Doug DuVall started his football coaching career with Ralph Friedgen when both were graduate assistants at the University of Maryland in 1971.

While he was on a trip to the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, West Germany, a friend and mentor of DuVall's, Frank Rhodes, forged DuVall's signature on a teaching contract for a newly built Columbia high school called Wilde Lake.

"I told him [Rhodes] I already had a job, but then I promised him I'd stay two years," DuVall said.

Thirty-one years later, DuVall is still at Wilde Lake, and his eighth-ranked Wildecats (9-0) hope to give him his 250th football victory today, when they play host to Mount Hebron.

DuVall's teams have won five state championships and 18 Howard County titles. He ranks fourth behind Bob Malloy (eight), Al Thomas (seven) and Terry Changuris (six) in state championships, and is the winningest active coach in the Baltimore area. He and Thomas are the only coaches to have won state titles in three classifications.

DuVall has helped raise the level of Maryland high school football with his active 25-year involvement in the National Football Foundation and Hall of Fame Scholar-Athlete program, and his integral role along with Jerry Mears in starting the Maryland Football Coaches Association in 1984.

That association includes as members 132 of Maryland's 162 high schools. It not only has helped to raise the level of coaching by holding numerous clinics; it has promoted Maryland players for college scholarships.

"When it began, Maryland got about eight to 12 football scholarships per year," said Joe Russo, the association's president for the past eight years. "Last year, we had 87 football scholarships."

The association runs two combines a year in which players are selected for a Super 100 group. These players are invited to try out again to show off their abilities for college scouts.

"Doug picks that 100," Russo said.

Russo, now Hammond's athletic director, coached with DuVall for five years at Wilde Lake.

"It's amazing all the games that Doug has won," Russo said. "He's been successful because he's a hard worker who's very devoted to it, he's been able to keep his assistant coaches for a long time and he's been able to get every kid who can play to play. And he never says no to a kid who asks for help."

DuVall won't single any of them out as his best, but he has coached many great players such as Raphael Wall, who rushed for 5,287 yards and played at Maryland; Tony Jackson, who was All-Atlantic Coast Conference at Maryland; Jack Bradford, who played for Maryland, the Washington Redskins and Philadelphia Eagles; and Jim Traber, who was a quarterback at Iowa State before starting a pro baseball career that included a stint with the Orioles.

"Jack Bradford checks in once a month with me," DuVall said. "It's a thrill to stay in touch with kids over a long time."

He fondly remembers the first state championship win against Allegany in 1985, as well as the 1974 game against Howard that drew a paid crowd of 5,200 fans during the Lions' 47-game winning streak.

His teams in 1990, 1991 and 1997 each went 13-0.

"The highest compliment I ever got was when former player Eric Brooks named his son after me," DuVall said. That son, DuVall Brooks, is a sophomore football player at Oakland Mills.

"The biggest thing is the kids who go on to get an education who might not have if not for football," DuVall said. "And to see others who might not go on in school to get involved in occupations at which they're successful."