MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – For years, West Virginia University has recognized the service of our veterans during the home football game closest to Veterans Day, celebrated each Nov. 11. 
 
This year, Veterans Day falls on Friday so this Saturday's West Virginia game against Oklahoma will serve as Military Appreciation Day for our brave men and women who help protect our freedoms.
 
Veterans make up approximately 10% of West Virginia's population, which represents the highest per-capita number of veterans anywhere in the country. West Virginia also had the nation's highest per-capita casualty rate during the Vietnam War, according to the Department of Defense, with nine Mountain State natives earning the Medal of Honor.
 
Therefore, military service is as valued in West Virginia as Mountaineer football, so combining the two seems only natural. This year, WVU also happens to have a U.S. Army veteran on its football team – Moorefield's Lawrence "Wil" Schoonover.
 
Wil played running back and safety at Moorefield High, the alma mater of former WVU great Reed Williams, and he also played on the Yellowjacket baseball and wrestling teams. After graduation, he wanted to continue his athletic career in some capacity.
 
His No. 1 goal was to play football at West Virginia University, but standing just 5-foot-9 and weighing about 180 pounds, that wasn't very realistic, so instead he enrolled at Glenville State to play football for the Pioneers. NCAA Clearinghouse issues kept him from seeing the field, so after his first semester there he decided to enlist in the Army.
 
"I wanted to serve this country, and I'm very patriotic, so I did," Schoonover said Tuesday. "I left Glenville in Mid-December, and I was flying to Fort Benning in February on Valentine's Day, so my mom was not very happy about that."
 
Schoonover said his basic training in Fort Benning included learning how to jump out of airplanes. He was stationed in Alaska before getting deployed to Afghanistan right before Christmas, 2017.
 
His tour of Afghanistan lasted until the summer of 2018 when he transitioned to reconnaissance in a sniper platoon, and he did multiple training events in other states. Wil was honorably discharged in 2020 and was eager to revisit his dream of playing college football for the Mountaineers.
 
However, no walk-on tryouts were available because of COVID, and he was also still dealing with Clearinghouse issues.
 
"I served the Division II punishment of not being able to play in the Fall of 2016, and then I was serving the Big 12 punishment as well," he said.
 
Schoonover couldn't enroll at WVU until he had acquired 48 transferrable credits, a 2.5 grade point average and an associate degree.
 
He got a job working as a supervisor for a youth development group in the Fall of 2020, helping troubled kids with things such as personal budgeting and time management. That took him into 2021.
 
"I take great pride in that," he admitted. "They learned a lot from me, and I think I learned a lot about myself teaching these kids."
 
Schoonover still had a burning desire to play football for the Mountaineers but was encouraged instead to enroll at Potomac State to play baseball for coach Doug Little. He spent that Spring as a backup catcher for the Catamounts and once he completed his degree, that opened the door to get his long-awaited tryout for the Mountaineers last August.
 
The only remaining hurdle was a science credit, which he completed online, clearing the way for him to join the team during the first day of the Fall semester in August 2021.
 
Schoonover said he was speechless the first time he got to run out of the tunnel wearing a West Virginia uniform. It was also a great relief considering how much time and effort it took him to get to that point in his life.
 
"Growing up in Moorefield, I watched Reed Williams play and he was a big hero of mine and a great friend as well," Schoonover said. "I talked to him numerous times when I was in the Army, and I just wanted to play here."
 
The 5-foot-9, 212-pounder has not seen the field at linebacker this season, but he did play on the kickoff return team during last Saturday's game at Iowa State. He said he is also one of the players who signals in the calls during games.
 
"If a guy goes down, I need to be ready," he said.
 
As a military veteran, Schoonover has a life perspective unlike anyone else in the football program.
 
"I grew up fast, especially when you have six to eight drill sergeants yelling at you," he explained. "That was a big learning experience, but the structure and organization in the United States Army molded me into the guy I am today. It gave me a big perspective on life – how to lead people and how to treat people and just overall life in general."
 
Schoonover said military training and football training are completely different. Military training is about testing your limits over a long period of time, while football training is about exerting yourself over a span of about eight seconds, which is how long one play usually lasts.
 
"Our sleep is tracked, if we are hydrated properly and our nutrition, and then they grade you," he said. "In the Army, they are taking away your food, water, and sleep and then they are going to see about you then."
 
Schoonover has clearly defined goals once his Mountaineer career is finished at the end of this season. He plans on interning a semester for strength and conditioning coach Mike Joseph and then he wants to work for the Department of Defense training military personnel, either at Fort Bragg or Fort Campbell.
 
As with most military men and women, Schoonover seems to take things a little more seriously than the rest of us. He explains.
 
"Here, you lose a football game, and everybody wakes up the next day and you prepare for the next game. In war, that's not the case," he said. "If you are not perfect, if you are not prepared and you freak out, someone dies, and that's serious. I think someone dying is very serious.
 
"Having someone die and shipped over the ocean in a box is terrible," he added. "I hate thinking about that, and that's probably why we're more serious than others, I guess."
 
During Saturday's game, West Virginia University is planning to recognize veterans currently attending WVU, as well as other veterans in attendance. There will be a military flyover during the national anthem and the pilots will be recognized, as well as the family of Medal of Honor recipient Woody Williams, who died earlier this year.
 
Williams, a West Virginia native, was the last living World War II Medal of Honor recipient until his death on June 29, 2022, at age 98. He was just the seventh American to lie in honor at the U.S. Capitol Rotunda and a congressional tribute took place there along with a wreath laying ceremony at the World War II Memorial in Washington, D.C.
 
Williams had a private burial at the Donel C. Kinnard State Veterans Cemetery in Dunbar, West Virginia.
 
For the last several years, the team has worn an American-themed helmet decal and this year's helmet decal will be revealed later this week. Corporate partner Coca-Cola will also recognize a military family of the game, to be announced during one of the timeouts.
 
Saturday's game against the 5-4 Sooners will kick off at noon and will be televised nationally on FS1. Oklahoma under first year coach Brent Venables is coming off a 38-35 loss to Baylor while 3-6 West Virgina dropped its third straight conference game last Saturday at Iowa State, 31-14.

"I'm glad to be back home," West Virginia coach Neal Brown said. "We only have six home games, and they are events in the state, and the games here have been entertaining this year. WVU hasn't beaten Oklahoma since joining the Big 12, and that's a big motivation for our players."
 
Mountaineer Sports Network coverage starts at 9 a.m. with the GoMart Mountaineer Tailgate Show leading into regular network coverage with Tony Caridi, Dwight Wallace and Jed Drenning at 11 a.m. on stations throughout West Virginia, online via WVUsports.com and the apps WVU Gameday and The Varsity Network. 
 
Satellite radio coverage is on SiriusXM channel 134 and the AM app channel 199.
 
Tickets are still available and can be purchased by logging on to WVUGAME.com.