Whiteland junior running back Slate Valentine shifts gears in a game against Martinsville this season.
Daily Journal file photo
When your team is blindsided by as many injuries as Whiteland has experienced this season, constants are appreciated even more than usual.
Slate Valentine, that’s your cue.
The Warriors’ junior tailback has toted the football a county-high 172 times this season going into tonight’s home game against Mid-State Conference leader Plainfield.
This equates to a whole lot of Valentine up the middle.
“Slate is the guy who runs the ball between the tackles for us,” Whiteland coach Darrin Fisher said. “He hits that crease as hard as he can hit it, and cuts at the second level. He’s the perfect guy for what we do schematically.”
The 5-foot-9, 160-pound Valentine needs only 44 yards to reach 1,000 for the season, though individual accomplishments aren’t the goal.
“I usually think about the wins and losses, not the yards,” Valentine said. “If I have a good game and the team still loses, I’m not going to have a good night.”
Whiteland continues to lean on the run offensively, doing so 86% of the time through the efforts of 17 different ball carriers so far.
However, there have been setbacks.
Ultra-swift junior Maalik Perkins has taken part in only three games this season, exiting two of them early, due to injury; senior receiver Gunnar Hicks, another threat carrying the ball on the perimeter, sat out Week 6 after sustaining an injury in the 28-13 Mid-State Conference loss at Perry Meridian a week earlier.
The status of Hicks and Perkins remains week to week. Starting receivers Noah Garcia and Cullin Wilson, both seniors, have been sidelined by injury since early in the season.
Other key personnel on the offensive side, according to Whiteland coach Darrin Fisher, have missed practices and portions of games. The end result is a heavier workload for Valentine as the season has progressed.
He has surpassed 100 yards in all but one of the Warriors’ seven games, the lone exception being his 99-yard performance in a 27-13 home loss to Kokomo in Week 2, accomplished with a season-low 17 carries.
Compare that to the past four outings — Valentine carried the ball 29 times against Franklin, and 30 apiece in games against Perry Meridian, Martinsville and Mooresville.
“For me, obviously, it’s been challenging. It’s having to face adversity compared to last year,” said Valentine, referring to the 2022 Warriors squad that advanced all the way to the Class 5A state championship game.
“It’s changed me a lot, to actually step up and be one of the leaders, even though I’m a junior. I do like the extra responsibility, but it’s been a lot. The competitiveness I have, I keep pushing through the game.”
The ideal scenario would be for the Warriors to heal up these next few weeks.
If it happens, the team could again be poised for another postseason run. If not, well, far worse options exist than handing the ball to Valentine 30 or more times during the course of a game.
“We did not have a lot of offense returning, and without two of those guys, (Valentine) is the only guy left,” Fisher said. “Slate is a kid who has literally not missed a preseason workout in two years. One hundred percent attendance, and he’s missed one practice this year — and we almost had to force him to go home because he was sick.
“But you want your best players to be your hardest workers, and that’s 100% true with Slate Valentine.”
TONIGHT’S GAMES
Greenwood at Franklin, 7 p.m.
Lawrence North at Center Grove, 7 p.m.
Plainfield at Whiteland, 7 p.m.
Edinburgh at North Decatur, 7 p.m.
Fort Wayne Blackhawk vs. Greenwood Christian, 7 p.m.*
Cathedral at Roncalli, 7 p.m.
Indian Creek at Sullivan, 7:30 p.m.
* – at Center Grove Middle School North
