David Lang, the popular Western athletic director and longtime administrator and coach in the Baltimore City public schools, died Sunday of a heart attack at his home in Ocean City. He was 60.
Ten years ago, Lang became the first male to serve as athletic director at Western, the all-girls high school. He guided a program that was especially well known for its basketball teams, but also won city championships in several other sports.
"He was part of the fabric of Western High School. He really was," said principal Eleanor Matthews, who has been at the school for 29 years. "We all loved him. I don't think there was a person in this building who didn't love Mr. Lang. This is a very sad day for the Western family."
Lang was a hometown boy, growing up in Highlandtown and graduating from Patterson High and Towson University. He played soccer at both schools and went on to coach at Walbrook, Patterson and Mervo, before serving as athletic director at Southwestern and then at Western.
Longtime friend Mark Schlenoff, who retired as the athletic director at Western's next-door neighbor school Poly in 2004, said Lang's wife Sharon told him Lang was walking his dogs on the beach at Ocean City and when he returned home she heard him fall on the steps in the back of the house. Repeated attempts to revive him were unsuccessful.
"His death is a tremendous loss, not only to his family, of course, but to the Baltimore City public school system," said Bob Wade, coordinator of athletics for the Baltimore City public schools. "He meant a lot to the athletic program in general. He was one of what I call my senior brain trust. He had a very mild demeanor, he was very knowledgeable of his content area and he was able to resolve issues. He was a mainstay at Western High School. He was the glue."
When Lang was chosen as the first male athletic director at Western, Matthews said, it was a bit controversial.
"I know there was some conversation about bringing a male athletic director into an all-girls school," she said, "but it was one of the best decisions that principal ever made."
Wade said, "There was some question about breaking tradition, because it always was a female athletic director. Eva Scott was there for 40-plus years and then to bring a male on board in a same-sex situation, it caused a stir, but he settled in and everyone loved him and he did a great job."
Soccer was Lang's favorite sport, said Roger Wrenn, the Poly football coach and another longtime friend.
"I think he was best known as a soccer player and aficionado of the game and he was an excellent soccer coach," Wrenn said. "He was a championship soccer coach at Patterson and he coached great wrestling teams and baseball teams at Walbrook."
Schlenoff recalled that Lang was always up for a coaching challenge, taking the junior varsity football job at Mervo, when Schlenoff was the athletic director there, even though he had not coached it before. Schlenoff, who had no one else to coach the team, remembered the conversation went like this.
Schlenoff: "What are the chances of getting you to coach JV football?"
Lang: "I've never played football. I was a soccer man."
Schelnoff: "'Well, I know that, but I need somebody."
Lang: "'I wouldn't even know what to do."
Schlenoff: "I'll tell you what, you be the head coach and I'll be the assistant coach. I'll write all the practice plans and I'll do all the talking. All you've got to do is be out there until I can be out there.'
Lang finally gave in and "We won the championship that year," Schlenoff said.
Something similar happened later at Southwestern, Wrenn said.
"One year they didn't have anybody, so he was the varsity football coach. He said, 'What I knew about it was how to coach the kickers.' He pulled out his playbook from when he played for the Salvation Army 10-12s, so he said, 'We're not going to be too complicated.'"
Lang grew up playing sports with the neighborhood guys in Highlandtown, including former Southern High athletic director Jack Nehmsmann.
"He was like a brother," he said of Lang, who was the youngest of five children. "He lived right behind me and we were always in each other's house.
"Dave liked all sports, soccer, baseball. We played all the childhood games together, curveball in the street and stick ball in the alleys. He's the one who got me into this profession," said Nehmsmann, who coached football and soccer for 17 years at Southern.
Lang, Wrenn, Nehmsmann and John Hammond — all of whom coached together under the late Hy Zolet at Patterson in the late 1970s and early 1980s — stayed close over the years, meeting regularly for breakfast. Wrenn and Nehmsmann said they had just seen each other last week.
"The four of us who the athletic director (Zolet) then called the young bucks," Wrenn said, "we would go out to breakfast about once a month and just laugh and joke and have fun. We just last week went out to breakfast together. We were all in our 20s back then and watched each other get married and have kids. We rooted for each others' sports teams, because we all coached different things and just had so much fun they shouldn't have paid us for it."
Matthews said, because school is almost out for the summer, an interim athletic director will not be named, but a new one will be chosen in time for the fall semester.
Lang is survived by his wife and a son, Jonathan, who had been studying in London and returned to Baltimore on Monday. Jonathan Lang said a viewing is expected to be later in the week at Ruck Funeral Home in Towson. For more information about the services, call Ruck Funeral Home at 410-823-1700.