By Dave Morrison
FAIRLEA – It was a little unnerving for sophomore Will Godby to take the field with a senior-laden team last fall.
“At the beginning of the season I was a little nervous,” Godby said. “I was like ‘These guys are pretty old and I’m a little young.’ I just had to step up and show them what I can do. And by the end of the season, I stepped up and showed them what I can do.”
Relative age aside, Godby did indeed show up big in the postseason and said his breakout game came against Woodrow Wilson, a 2-0 sectional championship victory that started the run to the Class AAA state championship. He had an assist in that game.
The Spartans would go on to claim a landmark victory against George Washington in the Class AAA Region 3 final, a victory that ended the Patriots 12-year grip on the region title and sent the Spartans to their first state tournament.
“I had a lot of people tell me that I did good,” he said. “And that gave me the confidence going into the GW game the state tournament to keep going and I felt like those were the best games I played all year.”
It was a simple matter of taking the hustle Godby always showed and turning that into results.
“People told me I just hustled and that’s what I always thought was the best part of the game,” he said. “Always come back, win the ball, take it up and give a chance to your teammates.”
And that, Godby said, will catapult him forward to 2023.
“It showed me that I can play at the biggest moment on the biggest stage, that I can help contribute to the team on the biggest stage, give an assist, get some goals and give a chance to my teammate,” he said.
Godby had two assists in the postseason but the play he remembers is one in which he was not accorded a statistic.
It came in the championship game and allowed Adam Seams, who recently was named the Gatorade state player of the year, to score the goal that gave East a 2-0 lead in the championship game victory against Spring Mills.
“Adam came back and told me the next time I got the ball he wanted me to play it over top,” he said of sending the ball down field toward the opposition goal. “About 15 seconds later I got the ball played in the air to me and I just kicked it, half volleyed it over the top and ran on to it and scored.”
It was a big moment for the young starter.
The Spartans will have to replace several key players, including the well-decorated Seams, who will be playing soccer and basketball at West Virginia University Tech, Chase Mizia, who was state midfielder of the year and Luke Dolan who was state forward of the year.
Godby knows the skeptics will be out this season.
“I feel like people will be like, ‘You guys lost your best players now’ and they are going to put us down,” he said. “But I feel like we’re going to come up and surprise them this year. We have some good upcoming players. We have Joe (Cochran, goalkeeper of the year who had 14 shutouts) returning. We’ve got good strikers coming in. And we’ve got good midfielders. I feel like we can surprise (opponents) with what we have now.”
Godby expects to take more of a leadership role this fall.
“We lost just about all our leaders, except for Joe (Cochran),” he said. “They were all big leaders. Now we need more leaders to step up and lead the team and show (opponents and the state soccer community) what we can do. We might not have the most talent, but we are willing to work hard.”
Godby said the Spartans aren’t about to rest on their laurels in 2023.
“I feel like (the state championship) it’s just another accolade on the list,” he said. “I want to keep going. I want to keep striving for more. It does feel good to have one under your belt, but I feel like now we have to work harder and get to the next one.”
Godby started playing soccer in the area rec league as a four-year old.
“My mom put me in it and ever since then I just fell in love with the game,” he said.
The Spartans begin defense of their 2022 state championship hosting Buckhannon-Upshur on Friday, Aug. 18 at 6 p.m.
