WVU soccer: Neal Brown’s original perception resonated with Spring Valley’s Doug Nester | WVU
HUNTINGTON — On Jan. 5, 2019, Neal Brown was introduced as the new head football coach at West Virginia College.
That date is just one that all bordering WVU football recall effectively.
That incorporates offensive lineman Doug Nester, who introduced his transfer from Virginia Tech to West Virginia on Xmas night.
As Nester recalled, just one of the very first matters Brown did when he was named head coach was make a excursion to Spring Valley Substantial Faculty.
The explanation? Nester was one of the nation’s most sought-just after offensive linemen in the Class of 2019, and teammate Wyatt Milum also was a person of the nation’s leading recruits for the Class of 2021.
As Spring Valley coach Brad Dingess recalled, Brown’s journey to the faculty eclipsed the number of excursions designed by earlier West Virginia coach Dana Holgorsen.
That factor resonated with Nester, who spoke about it on Friday evening adhering to his commitment.
“As soon as he obtained the career, they actually had to buy WVU things as soon as they acquired off the plane to arrive see me and Wyatt,” Nester stated. “We had been a single of the 1st sites he came to immediately after he got the position.”
Brown attempted feverishly to sway Nester and Huntington Superior offensive lineman Darnell Wright to West Virginia late in the recruiting recreation, but Nester’s marriage with Virginia Tech’s personnel landed him in Blacksburg when Wright went to Tennessee.
Wright has reported that had he gotten far more time to get to know Brown and his workers he may perhaps have gone to West Virginia, but the familiarity more than a long time of recruiting with Tennessee was far too a great deal to prevail over in a few weeks.
At the time, the exact could be claimed for Nester.
“If it was previously in the approach, I sense like I would have ended up there,” Nester claimed. “They just bought there a minimal little bit too late back then.”
Though it didn’t pan out at the time, the inroads built by Brown in the course of that remaining month prior to Countrywide Signing Day 2019 compensated dividends at the time Nester entered the transfer portal.
Nester saw Brown’s motivation to in-point out gamers, as viewed by Brown bringing on Spring Valley teammates Graeson Malashevich and Owen Porter to the West Virginia application.
And it also confirmed in the ongoing recruitment of the point out as Brown secured commitments from Fairmont Senior’s Zach Frazier and, most not long ago, Milum from Spring Valley.
When West Virginia fields its group in the 2021 period, there is a risk of a number of offensive linemen in the rotation from the Mountain State.
Nester verified that he expects to be a single of individuals gamers, suiting up for the Mountaineers in the 2021 year, which would mean instant eligibility after his transfer from Virginia Tech.
As the football fates would have it, just one of Nester’s initially video games in Morgantown representing the Mountaineers could be a Sept. 18, 2021, matchup with his previous staff — Virginia Tech.
It is a matchup that will convey Nester whole circle — from his first journey into school soccer to the place roads that Brown took to assistance guide him again dwelling.