, 246) and rugged tackles Winner (6-3, 250) and Spiker (6-4, 280) and John Glenn nose man Tanner Whiteman (6-0, 280).
sblackbu@gannett.com; X: @SamBlackburnTR
This article originally appeared on Zanesville Times Recorder: There’s plenty at stake for Cameron West and the Muskingum Valley All-Star football team
Reporting by Sam Blackburn, Zanesville Times Recorder / Zanesville Times Recorder
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