2026 MSAC Football Preview: Huntington

The Highlanders swept the Blue Division, earned the No. 2 seed in Class AAAA, and are the closest thing the MSAC has to a standing favorite.

The Program at a Glance

Huntington went 8–2 and 4–0 in the MSAC Blue Division in 2025, taking the division title and the No. 2 seed in Class AAAA behind only unbeaten-in-the-regular-season Morgantown. The Highlanders hosted No. 15 Hedgesville in the first round.

Huntington has been the conference's most decorated football program of the decade, winning MSAC championships in 2021 and 2022, and reached the Class AAAA state semifinals in 2024 as the No. 5 seed. Wayne Harris was MSAC Player of the Year in 2023; Gavin Lochow won it in 2022, when Billy Seals was named MSAC Coach of the Year.

2025 in Review

Head Coach

2026 Schedule

Coach’s Interview

You know, we're almost done with preseason camp. You know, first and second script is tomorrow. How you feeling about your squad so far?

Coach Billy Seals   

·       Yeah, we've done some good things. I mean, we've had a good camp, good numbers, guys working hard every day. Performed pretty well last week. We got some things we got to clean up, but overall, we did some good things last week against Chillicothe. It was a really good scrimmage, and you know, excited at where we're at, but we still got a long way to go.

Tomorrow, going down to South Charles for scrimmage. What are you looking at when evaluating your performance in the scrimmage?

Coach Billy Seals 

·       Well, just for us, compete, get better, clean up mistakes that we made last week. You know, Coach Mays does a really good job, and you know I know that South Charles has got a lot of really good players, and so it'll be a challenge for us tomorrow in the scrimmage. But we're looking forward to competing, getting out there, and working our scheme and our game plan, and see if we can come out and execute and try to find some depth, some guys that can help us out as the season goes on. Because our plan is to play 14 games, so we got to have great depth in that.

So for in camp, who has emerged as the leaders of the team?  

Coach Billy Seals 

·       Yeah, I mean we got multiple guys. We got a big senior class. Got 18 seniors. I think guys that you know stood out senior wise is Ilias King, who was defensive player of the Year last year, and MSAC linebacker Dante Newsome has played really well for us over the last three years. You know Ethan Goodson, you know Colin Gadd, a kid that started on the offensive line, Jeremiah Lyles, who started on the offensive line, defensive line. So those guys have kind of been our leaders up to this point. We've some young guys step up. You know, Mayshaun and Trayvon Okonkwo in the backfield. Johnny Garrett's had a really good camp in the slot position, and we got some young guys that are making plays for us. You know, we got some sophomores that are going to play quite a few snaps for us this year.

How's the quarterback competition been throughout camp?

Coach Billy Seals 

·       Well, we're still competing. We got three guys we've been working back here. Marek MidKiff, a sophomore, is more of your traditional quarterback, and then you know we worked some back there with Travon Okonkwo and Ilias King. So you know, just kind of got multiple packages depending on you know what we feel like we can we can do on that Friday night scheme-wise, and you know, so still good competition, and just got to continue to get better.

What's the energy been like for you team through camp?

Coach Billy Seals 

·       I 's good. It's good. I mean, guys, guys love each other, love being around each other. They know the expectation here in the program and what's expected. And you know, they come out each and every day and work hard. And you know when they don't, we let them know. So you know we didn't have a great practice on Monday. Came back yesterday with a really good practice because the best football teams are player led, not coach led.

You on the road in Kentucky to start the season. Is you rapproach different when facing out of state opponents?

Coach Billy Seals 

·       Yeah, number one, anytime you're going on the road, it's tough. Ours is a little extra tough. GRC opens up Friday night, so they're going to be a game ahead of us. They got different rules in Kentucky. They get a little more ahead of us as far as how many days we can we can work with our kids in the off season and in the summertime, so it's a challenge for us. There'll be a new coaching staff there, and you know the biggest thing is is play well early in the game, take care of the football, okay, create some turnovers, and just be aggressive and play our brand of football

As far as getting you players focused on the task at hand, how do get the guys to buy in on the common goal?

Coach Billy Seals 

·       I think I think you know the pressure is there. I mean, our guys know what's expected, what our community expects, what our program expects, what I expect. We expect to compete for state championships. You know, if you look at all the facility behind us, we've went 13 and 1, 13 and 1, 11 and 2, 11  and 2, and 9 and 3. So we've had good success, but we want to continue to be one of the teams that people talk about as far as having an opportunity to win a state championship.

You know,  MSAC the best conference in the state. Next year, having four new teams, it's just going to get even tougher. You know, how does tough is it playing in this conference week in, week out?

Coach Billy Seals 

·       I think it's huge. I mean, you know, we for us last year we played two out-of-state opponents that both played in the state championship in Tennessee. I mean, one of them won their state championship by 41 points, and then the other team got beat by seven in the state championship. So we think it's good to play good people. You know, especially in Quad A, when there's only 20 teams, 16 are going to make the playoffs. Might as well play good people. And so, you know, for us, it is difficult to build a schedule. To be honest with you, especially in Quad A, and you know, you look at the 27 football season next year, we have seven games currently. So, you know, we're going to have. To kind of branch out outside of the state to fill our schedule properly.

So with playing MSAC opponents does it help in your standings at the end of the year?

Coach Billy Seals 5:16 

·       Well, you would hope so, but it doesn't work that way. I mean, for us, we want to try to play as many quad A opponents as we can because that helps us succeeding in the playoffs. But you know, we have picked up some AAA's over the years. Spring Valley is a triple A. We always play Spring Valley. You know, this year we're playing Capital as a triple A. We're playing Herbert Hoover's as AAA. So, you know, we try to get as many AAAA as we can, and you know, sometimes we just have to branch out and try to find games throughout the state. I mean, last two years we played Martinsburg. I mean, nobody wants to travel six hours. They don't want to travel down here, and we don't want to travel up there. So it's kind of crazy that we're at that point where we got to travel six hours and find a football game.

Thank you.

Coach Billy Seals 

Thank you sir.

The Takeaway

Depth is going to be key in preparation as Huntington looks set to play 14 games this season as they have set out their goal and know that they want to be competing for a state championship. Huntington begins their new season on the road as they are getting ready for a match against George Rogers Clark, who will host them on Friday in Winchester, Kentucky. The beginning of the season comes with great significance for a team that knows what it wants.