By Gary Dove 

WN  Sports Writer

The 2022 high school football season will feature a pair of local rivalries right off the bat in Week One as Mount View will visit River View in McDowell County and Westside will.play host to Wyoming East in Wyoming County Friday evening.

The Golden Knights, coached for the fourth season by Maurice Gravely, are looking to return to the sixteen team Class A playoff field after winning a first round game a year ago over Sherman before being eliminated in the quarterfinals by eventual state champion Ritchie County.  

The View finished 10-2 last year.

The Raiders are led by fifth year head coach George Kennedy and were 4-6 in 2021.

This campaign will be the 45th for the Knights, while the Raiders are entering their 13 th year.

Across the County line in Clearfork, at 7:00, first year head coach Justin Cogar’s Renegades will host the Warriors, who are led by Jimmy Adkins, who is in his third season at the East helm.

Both teams finished 1-8 in 2021, with the Warrios winning that head-to-head matchup 28-6.

Westside last won 57-32 in 2020 and hold a 14-6 advantage of games between the two.

East is heading into its 25th season and won the Class AA state title in only its second season,  1999 and concluded that year 14-0 under Coach Kevin Grogg.

The Renegades.will be playing in their 21st season in 2022.

Both teams are looking for improvement this year, with the Warriors eyeing success more quickly with the return of a bevy of players from a year ago.

Westside’s will take a little longer as the players learn and adapt to a new system under Cogar, a former All-State quarterback for the Renegades.

Coach Cogar is optimistic because of a few returning players, but also due to a plethora of promising underclassmen.

A complete interview with all four head coaches about their teams, as well as facts and figures will be in next week’s edition.