WEST LIBERTY — The destination has been chosen, the arena has been picked and a press conference has been held. One of the next steps for the West Virginia Roughriders was to find players for their inaugural season in Wheeling. Hence, a tryout was held on Saturday at West Family Stadium on the campus of West Liberty University.

“It was a good turnout,” Roughriders coach Mook Zimmerman said. “For the weather conditions to be what they are, it wasn’t favorable to the athletes. They came out and showed that they believed in themselves and believed in their ability. Those are huge character things that we look for. Guys coming out here and looking at adversity in the face and that’s one of the things that is part of Roughrider football is looking at adversity in the face and punching through it.

“It was good to see guys out here, working hard, being competitive, competing and running around.”

For about two hours, around 30 athletes showcased their abilities in a handful of drills, including the 40-yard dash and one-on-ones.

With talent on display, Zimmerman and Roughriders owner Gregg Fornario are confident that they will find the right players to form a winning team, and the Ohio Valley is also the perfect spot to find such talent.

“The weather wasn’t in our favor,” Fornario said. “But we have a good turnout and a great group of guys. There’s definitely a group of guys we like to bring back for a second tryout.

“The Ohio Valley is definitely filled with great talent. We’re excited and confident we’ll find the players we’re looking for.”

Almost any position on the roster is up for grabs. Zimmerman also gave some of the athletes trying out some helpful insight.

“I wanted to get players” Zimmerman said. “We don’t have too many guys signed right now. The roster is wide open. We’re looking for talent. Guys who are willing to win and guys who will help us win. I tell them that we’ll take everybody if you can help us. We got a chance to see some good things (Saturday).”

As tryouts wrapped up, many of the athletes could hold their heads up high as they were able to do something that not many athletes can say they did. Davon Dixon was taking advantage of every opportunity he had on Saturday.”

“I saw there was an opportunity to make something of myself,’ Dixon said. “We got a new team looking for players. I felt like the competition was wide open and I wanted to come here put my best forth and try to make the team.”

Dixon is a 2010 graduate of Woodland Hills High School in Pittsburgh. The school in particular can boast about its prep school history as there have been many NFL players that are alumnus including Jason Taylor, Rob Gronkowski and Ryan Mundy.

It was known from the beginning of the day that Dixon was there to put in the work, but he was also having fun in the process. He credits his work ethic to his high school coach George Novak.

“He really instilled hard work and competition,” Dixon said. “Every play could be your last play. I really took advantage of every rep. I wanted to have as much fun as I could and show the coaches here that I was here to have fun which is what football is essentially about. Everybody wants to get signed and make some money, but essentially it’s about having fun and living that dream. That’s honestly why I came out was to live my dream.”

Dixon went to East Stoudsburg in college where he graduated in 2014.

One local athlete took advantage of the tryouts in Wheeling Central and West Liberty graduate Josh Wilson. Wilson, who tried out for the kicker position.

Wilson was a kicker for the Maroon Knights and Hilltoppers. He graduated from Central in 2010 and West Liberty in 2015.

“It was ok,” Wilson said of his tryout. “It was not my best performance, but not my worst. They’re a new program up here, so they’re going to be looking for everything. They’re going to have another tryout so we’ll get a couple of looks going. Who knows, we’ll see what happens.”