Freshmen get chance for West

Most teams will move up ninth-grade players late in the season in order for them to get a taste of what to expect while they are on the high school team for the next 3 years.

West, however, turned to a pair of ninth-graders — Cy Bates and Kaleb Chandler — for immediate duty in the Wolverines’ wild 46-45 win Friday over Springdale HarBer, and a third ninth-grader will see action this week when West (4-3, 2-2) hosts Rogers Heritage.

“We had lost two offensive linemen, and we knew we had a really good freshman offensive lineman,”

West coach

Bryan Pratt said. “Our ninth-grade team is coached by varsity coaches, so it’s the same terminology, same plays, same everything.

“It’s not a big move as in the mental aspect, but the speed of the game is definitely different. We felt like these guys could be successful, so we brought them up last week after the freshman game on Monday. They showed promise and played really well, and they’ll get more reps during the season.”

Chandler wound up playing more than half the snaps on the Wolverines’ offensive line and graded out higher than Pratt anticipated. Bates mainly saw his action on the special teams, but he did make a fair catch on a kickoff in front of Har-Ber’s sideline and he was responsible for a key block on Braden Jones’ 92-yard kickoff return for a score.

Meanwhile, they will be joined by Harris Vinson this week. Pratt said that Vinson could see some playing time this week at an outside linebacker position.

“It’s about playing the best people that you have,” Pratt said. “I’m not one to worry about what grade they’re in. I just want to put the best people out on the field and give our team the best chance to win.”

Pratt