The Shadow
As a high school sophomore at Alleghany High School, Colton Poague was willing to do whatever it took.
Now a senior, he’s taking that same attitude to the next level.
Poague recently committed to play college football at Concord University in Athens, West Virginia.
“That’s always been my dream, to play at the next level and play the sport that I love,” Poague said at a recent signing ceremony. “I was planning on going to Marshall (University) and trying to walk on and be a long snapper and then Concord reached out and asked me to come over for a visit and see how I liked it.”
A wide receiver and defensive back for the Mountaineers, Poague became the team’s long snapper due to an injury.
“Christian Allen was actually our long snapper and then he tore his ACL in the Covington game,” Poague said. “We all kind of just had tryouts to see who could long snap. I remembered that I was the snapper in little league so I thought I might be able to do it. I actually ended up being pretty good at it.”
Poague said that the wide receivers coach at Concord is also the special teams coach.
“I would like to work on my speed and work on my strength and be a wide receiver at Concord, but the coach said the quickest way to get on the field was on special teams. So freshman year, that’s what I’ll do.”
Alleghany head coach Gary Burdette called Poague, who also plays baseball at AHS, a hard worker.
“He’s a guy that came up here to Alleghany and in the ninth grade through 12th, he was always dedicated to the weight room,” Burdette said. “He worked to build himself into the biggest, strongest physical kid he could be. He never quit working at long snapping and doing whatever it took to get on the field.”
Concord University plays in the NCAA Division II Mountain East Conference and is coming off a 2-9 season in 2018.
(Gavin Dressler Photo
