Gibson a pilot for Beavers
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
By BRIAN WOODSON- The Bluefield Daily Telegraph
The Bluefield Beavers are flying high.
No one on the Bluefield sidelines knows more about flying better than John Gibson, who isn’t just a senior captain for the Beavers’ football team, but he’s also working toward acquiring his pilot’s license.
“I love being up in the air, flying around,” said Gibson, who plays on both sides of the interior line. “It’s just a great feeling, and it’s just fun.”
Gibson had a similar feeling last Friday after Bluefield escaped with a 13-10 win over Magnolia, qualifying the Beavers for the Class AA state championship game to be played Friday at Wheeling Island Stadium.
“It was pretty great,” said the 6-foot-1, 217-pound Gibson. “Words can’t describe it.”
Waiting in Wheeling will be the Wayne Pioneers (13-0), which eliminated the Beavers from the playoffs last season 41-35. In their only other meeting in 2004, Bluefield beat Wayne 69-24 in the state finals.
Even though Bluefield (11-2) is seeded sixth and Wayne is the top seed, the Beavers have already beaten No. 3 Sherman and No. 2 Magnolia in succession to reach the state finals for the 15th time in school history, and the sixth time in the last eight years.
“I haven’t seen tape on them yet, but I have just heard about them,” Gibson said. “I’ve heard their offense is pretty good.
“They’re about like us really, they’re not real big, but they’ve got good size and they’re fast and pretty strong. It should be a pretty good matchup.”
It hasn’t been a pain-free senior campaign for Gibson. In addition to a dislocated right shoulder that has limited him to mostly offensive line duty, he’s also struggled with a left foot ailment that wasn’t your typical football injury.
“I got shot in the foot. My friend was just playing around with me and shot me with a BB gun.” Gibson said. “Actually it ended up going two or three inches into the skin and they had to get in there and remove it.
“That is kind of an embarrassing story,” he added, with a laugh.
Gibson hasn’t let either injury keep him from the gridiron.
“I didn’t miss any games, but I just played offense for a while,” Gibson said. “The foot probably was a little worst because with a shoulder you can find a way to work around it. You couldn’t really do much with the foot, but they were both tough.
“I’m still on offense, I’m kind of alternating in on defense. I played defense last game some so hopefully I’ll get to play more this week.”
Gibson joined the rest of the Beavers on Tuesday at Mitchell Stadium, and will do the same today before they bus to Wheeling on Thursday. Friday’s game starts at 7:30 p.m.
“Getting ready for the state championship, there is nothing better,” said Gibson, who is exploring attending North Carolina-Wilmington, possibly to major in business or aviation. “You work all year for this, this is great.”
Gibson began working on his aviation license after a simple flight with a friend.
“I have a family friend that I just went up and flew with one day and he just kept on taking me,” Gibson said. “He’s a certified instructor so he gave me a couple of lessons and I started getting them from a different person and got them on my own.
“You have to have 10 hours of time with your instructor and then you have to have 10 hours of solo time. The instructor has to make sure you can land the plane, and you can go up in the air without killing yourself.”
Gibson has succeeded in that, and the Beavers haven’t let a two-game slide kill their season, winning eight straight since losses to Charlotte Country Day and Gate City, while also having to play without starting quarterback Levi Beckett for several games with a broken collar bone.
“I was a little worried,” admitted Gibson, when asked if he thought then that Bluefield would be able to make it back to Wheeling.
“I always had my hopes up for it and I kind of always thought in the back of my mind that we would pull out of it, but I had doubts.”
No one could have blamed him for feeling much the same last Friday when the Beavers trailed 3-0 and had 19 yards on offense midway through the third quarter at Magnolia.
“That was a really good defense, they were strong guys, they were good-sized guys,” Gibson said. “They hit hard and they had a lot of heart, they wanted it too, but we wanted it a little bit more.”
Especially Marcus Patterson, who turned around the Bluefield fortunes with an electrifying 57-yard punt return for a score. On the Beavers’ next possession, Jake Lilly got loose for a 30-yard touchdown run, literally dragging a defender the final 10 yards for the deciding score.
“I think (the punt return) is what got us in gear and we all kind of fed off that and that is when the offense finally kicked in,” Gibson said. “A lot changes after you get that first touchdown and get that momentum.”
Gibson figures plays like what Patterson made against Magnolia will help against the Pioneers, who advanced to Wheeling by rallying from a 21-0 halftime deficit to defeat Frankfort 27-21.
These teams have one common opponent, Scott. Wayne defeated the Skyhawks 14-0, while Bluefield hammered the ‘Hawks 36-8.
“We’ve got to play hard and we’ve got to eliminate turnovers and penalties,” Gibson said. “Special teams will be a big part in this game.”
Gibson was part of a special team in ‘07 that won the school’s ninth state title and finished 14-0, beating James Monroe in the final game.
“I think we are similar, both of us want it,” Gibson said. “Obviously that team wanted it really bad, they had a lot of heart and so do we.
“They had more talent in different aspects than we do, but we’re still able to compete with them.”
Being part of the Bluefield football tradition has not only led Gibson to the pair of state championship game appearances, it has also prepared him for life after football, and high school.
“I’ll remember what everyone has taught me here and that is a lot of lessons I have learned,” Gibson said. “Always be dependable, that is probably one of the biggest things I have learned.
“That’s helped me out a lot through other things than just football. I learned a lot about being a team and not being selfish or anything like that, which is really important too.”
Life as a football player is about over for Gibson. He knows that sense of reality will come soon enough.
“I think the most emotions for me will not be after the game, but when I finally put up my pads and everything in the locker,” Gibson said. “That’s when I will realize it will probably be the last time I ever do that again as a real sport.”
