Coach Wes Pennington has brought a new identity to West Warwick High School football
WEST WARWICK — Wes Pennington doesn’t believe in waiting until game night.
Saving your best effort for the kickoff doesn’t fly in his version of West Warwick’s football program. Consistency in the weight room and at practice has been the demand since Pennington was hired to take over one of the state’s traditional winners.
The Wizards could be on the verge of a turnaround in Division III after a barren run that stretches all the way to 2018. They finished just 2-5 last season, but that was an improvement on winless campaigns in 2019 and the rescheduled spring season in 2021. The positive signs along the way have been steadily accumulating.
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“I think there definitely had to be some structure and some hard lines drawn,” Pennington said. “Programs need traditions. They need things that kind of keep them going and keep them focused. They need to know, ‘This is what we do.’
“When I came in, there wasn’t anything that we did or who we were. It’s about establishing that identity and working towards that.”
Coach Pennington focusing on daily habits, practicing 'how we play'
That process started away from the Friday lights. Pennington focused on daily habits like during his previous stop at North Smithfield. Skipping practice during the week and expecting to show up and play on game nights was no longer acceptable — and that was just the start.
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“If a team is unsuccessful, I would be willing to bet nine times out of 10 it’s the way they practice — without any intensity, without any energy or just not having any importance to the players,” Pennington said. “Understanding what that means. As I looked to come in, one of the first things we had to change was the idea of what practice was and how we practice.
“We practice how we play. Have good, solid practices where guys are showing up every day consistently. Guys are practicing at 100% every single day. That translates to the field.”
Competitive defeats last year against Cranston West and Tolman gave the coaching staff some encouragement. Success followed in the form of a 20-12 triumph against Mount Pleasant, and Pennington finally had something tangible to sell. West Warwick struggled down the stretch against a host of playoff teams — the program simply wasn’t in a place to take that next step just yet.
“I told the guys, ‘That’s a snapshot of who you are. You just have to work to be that consistently,’ ” Pennington said. “That game, I think they started to believe and started to look and say, ‘We can do it.’ ”
The Interscholastic League was founded in 1932, and only Burrillville has claimed more football titles than the Wizards. The Broncos sit at 24 while West Warwick trails by a pair, at 22. The Wizards reached six Class B/Division II Super Bowls from 1993-2002, capturing their last two crowns.
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How West Warwick managed to build such a prolific winner wasn’t much of a secret. The Wizards were annually one of the most hard-nosed teams in the state — win or lose, they were a guaranteed sore spot on the schedule. That sort of approach could be needed in a rugged III-B that includes defending champion Narragansett, Division IV champion Ponaganset and former Division I schools like Rogers.
“That’s exactly the type of thing I’m bringing,” Pennington said. “I do that by inviting alumni to come in and speak to them and try to implant that mentality and that way of thinking that was kind of lost over the years. They can have some pride in the program and have some fight in them.”
On Twitter: @BillKoch25
This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: West Warwick football has struggled recently, but that may be changing
