When Bluefield State last fielded a football team in the CIAA, there was no media day to discuss the hopes and expectations for the coming season.
Now as Big Blue returns home after over 60 years away, head coach Tony Coaxum and his team are ready for the challenge at hand. Bluefield State was picked to finish ninth in the 12-team league at Thursday’s media day gathering, a triumphant event for a football team that skipped a transitional period and chose to compete immediately.
“This has been nothing but blood, sweat and tears from our coaches and our players who took a chance to come and play for us when we didn’t have any bells and whistles to show them,” Coaxum said. “Usually when you’re starting a new program, it’s a two to three-year process. We jumped on the field right away and had some success.”
Big Blue has won four games in each of its first two seasons, including a heart-stopping 35-34 win over Johnson C. Smith in the 2022 season opener and another close victory (27-23) over Central State of the SIAC two weeks later.
Rejoining the CIAA after a long stint in the West Virginia Intercollegiate Athletic Conference is the culmination of the hard work across the board at Bluefield State.
And Coaxum is excited his players will have a chance to compete for a conference championship.
“We’re going into a great conference with some great student-athletes and coaches, we feel that we’re ready to take that next step,” he said. “The last couple of years, we were just playing for the love of the game. Now our guys can play for something.”
“Just like Coach stated, we’re playing for something now, so there’s a lot of excitement,” senior linebacker T.J. Gunter added. “There’s more just playing games and media notoriety – there’s good competition. Virginia State had a running back that went to the next level, so just playing against that level of competition is going to be awesome for us.”
As Bluefield State prepares for a Sept. 2 season opener at Livingstone College, Coaxum expressed excitement and enthusiasm for the moment that he, his coaching staff, and his players have been waiting for.
“This is about the guys who took that leap of faith with us three years ago, when we said ‘we’re getting into a conference, we’re going to the CIAA,’” he said. “To see them live their dreams, that’s what means the most to me.”
