CHESTERFIELD COUNTY, Va. — Before the morning rush our traffic can even start to back up on nearby Route 288, this year's Clover Hill Cavaliers wear out a path between their locker room and a back field tucked up hard against the highway.
Some of these players are gearing up for their third...fourth...or even fifth year in this program, without a lot of success to show for their efforts.
"One of the most important things that held us back on like on the field, was that we weren't all one team, you know?" said Cavaliers receiver Ladarius Porter. "Yeah, we all played together, but we weren't, we didn't play together, if you know what I mean".
"Last year, it was, it was a tough year all around, like, I don't even know where to start" added senior defensive end Francisco Fields. "Like with the team, the team moral was like, all the way down. Nobody was together".
The Cavaliers haven't won more than two games in any season since before Covid, and they have exactly one playoff win in program history, which came long before any of these players were born. Yet they keep coming out, even at hours when most of their friends are still in bed.
"I love the sport" Fields gushed. "This is all you know. Football brings everybody together, brings the community together. "
Matt Hutchings is the third different head coach Clover Hill has had in the past four seasons. It wasn't that long ago that he was a player for the Cavaliers himself and knows first hand what kind of success the program has had.
"We've got some great young men, you know, when we asking of them, you know, everything, and we've had to do this ourselves" Hutchings explained. "Everything is new. We have to go back sometimes be like, hey, they've never ran this drill before. They've never done these types of things."
Hutchings knows how to win. Just three years ago, he led Midlothian to their best season in a generation and their first playoff win in program history. His reputation quickly preceded him with his new players.
"He expected hard work" Porter said. "I guess he took Midlo, because I guess Midlo wasn't a great school at first, too, but when he got there, he turned the program around that made me excited".
"I was excited" added offensive guard Chase Nelson. "I've been here for going to be my fifth year, and it was like, I played against him. So it was like, I already know"
"They've always had some, some talent" Hutchings said of his new program. "But it just looks like, you know, adversity would hit, and they just would get down on themselves, right? And once they got to that certain point, they just put their heads down and didn't really know how to finish those games, those close games"
Hutchings has been out of coaching for the past two seasons. His departure from Midlothian came after a medical scare involving his son...which made him take a very long look at himself not just as a coach...but also as a husband and father.
"I needed to step away for myself or my family, especially for my son" Hutchings explained. "Putting that burden on my wife for that period of time, that was a real tough, difficult time for me. It took me a year. It took me a whole year to kind of like, analyze it, get over it, and figure it out. But I don't regret it one bit. "
His son's health has made a very positive turnaround, much like what Hutchings plans to do at his alma mater, starting this season.
":We want to be able to compete against every single team" Hutchings said. "And I think that if we take those steps, then all those other things will come into play. But we got to just come out there and compete against another team and show that we can, we can play with everybody on our schedule"
"I'm really hoping and looking forward to, the connection that this team is going to have going forward" added senior Theo Shaffer. "And I'm hoping that we can just improve, build a good foundation for the future of this program."
The Cavaliers will open their season on the road at Meadowbrook on Aug. 28, seeking their first season-opening victory in four years.
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