Photo provided Rick Haught, left, pictured here with 2015 Class AA boys track high-point award winner Jayden Allender, has taken over as the new head football coach at Ritchie County High School.

ELLENBORO — The task at hand in terms of attaining wins and avoiding losses might not be easy, but expect the Ritchie County football program to do its best on the gridiron this fall.

Rick Haught, the boys track coach at Ritchie County, has taken over the helm of the Rebels and he’s excited to get started.

“Officially, our county voted on the three-week period being the last week in June and you can’t do anything the week of July 4th,” said Haught, who previously had spent 18 years as the middle school football coach.

“We’ve got the two weeks in July after the 4th weekend then there is just one week off and football starts again. Summers aren’t as long as they used to be.”

Haught said the Rebels have had a couple of meetings to gauge interest for this year’s program and helmet fittings will take place next Wednesday, which will give him a better indicator of what to expect numbers-wise.

Ritchie County finished 2-8 last year and averaged 12.3 points per game while allowing 35.2 points per outing.

Last year’s middle school head coach, Jared Shipe, will join Dave McCullough — also a former middle school assistant — as well as Shawn Cole as Haught’s assistants.

Cole was a holdover from the 2017 varsity staff.

“I think roughly what’s been showing up there’s around 10 kids per grade, next year’s seniors, juniors and sophomores,” Haught noted. “A lot of eighth graders have shown interest, in the mid-twenties, who will be freshmen this fall.

“I’d have to say we are anticipating at least 30, but at the very least the numbers should be better than they have been in the last year or two. For the kids that showed up, I’m pleased with who is there. There are kids who can help us. We’re trying to really push the weight room this week and just try to get kids together.”

The Rebels return some experience on the line as well as their top two ground gainers from a year ago in Garrett Owens and Zach Cline.

During next week’s helmet fitting, the coach said they are using that as a flex day and it will “be our first chance we can get them on the field and see what they can do.

“There was a lot of seniors on last year’s group who played a lot and graduated. A lot of those kids (returners) have got some game time experience.”

Obviously, having the summer period is going to be a big help to coach Haught and his staff, especially considering this is his first season as the head man.

“We want to have a good feel of what kids bring to the table before we get to the practices in August,” Haught added. “It’s not like the old days either.

“Football has changed and you have to work around that aspect and I think that’s advantageous for the three-week period.”

When asked what prompted him to throw his name in the mix for the coaching job he he replied, “I always did enjoy football. I had a lot of good years coaching middle school and had a good time with it. It just seemed like maybe the timing was right.

“It seems like, you know, coaches are in short supply and I’d be lying if it wasn’t a certain challenge. We’re going to hit the ground running, work hard at it and see if we can’t maybe get some stuff going in the right direction.”

As far as philosophies on offense and defense goes?

“I’ve always kind of been a ball control type, just try to play fundamental, sound football and minimize your mistakes,” Haught said. “We want to put a system in I think that utilizes the type of kids in the backfield but also up front.

“We don’t have the best size in the world. We are going to come up with something that suits the kids we got that puts the kids in a position to be successful.”

The worst part of the job so far for Haught has been the waiting game.

“To be honest, this time period is driving me nuts,” Haught quipped. “I’m anxious to kind of get started and see what we got and start getting something together.

“I told the kids it’s a long time for me until July 31 to where we can actually get started. We’ll see what we can do with the flex days and the three-week period.”