Doug DuVall bonus features

By Andrew Conrad
Posted: December 22, 2008

Two weeks ago I sat down with longtime Wilde Lake football coach Doug DuVall, who is retiring from Wilde Lake Jan. 23 after teaching and coaching there for 36 years. I didn’t get to include everything that I wanted to in the story so here are some extras. Like a DVD’s bonus features, except that you have to read these.

On Columbia Flier columnist Stan Ber working out with the team in the early ’70s:

“George Plimpton did the Paper Lion, Stan wanted to do an article called the Paper Wildecat, and he did. It was back in I guess ‘74.

“I’ll never forget Stan Ber coming on the field with his shorts so long. He wasn’t bad; he’s smart. He had these shorts and I think he had black socks on or something and the kids were all laughing … we put him in full helmet, shoulder pads and he trained with us for about a week. He did good. If he’d gone to this high school, he could have played here.

“He had an idea. If you haven’t had a helmet on before, your helmet stays straight all the time. You realize if you want to talk to somebody you’ve got to turn your head.”

On being a part of young Columbia:

“Just to see the community grow … Take Rouse’s dream and have it be a reality. It’s not perfect, but we’ve been able to help it some anyway. I don’t know how much, but we believed what he believed.”

On the Towson University football program:

“There are so many kids that played in this county who should have gone there to school. You could fill the stadium if you recruit kids from the state of Maryland. You’re going to fill that stadium every week. Once they graduate their parents will still come back.”

On his brief stint as a professional football coach with the semipro Baltimore Eagles in 1982:

“Of all the fun sort of stuff… we’d coach like crazy for 2 1/2 hours and afterward those guys would have a cold beer in the back of a car. It was crazy.”

On serving as a graduate assistant with the University of Maryland football team in the early ’70s:

“All I’m doing is pulling film together and gophering for stuff, evaluating film and putting it together. That wasn’t really coaching. I got to watch great coaching … Bobby (Ross) was an assistant when I was first there … and Ralph (Friedgen) was a line coach. I got to hang out for a year and be the smoke-and-fire guy: I could smell the smoke, and I didn’t have to deal with the fire. If they won, good, if they lost, that was good, too; it wasn’t me. Boomer Esaison was there. I could project myself into what they were doing and evaluate what I knew and what I’d have to know in order to be successful, so that was a great experience, but I didn’t have the weight around my neck.”

On his post-retirement opportunities:

“I may not work. I may just build some stuff here and there, cause I’ve built four or five houses. I’ve built my own home. I’ve had some job offers in the private sector that are really sort of appealing, too. Running parts of companies, doing different stuff. Kids I’ve (coached) that have companies now, or friends of mine who have companies. We’ll see.”

On River Hill winning the 2A state championship:

“If I can’t win I want them to win. First, I worry about us, then I worry about everybody else in Howard County.”

On leaving the program in the hands of longtime assistant Mike Harrison, who takes over in 2009:

“He played for me, he’s coached here, he knows offense, he knows defense. Over the last two or three years when I knew I was leaving he’s assumed more and more responsibility … It won’t be any huge transition, they’ll be fine. We’ve got good kids coming back. It makes it easy to leave right now. Not that it’s ever easy.”

On the timing of his decision to retire:

“It’s time because I’m going to do something else. I’ve got to go do it right now while I’m still healthy enough to do it, and young enough, if 61’s young…”

On the possibility of his grandchildren playing football in high school:

“It’s up to them, anytime they’re ready. We already play two-on-two, but the little guy’s not very good yet: he’s only three. They’ll figure out what they want to do when they get there. If they want to play that would be great, if they don’t, that would be OK, too … (it’ll be) eight or seven years before the oldest one goes.”

On how long he’ll be retired before he gets the itch to coach again:

“I was talking with a coach (after the Baltimore Touchdown Club Senior All-Star Game). We were collecting pants. He said, ‘I know what we’re going to do: I’m going to talk to your wife after you’ve been retired about a month, and she’ll sign your name to the next contract!’ which might be true… at this time I’ve had some wonderful job offers from different places … I’m not going to entertain any right now. A month from now, three weeks from now, might be different.”

On his tradition of wearing shorts on the sideline while coaching:

“That was a thing we started here to win a state championship in ‘85. That one can be put to rest. I’ve spent some cold nights on the sideline.”

On coaching offensive linemen, the position he played:

“I love those guys. They’re good because of that, and I’ve coached running backs and different (positions) at different times when I had to over the years, but it takes two or three years, sometimes four years, to really get a kid where he can play offensive line. I was fortunate I had (assistant coach) Dwight Evans for years and years and years. He did a great job with the little linemen and then I’d just tweak them up when they got up (to varsity).”

On what might have happened if he hadn’t accepted the Wilde Lake job 36 years ago:

“I probably would have ended up coaching in college and traveling around the country, because they just hire you and fire you. It would have been different.”

On being a minor celebrity in the community:

“The good and the bad of it is, I don’t go into the store and shop. My wife has been nice enough to do that. Because if I go into the store it takes me forever to get out if I go any place close by.”

On the way this year’s team played knowing that it was his final season:

“They really played; man, did they play. I think they would have still played, but I don’t think they’d have played like that. They were crazy.”

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Boys basketball scoring leaders

By Brent Kennedy
Posted: December 22, 2008

All the county teams have already played five league games and there have been plenty of highlights. Here is a look at the top offensive players heading into winter break:

Scoring leaders (as of Dec. 19)

Name, school gp pts avg.

Chris Baker, Ha 5 115 23.0

Gionni Williams, OM 6 132 22.0

Arthur Hairston, A 6 93 15.5

Justin Hawkins, Ho 6 93 15.5

Jon Tatum, Ho 6 92 15.3

Mike McCarthy, MH 5 71 14.2

Brian Gibbons, C 5 70 14.0

Ben Harvey, WL 5 70 14.0

Leron Eaddy, RH 5 69 13.8

Jesse Martin, WL 5 69 13.8

Varun Ram, RH 6 83 13.8

Julius Fambro, LR 6 80 13.3

Marcos Ocadiz, C 4 53 13.3

Conner Cortes, A 6 77 12.8

Zach Neal, MH 5 64 12.8

Joe Kiely, OM 6 76 12.7

Leo Rogers, Ha 5 63 12.6

MacGyver Biniak, Ho 6 74 12.3

Matt Robinson, A 6 74 12.3

Taz Thomas, LR 6 73 12.2

Top single game scoring performances by county players this season:

T1. Chris Baker, Hammond — 29 points against Marriotts Ridge (Dec. 12)

T1. John Tatum, Howard — 29 points against Mt. Hebron (Dec. 10)

T3. Chris Baker, Hammond — 27 points against Howard (Dec. 15)

T3. Chris Baker, Hammond — 27 points against Atholton (Dec. 17)

T5. Colin Gibbons, Centennial — 26 points against Mt. Hebron (Dec. 15)

T5. Justin Hawkins, Howard — 26 points against Long Reach (Dec. 8)

T5. Zach Neal, Mt. Hebron — 26 points against Wilde Lake (Dec. 8)

T8. Gionni Williams, Oakland Mills — 25 points against Tuscarora (Dec. 5)

T8. Gionni Williams, Oakland Mills — 25 points against Glenelg (Dec. 10)

10. Gionni Williams, Oakland Mills — 24 points against Wilde Lake (Dec. 12)

T11. Arthur Hairston, Atholton — 23 points against Hammond (Dec. 17)

T11. Ben Harvey, Wilde Lake — 23 points against Hammond (Dec. 10)

T11. John Tatum, Howard — 23 points against Hammond (Dec. 15)

T14. Leron Eaddy, River Hill — 22 points against Howard (Dec. 17)

T14. Arthur Hairston, Atholton — 22 points against Oakland Mills (Dec. 8)

T14. Justin Hawkins, Howard — 22 points against Reservoir (Dec. 12)

T14. Varun Ram, River Hill — 22 points against Glenelg (Dec. 12)

T14. Gionni Williams, Oakland Mills — 22 points against River Hill (Dec. 15)

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Psst! Want to know a secret?

By Carol Gralia
Posted: December 19, 2008

What do Doreatha Beck, Mt. Hebron Class of 1982, and Chapelgate’s Julia Groves and Centennial’s Molly Speicher, who will both graduate this spring, have in common?

All are 1,000-point scorers for their respective high school teams. Groves and Speicher are the most recent additions to a list that has reached 69 players. There are far more girls in Howard County who have scored 1,000 points than there are boys, and for one simple reason. Girls are more likely to play varsity as a freshman. Unless truly exceptional, a boy is likely to play JV for one or two years.

Two years of varsity play is all it took for Michele James (Glenelg 1981) to get 1,000 points. She had 555 points as a junior and 484 as a senior.

Several others have needed just three years. In fact, the first Howard County girl to score 1,000 was Toni Clarke (Wilde Lake 1975). She graduated a year early.

And here’s a bit of trivia: Lauren Martin (Glenelg 1999) holds the county record for career points (1,763). She graduated from high school as the all-time leading scorer at two schools. She spent her sophomore year at River Hill, where she scored 596 points.

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FOOTBALL: River Hill-Eastern Tech preview

By Andrew Conrad
Posted: December 5, 2008

I know everyone’s a little bummed out over Wilde Lake’s loss last night. Even county rivals become each other’s fans once they’re not playing against each other. And River Hill and Wilde Lake are two teams that respect each other a lot. River Hill wants nothing more than to win one for Howard County tomorrow.

For those without their head in the game, here is where you can find the details about the Class 2A state final between River Hill (13-0) and Eastern Tech (13-0), which will be played tomorrow at 3:30 at M&T Bank Stadium. It’s a rematch of last year’s final, which River Hill won, 14-7.

The big question on everyone’s mind is, will River Hill’s Mike Campanaro play?

I e-mailed Mike’s father, Til, on Thursday night, after Mike tested the hamstring he injured in the Hawks’ semifinal victory over Century last Friday. He told me that Mike did a little running in the afternoon practice, and that it was sore. He said Mike would give it a stronger test at practice today. He also said that Mike’s status is “probable.”

It made me think of a conversation I had with Mike when he was a sophomore, after his team had lost to Friendly in the state championship — the last game the Hawks have lost.

He said, “this is gonna stay with me for a long time. Basically my whole life, I’ll always look back on this. I probably won’t sleep tonight thinking of stuff I could have done to help the team out.”

So Campanaro is going to do his best to help his team out. To what degree, is the question.

In a perfect scenario, Campanaro wakes up tomorrow morning feeling just fine — he is a teenager, after all — and plays the best game of his high school career. Realistically, he’ll probably have to play more of a limited role.

As we saw in the state semifinal, when River Hill gave up a long touchdown pass on a ball that was up for grabs, Campanaro is just as valuable to the team, if not more so, on defense. So maybe he plays the entire game at safety. River Hill has another outstanding running back in Malek Redd, who had 278 yards rushing against Century, but they don’t have another player of Campanaro’s caliber on defense. Ryan Griffin could reprise his role from last year, but then that would leave a hole at linebacker.

On offense, I think it’s safe to expect Redd to get the majority of the carries. But as we saw last night, when Wilde Lake held Penn State-bound Devon Smith to 33 yards, every exceptional running back needs a second threat to keep defenses honest.

My guess is that Griffin, who carried the ball six times when Campanaro went down against Century; Kevin Moore, who has had the fourth-most carries this season and looks to be the team’s top returning athlete next year; and maybe even Leron Eaddy, who has been nursing a fractured rib, will combine to provide the thunder to Redd’s lightning.

Quarterback Luke Hostetler also should be able to loosen up the defense with the threat of a pass, and can scramble for yardage. Campanaro might even line up on offense as a decoy once or twice, and then strike with a big play late in the game.

No matter how much Campanaro plays, River Hill is still an excellent team, with strong lines, a multi-dimensional offense and a shutdown defense. Eastern Tech is strong, too, however. It has an effective passing game, led by senior Joe Jones (12 TDs, 1 interception); a balanced running attack, led by Emmanuel Gbor (917 yards, 13 TDs) and Darian Conners (739, 16); and a defense that has recorded more than 50 (FIFTY!) sacks and four shutouts.

Scoring differential — Eastern Tech: 510-75; River Hill: 553-54.

The Predict-a-Tron 3000 broke when I tried to use it for the Wilde Lake game. It got the Westlake score right but messed up Wilde Lake’s score (four touchdowns! Boy, did I underestimate the Westlake defense…)

I’ve adjusted a few servos and sprockets, so let’s give it another shot. Each team scores one more TD than when they played each other last year in the title game. River Hill 21, Eastern Tech 14.

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FOOTBALL: Wilde Lake state final preview

By Andrew Conrad
Posted: December 4, 2008

Across the nation, former Wildecats and Doug DuVall pupils are pounding their chests and yelling, “LET’S GO!”

Tonight at 7 at M&T Bank Stadium, the Green and Gold will go for its sixth state championship in DuVall’s last game. Oh, you haven’t heard? DuVall is retiring after 36 years and more than 300 wins. He told me the other day that he’s trying to keep his retirement out of this, make this state championship game about this year’s team, etc. So to respect coach DuVall’s wishes, I will save the career retrospective until after tonight’s game, and focus on the game itself. I will throw this out, though: Towson University football coach Gordy Combs was let go; it was announced Monday. The search for his successor is on. I’ll leave it at that…

Now, to break down the battle of the ‘Lakes: Westlake (11-2) vs. Wilde Lake (12-1).

Six of the eight teams Westlake defeated during the regular season won three or fewer games, but the Wolverines have had quality wins in the playoffs, including a 37-0 shutout of Friendly, and a 24-21 win over 12-time state champion Seneca Valley last week at Seneca Valley.

The Wolverines’ two losses — to North Point (8-3) and Lackey (8-3) — indicate some vulnerability. Wilde Lake’s only loss, by comparison, was to undefeated defending state champion River Hill, 12-0, at River Hill’s homecoming.

Wilde Lake had some sloppy performances early in the season, but still managed to win those games, beating Atholton, Glenelg, Long Reach and Marriotts Ridge by a combined eight points.

Here’s the six (or four, or whatever it is) degrees of separation: Westlake lost to North Point, 24-13, which lost to Douglass, 32-10, which lost to River Hill, 21-6, which beat Wilde Lake, 12-0. Helpful? I didn’t think so.

Anyway, enough with the semantics, let’s take a look at the teams.

Westlake has Devon Smith (No. 2 in the program). He’s listed at 5 feet 7, 150 pounds, but he is FAST! He was a state champ last year in the indoor and outdoor sprints and he has been recruited to play football for Penn State. He’s the guy you need to look out for. He has scored just about all their points this season.

The Wolverines don’t have much of a passing game. Their quarterback has thrown eight touchdowns and 10 interceptions, and most of his passing production has come by getting the ball into the hands of Smith and allowing him to make plays.

Let’s take a look at how Wilde Lake has done against a team with a strong running attack. There’s no better example than River Hill, which features Michael Campanaro and Malek Redd.

So how did that go? Well, it was a split decision: the ‘Cats’ defense held Redd — who resembles Smith in size, speed, stature, and jersey number — to 10 yards on six carries. If they can do that against Smith, they’ll likely be state champs, and you can bet that DuVall has watched plenty of film and worked on a game plan to do just that. However, in that same game, Campanaro rushed for 175 yards (5.6 per carry). Wilde Lake held him out of the end zone, though, so the defensive effort was considered a success. It should be noted that it was rainy, windy and muddy that day. The field at M&T should be in good shape.

What it comes down to is that Wilde Lake has the players on defense to at least slow down Smith. Then Westlake’s other offensive options will have to come into play: sophomore quarterback Chris Istvan (7); 6-2, 175-pound receiver Brian Richards (20); Evan Harris (17) — who is more of a fullback-type at 6-foot, 220; and Antoine Reese (5), another mighty mite running back. They’re all good players, but Wilde Lake is used to defending against good players.

Wilde Lake, meanwhile, will look to move the ball with its own version of Devon Smith, senior Jarrel Epps (6), who is a few pounds bulkier than Smith and has put up impressive numbers. Senior Danny March gives Wilde Lake the edge at quarterback.

A big key is that, on average, the Wilde Lake line outweighs the Westlake line by about 20 pounds on offense and 30 pounds on defense. The average Wildecat is listed at 5-11, 196 pounds; the average Wolverine is 5-11, 187 pounds.

MaxPreps ranks Wilde Lake 5th and Westlake 10th.

PREDICTION: I’ve punched these numbers into the PredictaTron 3000 and after releasing some steam and expelling a few busted springs, this is what it spit out: DuVall wins his final game and closes his high school coaching career with a sixth state championship, 27-13.

Check back tonight for an injury update on Michael Campanaro, who hurt a hamstring in the state semifinal, and coverage of the Wilde Lake-Westlake game.

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