DuVall's Final Season

Way back when we were in high school, in the mid-70s, Doug DuVall was only starting to build a football program that would become the envy of the county. But you could tell from the way he carried himself, and his players responded, that he was something special.

In the Sun today, we learn that Coach DuVall says this, his 36th season, will be his last with Wilde Lake's Wildecats.

"I remember, when I started coaching, I just wanted to win my first game," he said yesterday, between classes at the school where he began his career in 1972. "Then I wanted to win 100, then 200, now 300. But you should never spend your whole career in one place."

That thought and others first came to him when his friend, the late Dunbar coach Ben Eaton, died suddenly in August 2007.

"Ben sent a pretty clear message," DuVall said. "Everything has a rhythm and a time. I need to enjoy my life. Spend time with Jan [his wife] and our family. Coaching is a consuming lifestyle. Coaching football is a 12-month, eight-hour-a-day job. I'm looking to do something a little less demanding."