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Glenville State’s Gibson ready for a big season

Glenville State College senior running back Dominique Gibson rushes for yardage during a game last year. Photo courtesy of Glenville State College.

GLENVILLE — Entering his final campaign for the Pioneers of Glenville State College, senior running back Dominique Gibson is hoping to do his part to give his teammates and first-year head coach Eric Smith the best chance to win each and every week.

The G-men, picked to finish eighth in the Mountain East Conference, are set to open play at 7 p.m. Thursday inside Morris Stadium when UVa-Wise invades.

Glenville State started last year’s campaign with three straight triumphs before falling 26-17 on the road to the Cavaliers, which started a four-game slide and helped lead to an eventual 5-6 record.

“I’m licking my chops right now. I know we were in those games with those guys,” Gibson said of falling to Division II playoff participants Shepherd and Fairmont State. “They have some great players, but I feel like if we can get everything going how we want and keep working hard in practice, we can beat anyone we play against this year.

“I just believe in this team and I believe we can do those things with the way things are going and last year we didn’t have the culture we are instilling this year. This is a brotherhood and this is what we want to leave, a legacy.”

Gibson, a standout running back and linebacker at Glades Central High School in Florida where his uncle Kelvin Benjamin played before him, averaged 5.1 yards per carry as a junior. He scored three touchdowns and finished with 595 yards rushing.

“You can feel the great vibes around the team,” added Gibson, who admitted “most people don’t even know my name is Dominique. They call me ‘boobie’ and in high school, I was little boobie.”

His father had the nickname boobie and the tailback continued “when I came up and was playing in high school a coach who played with my dad in high school, they called me little boobie and it got going around the school during my freshman year. I had to drop the little out of it my sophomore year.”

After playing at 5-foot-11 and 210 pounds as a junior, the former Division I Wake Forest recruit has added 15 pounds of muscle during the offseason. He described his running style as “a bit of power, but I can also be shifty.

“In the spring, I actually moved to linebacker, then I was asked to move back to running back because they needed me over there and I agreed to the change. I actually feel great and I’m excited about the season and I’m making a lot of good cuts.”

Of course, Gibson would like to get a chance to continue his career on the gridiron after graduating this coming spring with his degree in sports management.

“I’ll probably go overseas to play a little bit or I’ll end up coaching,” he said. “It would be selfish not to give my IQ of the game back to it.”

Overall, the running back said things have gone fairly smoothly with the transition of coach Smith, the former GSC offensive coordinator, taking over for former head man David Hutchison.

“The team feeds off the seniors’ energy and he (coach Smith) basically left it into the seniors’ hands and told us it’s our team,” Gibson added. “If you want to go, you are going to have to get these guys behind you. With the change, it’s different.

“It’s different, but we are going to keep pushing and see what it develops into. Coach Hutchison was a great guy and everything has happened for a reason. We are hoping to build off that and hopefully create a winning streak for this season. We are looking forward to that.”

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