Madison County named Lawrence Helmick as the new head coach for the Mountaineers Program on Monday night. Helmick takes the reigns as the general of a program that he is very familiar with. The new coach grew up in Madison County and played on the offensive and defensive line for the Mountaineers team before graduating from the school in 2006.
A few years later in 2011, Helmick returned to his alma mater as an assistant coach to Stuart Dean for four seasons before leaving for Eastern View. At the school just north of Madison off route 29, he was an assistant to Greg Hatfield and held multiple titles with the Cyclones including offensive line coach, run game coordinator, recruiting coordinator and JV program coordinator.
“Madison is lucky to get him,” Hatfield said about his former assistant’s new position. “He is going to take a lot of pride in that job. He is a really hard worker, he loves football, he loves working with young men. He’s going to put Madison back going in the right direction…He deserves all the success he’s going to have there.”
Eastern View went undefeated in the regular season during three of the seasons Helmick was on staff and lost just one game last fall for a 39-1 record over the four year timespan. Eastern View has become a mainstay as a postseason team and the Cyclones were a game away from competing for the state title in 2018.
Helmick hopes that he can bring a similar culture that involves a family feel along with a winning culture back to Madison County.
“The main thing I want to bring to the forefront would be my passion, energy, and excitement for this county and this program,” Helmick told Virginiapreps.com. “Madison is a unique place, it’s awesome, and it’s got a rich football history.”
I think we’ve lost sight of it just because it’s been down for a while but I think there’s a lot of good things that can bring it back. Hopefully, my passion, excitement, hard work, and character can help swing things around.”
Helmick stated the main thing he learned under Hatfield at his previous school is that the high school game is about a lot than what happens between the white lines.
“X’s and O’s is the least of it,” he added. “It’s about building family, a tight knit family, between your coaches and players. Building those relationships and then when you do stuff like that, your players and coaches know that you care about them, everything else falls into place. Right now, what’s most important to me is building a culture here and getting everybody on the right track.”
Helmick faces his first challenge out of the gates with the current sports shutdown and limited interaction but has established a road map to navigate the situation until his team can gather again on the field. In addition to reaching out to players and their families, he is prepared to engage his team in their offseason preparation.
“I’m going to piggyback off of some of the other schools in the state that have challenges on twitter and things like that,” he said. “The Bull Run has some challenges they do between each other such as Strasburg and East Rockingham. I can reach out to those guys to create ways to get the kids excited and keep them motivated.”
Madison has several core players that will likely help build that new culture including Class of 2022 prospect Jacob Sacra who currently anchors the offensive and defensive line for the Mountaineers.
“I’m super excited for Jacob Sacra. He’s one of the top players in the area, if not the state of Virginia, and we get to have him for two years. That’s very exciting for me and for other players. That’s a great thing to build around. I think he can be a tremendous leader. He’s just an overall good kid. He’s good in the classroom, good in the halls and a good human being.”
In addition to the standout lineman, Helmick feels that he has several other players that will help with the shift of the Mountaineer program. The new coach follows a lineage that saw two coaches over the span of 50 years in Eddie Dean (38) and Stuart Dean (12). Following the aforementioned mainstays, Helmick now becomes the third coach in the past three seasons.
Understanding the amount of work ahead, the head coach is prepared to lead the program back to supremacy and be the incumbent at the position for many years to come. Madison’s last title appearance was in 1999 when the Mountaineers took home the state championship trophy. Time will tell how soon Madison County will find itself atop the Bull Run District and back in contention for a title run.
Robert lives in Charlottesville and has been contributing to VirginiaPreps.com since 2013. He began working in the sports sector in 2006 and covers public and private schools throughout the state.
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