THE COACHES — Brooke’s Frank Sisinni and Weir High’s Quincy Wilson are guiding their alma maters into the annual clash between the rivals this Friday night at Jimmy Carey Stadium. - Michael D. McElwain

WEIRTON — Friday night, the annual clash between Brooke and Weir will feature two head coaches that are no strangers to the rivalry.

Brooke’s Frank Sisinni, in his first year leading his alma mater after being a part of Weir’s program for 13 years, is nearing three decades of games in the rivalry clash on both sides of it as a player and a coach.

The Red Riders’ Quincy Wilson, in his first season guiding his alma mater, will coach in the game for the first time but knows what it’s all about from his time suiting up for Weir High.

“Oh yeah, it’s a big game every year regardless of the records and you know, it being my first year here at my alma mater, their first year with Frank at his alma mater … there’s a little extra juice to it,” Wilson said. “It’s been one of those traditional rivalries, so there’s a lot of factors in it. I’ve been telling my kids, we just have to focus on the main thing, which is we’ve been trying to get better week to week. I feel like we’ve been doing that, especially on the defensive side of things lately. Let’s just go out there and leave it all out in the field.”

“It’s a scenario where you’ve got two programs looking to build some momentum here for the offseason and for us, we’re looking for something positive to catapult us forward as a program,” Sisinni said. “For our kids, it’s self-explanatory, the rivalry situation makes it a big game it doesn’t matter which school you’re at. Considering this is Brooke-Weir game No. 28 that I’ve been involved in, I know as well as anyone you just throw everything out the window because it’s a rivalry game. It doesn’t matter what the records are or what the scenario is — both teams are going to play their hardest. It’s one of the top rivalry games in the Valley.”

Sisinni was on the sidelines coaching in this game a year ago — just on the other sideline. The emotions and memories that will come up with the game being back at Weir this year, where he had a successful run as the head coach, is certainly not lost on him.

“It’ll definitely have some memories come up,” Sisinni said of what it will be like to coach against Weir. “Being at Weir for 13 years, seven of those playoff years, two state semi-final appearances, an OVAC championship in 2023, it’ll be a special night for me to get to see some of the people that gave me a chance to get my start into being a head coach in this high school football. There’s some very fun memories. I have a lot of good memories at Weir High School and Hancock County Schools because the leadership and administration there gave me my opportunity to be a head coach and to be up there and see some of the coaches I was with and players that I coached, it’s going to be a lot of emotions for sure.”

“I’m sure it’s going to be weird,” Wilson said of some of his players playing against their former coach. “The team that controls the controllables is going to be successful.”

Neither team is headed to the playoffs this year. Brooke, sitting at 3-6, fell to three really tough opponents the last three weeks and will be looking to finish on a high note.

“The last three weeks have been a challenge,” Sisinni said. “We played (Class AA) No. 1 Frankfurt and (Class AAA) No. 16 John Marshall and then last week (Class AAA) No. 12 Elkins. We did not come away with any wins. That’s challenging for the program. But now we have the rivalry, the backyard brawl. This is a game that has been going on since 1969. There’s so much history between these schools and having the county line run through the city of Weirton, so many things that overlap here when it comes to the kids in the community and you know we’re excited for this next one.”

The Red Riders are 0-8, they will have one more opportunity to play after this week, but a win in the rivalry on senior night would be a big boost.

“I think that would be the extra cherry on top (winning the rivalry game), but just to put it together is the main goal,” Wilson said. The first couple games, we fell behind and were kind of out of it, but we’ve been in some four quarter games now, we’ve hung with some good football teams. I told our guys, the bounces don’t happen, you’ve got to make that stuff happen, and I think our kids are starting to respond to that. With the extra juice going on in this one, I expect these guys to make some plays.

“It’s senior night for us. We’ve told our guys, we’re getting one for these seniors, we’ve got to get one for those guys. They’ve been through a lot this season. They’ve bought into everything, me and the staff have been telling them.

“I think it’s finally time for us to get one for them. We want to put it all together, give it our best shot and let the chips fall where they may.”

The Red Riders have been getting closer to getting in the win column of late as a young group progresses.

“They’re definitely playing harder,” Sisinni said of what he’s noticed of Weir’s last few games, which have been closer scores. “Coach Wilson and his staff are doing a great job in a challenging time. We understand as well that it’s tough when you’re starting new philosophies and things that you want to do in a program and you can see that they are steadily getting better. We’ve played very comparable schedules, so you can see that as the year has gone on that he has his kids working hard for him and they’re trying to get better.”

On the flip side, Wilson knows Brooke will present a lot of challenges, similar to many of the other teams they’ve seen so far.

“I notice their size, they’re big, traditionally they’ve always been big,” Wilson said of what stands out about Brooke. “They have some good skill, I think (Ty) Sperringer, the quarterback, has done a good job, especially lately running the ball. They have good special teams, they’ve blocked kicks, they’ve returned kicks for touchdowns. 

“They pose a lot of threats. It seems like every week I’m talking about the same thing about our schedule being tough. These guys are no different. They’ve played just as tough a schedule as we have. I think they’ve beaten some good teams. This is their last game, so I think they definitely want to go into the offseason with a win.

“It absolutely makes them more dangerous, it being their last game. You can’t let that emotion get too juiced up in the warm up or too juiced up after a play, because one little penalty, one little misstep can be the difference in the game.”

For the Bruins, getting a win for their 16 seniors in their last game would be a big deal.

“Our seniors have been amazing considering they’ve gone through another new staff coming in and the way that they have worked into the new philosophies, offensive, defensive and special teams things that we’ve been preaching all year and our kids are working hard,” Sisinni said. “Our senior group has led the way in what they’ve done this year the way they’ve been playing. They’ve shown the way for our younger kids throughout this process. We’re working hard to get this one for them because it’ll be one they’ll remember forever.”

The opening kick at Jimmy Carey Stadium is set for 7 p.m.