These features will run periodically leading up to football season
By Dave Morrison
Liberty’s Connor Bradford has some lofty goals this fall with the Raiders football team.
He would like to restore the team to playoff status for one thing. The team missed the playoffs last season but has been to the postseason 10 times in the last 20 years.
Bradford is one of the top running backs returning in the Coalfield Conference this season – with the likes of Bluefield’s outstanding running back Amir Hairston returning from injury, Tyle Linksweiler ready to replace a Kennedy Award recipient in Judah Price and Cooper Ridgeway coming off a second 1,000-yard season and a berth in the Class A state championship game.
Last fall Bradford rushed for 1,333 yards and on 210 carries and 13 touchdowns. He averaged 1408.1 yards per game and 6.4 yards per carry.
“I’m looking for the 2-K mark (2,000 yards),” Bradford said. “I’ve been working hard for the season (to be the) best I can be. I’m looking forward to the season and that’s my goal, 2,000 (yards).”
On balance, Bradford would settle for a healthy season. Last season he suffered a scaphoid bone and was in a cast for seven months and played with a padded cast. He missed the opener at Independence but returned the following week and never really slowed down, and he finished with a flourish. He had 291 yards and four touchdowns in a 54-43 victory against Wyoming East in the season finale.
In 2022 Bradford was named first-team all-Coalfield Conference, honorable mention all-state and coming into this season he has been ranked the No. 24 running back in the state by Coalfield & Co (coalfields.org)
“It gives me a sense that the work I put in doesn’t go unnoticed,” Bradford said. “I worked really hard last season for that and it’s prety good to have that accomplishment.”
Bradford is currently on the track team for the Raiders.
“My focus for running track is to get faster and get better for football,” Bradford said. “I enjoy running. I love it, and I want to have fun.”
Bradford competes in a strange combination of events. He is a sprinter (he finished third in the Chick-fil-A Beckley Invitational last week at Flying Eagles Stadium) and throws the shot put.
He said he does often get strange looks from the linemen who generally populate the shot-put ring.
“Yessir,” he said when asked if the giants ever give the 5-foot-8, 175-pounder strange looks. “We had a list of events and I said, ‘you know what, I’d like to try it.’ I feel like my legs are strong and a lot of that power in the shot put comes from the legs. I still have to work on a little technique and work on it day by day and see what happens.”
Braford, who will be a senior this fall, also is a linebacker for the Raiders and it says so on his jacket he was wearing during the meet in Beckley.
On a loaded team in 2021 he led the Raiders with 124 tackles. Last year he had 65 in nine games and for his career is averaging 9.5 tackles per game.
Still Bradford said he identifies more with the offensive side of the ball.
“I’ve always loved the defensive side of the ball and I’ve always loved hitting; I enjoy both sides really, but I’d say (I identify more as) a running back,” he said when asked what he considers himself.
As one of the Coalfield Conference’s top running backs it easy to understand why.
