MORE PLAYOFF COVERAGE

Playoff results, schedules

Class 2A, 3A semifinals have plenty of star power

Wilde Lake wins Class 3A East championship

River Hill takes 2A South crown


The following is a post from the talk boards on www.explorehoward.com

It was exactly 11 years ago that Wilde Lake football coach Doug DuVall was in the midst of an improbable playoff run, which ended in his fifth Maryland state championship. At the time, I was a JV quarterback at Wilde Lake who had been moved up to the varsity for the post-season.

Despite being excited about my promotion, I remember looking around during my first day of practice with the varsity and wondering how this team had gone 10-0 during the regular season. They were undersized with most of the linemen looking more like linebackers and the linebackers looking more like defensive backs. It was even more surprising that that year's team did not have the kind of explosive speed that sometimes makes up for a lack in size. On top of these limitations, the team had graduated several Division I-A and I-AA players from the year before including Howard County's All-Around Player of the Year Dane Lewis and Defensive Player of the Year and former Maryland Terrapin Tony Jackson.

Before joining the team, I was secretly skeptical of our chances at winning even one playoff game that year. Just like all the naysayers who had never set foot inside coach DuVall's locker room, I assumed the team had gone 10-0 because of a weak schedule against Howard County opponents. After less than a week under coach DuVall, I knew I had it all wrong.

That 1997 team was a living, breathing embodiment of coach DuVall and the values he has taught on and off the field for 35 years. Speed, size and star power help, but they will never outweigh the self-sacrifice, pride and tireless work ethic coach DuVall breeds in his players. He has always been a hands-on coach (or maybe I should say “shoulders-on”) who likes to get down in the trenches with his players.

During one of my first practices with the varsity, I was taking snaps from the center while the offensive line ran blocking drills. All of a sudden, a frustrated coach DuVall strapped on a helmet, and without shoulder pads, went head-to-head with several players to show them the energy he wanted to see.

My first thought was 'Is this really happening?' Then I had to fight the urge to laugh. But when I looked to see how the linemen were reacting, they were stone-face serious and captivated by what coach DuVall was showing them. From nearly any other coach this would have drawn laughs or been seen as a staged attempt to motivate players with something unusual. But from coach DuVall, players can sense it unquestionably as real-life teaching from the heart.

Coach DuVall's ability to communicate with players in a genuine way is part of what has earned him their respect, allegiance and attention. When coach DuVall speaks, players listen and they believe what he says because there are no gimmicks. Coach DuVall is not a coach who spends time talking about stats or regurgitating grand speeches with words like “character” and “determination” casually thrown in. Instead he spends his time exemplifying these qualities at practice, in the locker room, during school and on the playing field.

One of the most important qualities that coach DuVall teaches is self-discipline. If the team is focusing on defense one day, Coach DuVall wants to know what the offensive players on the sideline are doing to improve their skills. Its easy to sit and watch other people work or to find a hiding place to rest until a coach comes along to tell you what to do. But under coach DuVall, players learn that it is those moments when no one else is around that matter most.

The '97 team did not kick one field goal the entire regular season, but coach DuVall never stopped pushing the kicker, long-snapper and holder to work hard to get better. While the rest of the team and coaches worked on offensive and defensive plays, the field goal trio was often sent to another field to practice kicks. They could have easily slacked off without coaches noticing, but they didn't.

They understood coach DuVall's insistence on self-discipline. That lesson was the difference in the '97 State semifinals when Wilde Lake kicked a field goal to upset Friendly, 3-0, in a game that no one gave them a snowball's chance in Hawaii of winning.

The following week, the team etched its name in history, winning the state championship with a perfect 13-0 record. To this day, coach DuVall can talk about each one of his players on that team and the 34 other teams he has coached at Wilde Lake. With each player he takes the time to get to know them like a son. Some of his sons react better with calm clear instruction and an off-hand joke while others thrive on harsher orders and loud rallying calls. Some of them come from single-parent families where they shoulder extra responsibilities while others are far more sheltered and haven't yet learned how to wash their practice jerseys.

As the current Wilde Lake team heads into (the Nov. 28) state semifinal showdown against Hereford, there are several things spectators can count on. For one, the coaching legend will undoubtedly take the field in shorts and without gloves. Come rain, sleet or snow, the same legs and hands coach DuVall used to build his log cabin home from scratch and to build one of the best football programs in state history, will be on display for all to see.

But more importantly, when coach DuVall makes his final appearance on the field which will surely be renamed in his honor, he will be leading a group of confident, unified young men who will never forget what he has taught them. With or without a win Friday night, coach DuVall's 2008 Wildecats will go down in history as yet another group of champions who learned the value and importance of hard work, integrity and responsibility from a man who knows no other way to live.

Chad Fawcett
Wilde Lake High School Class of 2000

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