Fall Check-In: West Virginia Mountaineers

  (Photo by Kevin Schoonover)

For our next Fall Check-In we head to Morgantown to chat with the West Virginia Mountaineers and Head Coach Brian Houk.

You can read our previous installments here:  Virginia Tech (DI), Florida Atlantic, Chapman, Montana, Washington,  Long Beach, Moorpark, Liberty, Arkansas, Auburn, Oklahoma State, Florida, Western Washington.

You all had a small senior class and large junior class last year; how do you expect that large, now senior, class to shape this year’s team?

Brian Houk: Our seniors last year were incredible. Although there were not very many of them, they dedicated 4 years to the program and helped move us forward. I am more thankful to them than words can express for sticking to the team through the highs and lows over their time, and they were great role models for the next guys to lead our program.

This year’s senior class is more locked in than ever before. Our motivation for this year all started in the locker room after a tough season ending loss to Pitt. Our senior goalie, Aidan Taffe, told the team that they will be ready for absolutely anything in 2025-26. In spring 2025 we experienced devastating injuries, bad weather circumstances, and logistical difficulties out of our control. Despite all of that, our team chose to work hard and push forward. My favorite thing about last year’s team is that they chose to take accountability and work hard, instead of feeling sorry for themselves. A 6-6 record and missing the conference and national playoffs was not an acceptable outcome for us and our seniors have taken it upon themselves to change that for this year.

Fall 2025 has sparked a renewed sense of urgency for both our seniors and our team as a whole. Going into fall ball, our seniors have established very high standards for what it means to be a Mountaineer lacrosse player. They have demanded a full team commitment to the weight room, conditioning, and fundamental skill development in fall practice. With that, we have implemented a new team mantra for the year: BE A CHAMPION TODAY. Our goals this year do not involve any outcomes such as a conference playoff berth, conference title, national playoff berth, national title, etc. Rather we are focused on making each day great and taking things one step at a time, letting the rest take care of itself. Our rededication to the process and a large group of highly motivated, experienced seniors are going to be key to our success this year. 

Our team captains for 2025-26 are seniors Jackson Smith, Tyler Randles, Justin Von Eck, and junior Kevin Mullaney. These guys have led with their voice and example every day this year, and we expect their leadership will bring us to new heights as a program. 

Your top four scorers from 2025 are set to return, do you expect the team to have a similar identity in 2026?

BH: Jackson Smith, Tyler Randles, Kevin Mullaney, and Jake Brandenburg, are DAWGS. These guys are battle tested and have proven themselves as offensive forces in the MCLA. I expect all four of them will play a significant role in our scoring, but our identity as a whole remains the same. An unselfish, air raid offense where everyone gets to party. Additionally, our defense has a ton of experience coming back. We also have a complement of scorers to help them out with guys like Dom Stingo, Will Letters, Logan Troppman, and Alex Wells who can all both facilitate the offense and get the ball in the back of the cage. Between our QB in cage Aidan Taffe, defenders Justin Von Eck, Sutton Taylor, Monte Piervencenti, and LSM Sutton Taliaferro, we have a stout defensive unit. Most importantly, our GUTS culture highlights our midfield unit. We make it cool to be a D Mid on our team. Guys like Joe Doherty, Jacob Hime, Logan Camp, Tommy Wayne, Jack Deem, and Nate Lee are sure to make gutty plays throughout the year at D Mid. 

What are the schedule highlights?  Any big trips or visitors to Morgantown?

BH: We are very excited for our spring schedule and the way we put it together. We have 7 home games and 6 away games. Being a geographic outlier in the MCLA, having that many home games puts us in a great spot. The ALC slate always presents challenging games and electric rivalries, and this year with the realignment we get to play every team in ALC D1. The ALC is very deep across the board so we need to be at our best whenever we play a conference game Our out of conference schedule includes strong programs such as South Carolina, UConn, Pitt, Temple, and Miami OH. 

Although we are fired up for every game on our schedule, a few in particular stand out: 

Our annual southern swing will be to South Carolina to play Clemson on Friday 2/20 and USC on Saturday 2/21. It’s always great to get out of the winter weather in WV! 

Midnight Mayhem at Liberty on Friday 3/27. Liberty does a great job of promoting this game and it will be an incredible experience for our guys to play in that environment on ESPN+ 

The backyard brawl game at Pitt on Friday 4/10. This is always the #1 game circled on our calendar every year. To quote our football coach Rich Rodriguez, “I say a lot of 4 letter words, but the worst one is Pitt.” In all seriousness, I have a ton of respect for their coaching staff and team, and they beat us in a crucial game last season. It is so much fun to play this rivalry game and there will be no love lost when we play them this spring. 

Concluding our regular season schedule, we host Virginia Tech on Sunday 4/19. Our new faculty advisor, Chuck Scatterday, and his students are going all in on a big media production for this game. In Chuck’s words:

“The WVU College of Creative Arts & Media (CCAM) decided to develop a more hands on live sports production class outside of the ESPN+ productions already produced by WVU athletic video. 

This spring, the WVU Sports & Adventure Media majors or SAM’s will unite to plan, design, pitch and produce a live WVU club lacrosse game with all the SAM students managing all the positions from behind and in front of the camera. From operations to pre-production to on-air to clean up. 

The goal is to experience the challenges and the benefits of covering a live event from beginning to end.”

How is Fall Ball going so far?

BH: This fall ball has been the most productive fall we have had in my time with the program. Our weekly schedule involves two full team lifts and two practices per week, and we put together a very challenging scrimmage schedule. We kicked off our fall schedule with the annual blue-gold intrasquad scrimmage. That was a ton of fun and helped us test run our game day logistics and get used to the new 80/60 shot clock rule. It also was great for our freshmen to get the experience of playing a full length college lacrosse game. 

In mid-October, we made the drive down the road to scrimmage NCAA D2 Frostburg State and NJCAA Harford CC. Both of these programs are very strong and gave us a great look at our strengths and weaknesses. We had some good, some bad, and some ugly but we got a lot of film to learn from and our team improved tremendously from this experience. We wrap up our fall schedule on Sunday 11/9 against NCAA D2 Wheeling University. We have made it a tradition to scrimmage them every year and it is always a competitive game. 

Once fall ball ends, we will promptly transition into "Winter Ball" where we will continue our full team lifting sessions and play what we call the WVU Lacrosse Championship Series. Inspired by the PLL's Championship Series, we are splitting our team into 4 teams to play 4 weeks of Olympic style sixes lacrosse. Each team will play each other once, then we conclude with a championship game and 3rd place game before finals week in December. 

Any newcomers standing out so far?

BH: Our rookies as a whole have been incredible so far. They are meshing will with the returning players and have bought in to our increased intensity in practice and revamped weight room culture. There are a lot of guys I can mention, but there are a few who particularly stand out: Freshman Defenseman Caden O'Rear from Middletown, MD has been an absolute force from day one. He is a vocal leader, has a high motor, solid athlete, and is a total lacrosse junkie always watching film and breaking down X's and O's. He quickly earned the respect of his teammates. Sophomore Midfielder Eisen Ewart from Wheeling, WV has been another standout. He is a versatile, physical playmaker who will see the field a lot at D Mid and on faceoff wings, and he has the handles and shooting ability to be a threat in transition. He is super humble and coachable and fits in great to our culture. Lastly, Freshman FOGO Cayden Mattes from Lancaster, PA has been a huge addition to our faceoff room. Cayden is a great kid, has lightning quick hands, and he is in incredible shape. I am very excited to have him on the roster. 

 Thanks to Coach Houk for taking the time to check-in with us.  Coaches, if you’re interested in participating in our Fall Check-In series, reach out to info@mcla.us