SU linemen bonded by high schools

By Jeremy Stafford -- jstafford@nvdaily.com

WINCHESTER -- Maryland suburbia, in spots, is drenched in football tradition.

There are those classic Washington Catholic Athletic Conference battles between Good Counsel and Dematha, which draw crowds by the thousands every year; there is the recent rise of the Montgomery County Class 4A Sherwood Warriors, who often rank among Maryland's top 10 programs.

But perhaps no Maryland football program is steeped in as much tradition, and boils with as much pride, as that of the Seneca Valley Screaming Eagles, a school tucked away in the bustling city of Germantown.

Since 1975, the Eagles have won 12 Maryland state championships in the 3A and 4A classes, and are, more or less, a mainstay in the postseason.

"It's tradition: the hard work, the effort," explains Shenandoah University right guard Sean McKenzie, who graduated from Seneca Valley in 2006. "I remember being out there on the hot, black track and doing the 40-yard sprints; the 30-yard sprints; the 20-yard sprints, and so we were just dead.

"Doing the abs on the track, our backs are burning."

McKenzie laughed as he let his mind escape back to those glory days, when he bled and sweat for the postseason with the rest of the Eagles. And make no mistake, Seneca Valley earned every one of its playoff appearances. Cruise down Wisteria Drive on an autumn day, no matter the time, and there always seems to be at least one Eagle, clad in green and gold, running on that black ribbon of a track, gearing up for another run at the Maryland state title.

Travel four miles east, down Md. 118, though, and the tradition falters a bit.

Watkins Mill High School, home of the orange and blue Wolverines, has had a rough going in recent seasons, speckled with only a handful of bright spots. Shenandoah left guard Dennis Derricott remembers when in 2003, his sophomore season at Watkins Mill, the Wolverines lost 70-7 to their Montgomery County rival Eagles.

Or was it 77-7? Neither Derricott nor McKenzie could say for sure. The game had gotten out of hand, and so the score became too bloated to be worth remembering.

"It hurt," Derricott recalled. "But I had two more years on varsity to kind of redeem myself.

"I don't know what happened."

This season the Wolverines are limping through a 1-6 season, and even the Eagles are going through a rare four-loss season -- a season many schools might wear with pride, but one which McKenzie describes as "unfortunate."

Still, McKenzie asserts, a Seneca Valley team in a down year can surely compete with the Virginia high schools so many of his Hornet teammates hail from.

"Amongst the [Hornets] we have a lot of, 'My-high-school-can-beat-your-high-school' kind of thing," McKenzie laughed. "A lot of Virginia guys are real cocky about it.

"And then we'll actually go online and look at the national rankings ... and Seneca's ranked in the teens while Annandale and all them are ranked in the hundreds."

Derricott even made sure to point out that Watkins Mill, in his senior season, could have competed with the likes of Annandale and Oakton.

"My high school wasn't ranked too bad -- we went 4-6 my senior year and we were ranked 48th in the state at the end of the year," he said. "So we were actually still better than a nice amount of schools here that other people went to."

It's all in jest, to be sure -- McKenzie always makes sure to mention that his teammates are "all great guys, I give them credit, they're all great football players" -- but the high school football debate gives the Maryland duo yet another unifying link in their great friendship. A friendship which, surprisingly, began only after the two came to Shenandoah.

McKenzie and Derricott knew each other vaguely a few days into the 2006 season, but it wasn't until Derricott, wandering through McKenzie's dorm, by chance stepped into the Seneca Valley grad's room. Once the city of Germantown was mentioned, the two became "attached to the hip," as Derricott puts it.

They talked about their old hangouts -- like the numerous movie theaters which are scattered about Germantown, and the Rio Center in Gaithersburg, where they always spent their weekends, but never together.

And all at once, the two clicked.

"A lot of times we'll say the same thing, do the same thing," Derricott said. "It's kind of weird -- it's kind of creepy."

The creepiest part, Derricott chuckled, is how no matter what play is called on the football field, McKenzie always seems to be right there next to him, bursting downfield, or tailing him down the line of scrimmage. Brothers in arms no matter what happens.

A year ago that chemistry helped Shenandoah (1-7, 0-5 USA South) score 28 points on North Carolina Wesleyan (6-2, 5-0 USA South), albeit in a 47-28 loss to the Battling Bishops. This season, despite having only one win thus far, Shenandoah's brutal, physical offensive line has shown it can keep up with whatever defense the conference has to offer: The Hornet offense has been out-gained only twice this season.

And because N.C. Wesleyan sports the top offense in the league, today's game might very well come down to which team can out-duel the other in a shootout.

"I definitely think we'll be able to move the ball because our line, we just got the angry mentality," Derricott said. "We like busting people up.

"That's the Germantown way, and, of course, the Shenandoah way, as well."