Photo by Nick Henthorn Wheeling Park’s Brennan Wack is the 2025 Curt Warner Award recipient for the second straight season.

WHEELING — After a breakout junior season that saw Wheeling Park running back Brennan Wack rack up yardage and accolades, what did this past year hold for Wack in his senior go-round? More school records, another 2,000-rushing yard season, and another Curt Warner Award as the best back in West Virginia, as selected by the West Virginia Sports Writers Association.

With his selection as the 2025 Warner Award winner, Wack becomes the first ever two-time recipient of the award, given annually since 2014. Winning in back-to-back fashion gave Wack and Wheeling Park head coach Chris Daugherty an opportunity for reflection.

“To win that award is amazing, but to win it twice, I don’t think anybody fully expected him to do that,” Daugherty said. “You know, as a coach, last year was wonderful. It was like a storybook-type of year for him. But this year, we kind of knew everyone’s gonna start game one with their top priority being to stop Brennan Wack. So to have a replica year, I wasn’t sure that would happen.”

“It just means a lot to everybody, everybody associated with Wheeling Park,” Wack said. “The whole team, the school, all our players, all the coaches, and there’s a lot of great running backs in the state, so this just means a lot.”

Wack’s numbers speak for themselves. The senior rushed for 2,079 yards and 26 touchdowns- in only 10 games. Wack missed Park’s midseason contests against Morgantown and Fairmont Senior, suffering an injury in the first half of the Patriots’ game against St. Clairsville (OH) and being worked back into the fold slowly in his return against Butler (PA). Daugherty believes the adversity Wack faced throughout the season only made his final season totals more impressive.

“I didn’t expect him to have almost identical stats from 2024 to 2025,” Daugherty said. “And if he doesn’t end up injured, he probably would’ve surpassed his 2024 season pretty easily. I think that says a lot about what type of player he is because, you know, we played in 12 football games this year, and he was the number one guy that every team started with, as far as planning for and trying to stop.

“For him to have this type of year and replicate it again– you know, he’s only had two seasons at tailback– to have 4,337 yards and 57 touchdowns, that works out to be an average of 197 yards per game when he was on the field. Those are just amazing numbers and I think they speak for themselves as far as the history of the tailback position at Wheeling Park, there’s no one that’s had numbers like this.”

Those aforementioned career totals are the new high-marks for Wheeling Park High School in rushing yards and rushing touchdowns. Wack made the most of his two years at running back for the Patriots after playing at wide receiver his sophomore year.

“I think a lot of times when you look at high school stats and you look at the career guy at different high schools, not just Wheeling Park, that kid normally got to play his sophomore year,” Daugherty said. “Brennan played a different position his sophomore year. So he finishes his sophomore year with zero carries. That’s not the norm if you go through every high school in the valley and check their career rushing leaders, it’s probably a three-year starter that has that. And that’s what Brennan’s done in two years.”

“I’m just so grateful for getting the opportunity to be able to break all those records and I couldn’t have done it without all of my teammates, all my coaches, my family, and my support system,” Wack said. “And it just, it means the world for me to be able to go down in history as one of the greatest Park players of all time. It’s just really awesome.”

As well as his career rushing and rushing touchdown records, Wack also finishes his career as the only Park player with two 2,000-yard rushing seasons, and has the most 200-yard games (11) and 300-yard games (three) in school history. He owns the Patriots’ top four single-game rushing outputs of all time, and the school’s single-game touchdown record. All-in-all, Wack broke 19 school records throughout his two years as Patriot tailback. His biggest game of his senior season was a 328-yard, six-touchdown performance against University, a 42-35 victory for Wheeling Park, who went 7-5 and bowed out in the Class AAAA state quarterfinals against Martinsburg. Against the eventual Class AAAA runner-up Bulldogs, Wack rushed for 204 yards and two touchdowns, and also threw a touchdown pass.

Wack carried a heavy load for Wheeling Park, taking 263 carries this year at a 7.9 yards-per-carry clip, and went into each game with a relentless mindset.

“His junior year, teams would start the game with maybe six guys in the box stopping the run, and as the game went on, they would add a player and maybe add two players,” Daugherty said. “And, you know, that started to happen around mid-season last year. But this year it was from game one, and it was game one to game 12. He dealt with eight, sometimes nine-man boxes and he never shied away.

“I think one of his top qualities is the ability to keep coming at you. He gets better as the game goes on, and I think all great tailbacks do, they get better as the game goes on. And that’s been Brennan not only within the game, but within his career and within the seasons, he tends to get better as the season goes on. He tended to get better as his career went on.”

“I think I’ve just been working as hard as possible for as long as I can remember,” Wack said. “Just being a successful high school football player has been a goal of mine for basically forever. And I think we also just have great schemes in place that help me do what I do. And I don’t get discouraged if there’s a couple one-yard runs or a run for loss, because I’m confident that we’re gonna pop one and then we’ll be good.”

Wack certainly proved himself as a home-run hitter this year. He recorded at least one run of 50+ yards in six of his 10 games.

Wack gave much credit to his offensive line of Liam Waldeck, Reuben Rouse, Kayden Fortney, Kam Dietrich and Carson McCort.

“I’m so proud of those guys,” Wack said. “They stepped up big time. I think four of them, this is their first year starting, and I think some people had doubts at the beginning of the season, and they just really showed up and played a great season. And I think everybody, our tight ends, our receivers, they all did amazing and really helped me out a lot.”

Daugherty agreed.

“There’s no doubt about it that those kids deserve recognition also,” Daugherty said. “I think that is their recognition, you know, as offensive lineman, whether it’s the NFL, college or high school, when tailbacks get recognized, that’s the way the lineman get recognized. And, you know, Brennan’s junior year we had an older line, a lot of returners, and we knew who those guys were and we knew it was gonna be the strength of our football team.

“This year was a little bit different. Liam Waldeck was the only real returner, and so we had to go and start over along the offensive line. And you know, when you look at Carson McCort and what Liam did, and Reuben Rouse and Kam Dietrich and Kayden Fortney, those five kids, I don’t think any of us imagined how well they would form together and how well they would play. Brennan’s success is married with their success. And, Nolan Yanchak too at tight end this year, and wide receivers that blocked.”

With his second Warner Award, Wack leaves a legacy of hard work, and a lesson about what can happen when you try and make the most of your opportunities.

“He’s a quiet kid, he’s a humble kid, but Brennan makes life easy as a coach,” Daugherty said. “He does nothing but the right things in every aspect of his life. And it’s not an accident that he’s successful to the extent he’s been, because he makes good decisions off the field. He makes good decisions in the community, and those things lead to success. It’s just a matter of when. He didn’t see all the success as a middle school player or a young player. There wasn’t a bunch of buzz about Brennan growing up, but he got an opportunity and because he worked so hard and did all the right things, he certainly seized that opportunity.”

“I’m just so grateful for the Wheeling Park football program,” Wack said. “I think it’s just been the greatest years of my life, just having my best friends and playing the sport I love. We’re an amazing team, amazing coaches — coach Doc always talks about how he’d rather see us be a better man than a better football player. And we always do stuff outside in the community, doing community service and volunteering through the football program. It’s just an amazing team and I wouldn’t have had all this go any other way.”

Curt Warner Award Winners

2025 – Brennan Wack, Wheeling Park

2024 – Brennan Wack, Wheeling Park

2023 – Zach Rohrig, Bridgeport

2022 – Judah Price, Independence

2021 – Atticus Goodson, Independence

2020 – Blake Hartman, Musselman

2019 – Ethan Payne, Poca

2018 – Hunter America, Doddridge County

2017 – Jadon Hayes, Huntington

2016 – Dylan Lucas, Buffalo

2015 – Cody Mitchell, Point Pleasant

2014 – Kashuan Haley, Capital