Stars Shine at Crab Bowl

By: Keith Mills

One by one they walked over to Doug Duval for a handshake and a hug.

Mark Meseros of Eastern Tech, Donte Jones of Edmondson, Pete Hughes of Long Reach, Calvert Hall's Donald Davis, Hereford's Joe Bosley and, finally, Dunbar's Lawrence Smith.

"You made this happen," said Smith, the head coach of the Baltimore team in the first Crab Bowl high school all star football game played last Saturday at Johnny Unitas Stadium. "Thanks for everything you've done."

Doug Duval had the look of a proud papa. His legendary coaching career ended earlier in month at M & T Bank Stadium when his Wilde Lake football lost to Westlake High in the Class 3A state championship. It ended with 308 wins and five state titles, though the first-ever Baltimore-Washington all-star game was as much result of the vision of the 36-year Wildecats coach and several of his peers 25 years ago, as the abundance of talent on the field in pre-game warmups.

"This a long-time coming," said Duval, a graduate assistant to Maryland head coach Jerry Claiborn before taking over the Wilde Lake back program back in 1972. "A lot of really good coaches and really good people helped make it happen. It's really satisfyng to see."

Former Hereford assistant coach Chuck Harman and partner Sean O'Connor did a superb job of actually putting this game together, though Harman was quick to credit the work of Duval and long-time coach Al Thomas, who's won eight state championships in his equally legendary coaching career at Seneca Valley, Damascus and Sherwood.

"This would not have happened without Coach Duval and Coach Thomas," said Harman, whose game featured over 90 of the best seniors in the state. "We're going to keep this going."

Back in the early 1980's Duval, Meade's Jerry Mears and Gaithersburg's John Harvill tossed around the idea of starting a state-wide coaches association. Finally, in 1985 they formed the Maryland State Football Coaches Association was born.

"We held the first meeting at Meade High School," said Duval. "Myself, Jerry Mears, John Harvill, Bob Milloy, Andy Borland of Severna Park, Al Laramore of Annapolis. At that time the state was almost divided into four factions.What we tried to do was bring everyone together. And I think we've done that."

In 1988, the association also created a Maryland Coaches Hall of Fame with its first class among the most successful coaches in state history: Irv Biasi (Patterso n), Al Cesky (Bel Air), Bill Hahn (Ft. Hill and Wheaton), Ed Hargaden (Loyola), Harry Lawrence (City College), George Young (City and Calvert Hall), Bob Lumsden (Polytechnic), Gorton McWilliams (Cambridge-South Dorchester), John Merricks (Crossland), and Dan Polumbo (Northwestern). Duval was inducted two years ago.

The coaches association also increased the visibility of its players, beginning with Maryland's involvement in the Big 33 High School All-Star game. The Big 33 was first played in 1958 and was a showcase for Pennsylvania high school football, considered among the best in the country.

From 1985 to '92 the Pennsylvania stars played team Maryland at Hershey Park Stadium in Hershey, Pa.. Jerry Mears coached the first Maryland team in the Big 33 game, a 17-14 loss to Pennsylvania though two years later Poly's Augie Waibel led Maryland to its first victory, a 26-22 win in 1987.

Maryland football, in the eyes of college coaches throughout the country, had arrived.

"What playing in the Big 33 did," said Duval. "was prove to college coaches that our kids could play with anybody. Back then we had maybe 10-12 kids who went on to play Division I college football. Maryland just wasn't a place where college recruiters would come. Now, they all come. Jerry coached the team, Augie, Bob Milloy I remember when I coached the Big 33 team back in '91 I decided to hold a 2 0combine so college coaches could see these kids up close and really get to know them."

One year after the win in 1987, the Maryland team featured Leslie Sheppard of Forestville, who went on to play at the University of Miami and then the Miami Dolphins. In 1989 Richie Anderson of Sherwood had a big game before heading off to Penn State and the New York Jets. In 1990 team Maryland featured Donta Jones of McDonough High in Charles County, who went on to Nebraska then the New Orleans Saints, and Antonio "Buttons" Freeman, who played for Waibel at Poly before eventually helping the Green Bay Packers win Super Bowl XXXI over the New England Patriots. In '92 Jermain Lewis of Eleanor Roosevelt represented the state before moving on to Maryland and eventually helping the Ravens win Super Bowl XXX.

"Football's a year-round sport right now," said Donte Jones, who led Edmondson to a state championship back in 2006. Jones was also the quarterback on Baltimore City's first two state champs, the 1994 and '95 Dunbar Poets coached by Stan Mitchell, and is one of the dozens of young coaches throughout the state who have made improving football state-wide a major priority.

"We didn't have any of this when I was playing," said Jones, whose Red Storm was represented by David Mackall and Carroll Washington. "We would play AAU basketball in the summer. Now there's off-season weight programs, 7 on 7 leagues. We have come a long way. ; A lot of it for us in the city has to do with the city schools joining the state athletic association. A lot of it also has to do with the commitment from the kids and the coaches. We all put in a lot of time. But it's worth it when you see our kids go on to college and see things like this. It's an honor to be a part of this."

"It's a combination of things now," said Duval. "A lot of it is the energy some of the new coaches have brought. A lot of it's what we do now to make it easy for college coaches to recruit here. Now, we hold combines for coaches all over the state, camps, clinics, things like that. We try to do as much as we can to make our kids attractive to college coaches and to just improve the quality of play."

Approximately 60 of the 90 seniors in this year's Crab Bowl game have already signed or given verbal commitments to play college football with more to come, a direct result of how galvanized the high school coaches are now throughout the state in their desire to promote the players - and not just their own players.

And that was the beauty of the first Crab Bowl. The Baltimore area coaching staff was as impressive as the players who formed their roster, which included Tavon Austin, Jonathan Perry and Sean Farr of Dunbar, which won its third straight Class 1A state championship, Terrence Garvin and Matt Heacock of Loyola, the undefeated MIAA "A" Conference champs, and Malek Redd, Leron Eaddy and Sean Hull of River Hill, which won its second straight Class 2A state championship over Eastern Tech.

And River Hill head coach Brian Van Deusen, who played for his father Don at Atholton High before moving on to an outstanding college career at McDaniel College, was Lawrence Smith's offensive coordinator on his Crab Bowl coaching staff. He was joined by Meseros, who ran the defense, Jones, Hughes, Davis, Bosley, James McCormick of North Caroline, Vince Ahearn of Frederick and Travis Blackston, Smith's offensive coordinator at Dunbar.

"Ben Eaton always told me," said Smith, who's Poets were also represented by Courtney Bridget, Tevin Brown, Horace Miller and Davon Muse, "to surround yourself with great people, quality people and they'll make you look good."

Smith and the Baltimore team didn't win but it didn't really matter. What did was the fact the game was even played, against a team of Washington area stars who were just as talented and just as well coached.

Dave Mencarini, who coached Quince Orchard to the Class 4A state title in 2007, was the head coach of the Washington team, which included one of the premiere recruits in the country, Jelani Jenkins, a 6-foot-1, 210-pound linebacker from Good Counsel, which lost to Dematha in the Washington Catholic Athletic Association championship game. Good Counsel's coach is Bob Milloy, like Duval a pioneer in high school football who won eight Maryland state championships at Springbrook at Sherwood.

Jenkins was joined by Good Counsel teammates Mike Wallace, Tyler Campbell, Devin Gordon-Hamm and Caleb Porzel and Devon Smith of Westlake, who along with Porzel, is one of the fastest players in the country. Smith is going to Penn State while three of Mencarini's players at Quince Orchard will play college football: 290-pound tackle Terrence Stephens (Stanford), tight end Cody Magill (Delaware) and Travis Hawkins, who is headed to Maryland.

Hawkins was one eight players from the two teams who will play next year for Ralph Friedgen's Terps. Isaiah Ross (Eleanor Roosevelt), Marcus Whitfield (Northwest), Lorne Goree (Charles Flowers), and Pete Desouza (DeMatha) of the Washington team and Mackall (Edmondson), Eric Franklin (Archbishop Curley) and Dave Stinebaugh of Perry Hall, who caught a 2-yard touchdown from Milford Mill's Kevin Fulton late in the first half to cut Washington's lead to 16-14.

That came after Tavon Austin electrified the crowd with an 84-yard kickoff return, one of two kick returns for touchdowns by the incomporable Dunbar senior, who still has West Virginia on the top of his recruiting list.

But Austin wasn't the only player with speed to burn in this game as Austin, Devon Smith of Westlake and Porzel put on quite a show in front of the crowd of nearly 4,000 and showed why they are three of the hottest recruits in the country.

Smith, who ran a 4.2, 40-yard dash earlier in the week during a Washington practice session at the University of Maryland, answered Austin's first touchdown with a 98-yard kickoff return of his own for a touchdown early in the third quarter while Porzel scored his third touchdown of the game later for a 29-14 Washington lead.

But Austin wasn't done.In the fourth quarter he hauled in a pass on an end-around toss from Arundel's Alec Lemmon for an 81-yard touchdown to once again bring the crowd to its feet. But that's as close as Baltimore got as Marc Magas of Damascus drilled a 26-yard field goal to close out the scoring.

Prozel won the game's Most Valuable Player award for Washington while Austin left with the Maryland MVP which, fittingly, was named after Doug Duval.

"How about that," said Duval. "That's a real honor. But for me the real thrill is seeing all of these kids on the field together. It's hard to put into words."

"It's been great to be around these guys," said Mesaros, whose Mavericks were represented by Darian Connors and Joey Jones. "They are real serious about the game and you just shake your head when you look out and see all the talent."

Posted December 21, 2008