In his first 31 years at Gilman, Tim Holley has filled a lot of positions as a coach, administrator and teacher, but never has he stepped into bigger shoes than in his newest role.
Monday morning, on the first day of Maryland Interscholastic Athletic Association football practice, Holley will be on the field as head football coach, succeeding Biff Poggi, who guided the Greyhounds to national prominence, including a national ranking as high as No. 13 last fall.
Except for a three-year stint as athletic director at The Haverford School in Pennsylvania, Holley, 57, has worked at Gilman, his alma mater, since 1985. Since he returned from Haverford in 1997, he has been the athletic director. He assisted on Poggi's staff but also has been baseball and basketball coach and has coached all three sports on almost every level at Gilman, where he was an All-Metro football and baseball player in the mid-70s before going on to play baseball at Penn.
The Greyhounds certainly need someone who can hold the program steady through its first season in 19 years without Poggi, who departed in January to become Jim Harbaugh's associate head coach at Michigan, a job just finalized last week. There had been some contention between Poggi and Smyth and most of Poggi's staff also left, although a handful who were faculty members remain on Holley's staff.
Calvert Hall coach Donald Davis has no doubt Holley is the right guy for the job.
"First of all, to choose one of the most well-respected athletic directors in the area – a good guy, a good football man – they made a tremendous choice to steady the program," Davis said. "They were as good a football team as there was in the region a year ago. Yeah, they lost some guys, but last time I checked they still have a lot of really good kids who stayed and who have a chip on their shoulder. Talk about extremely motivated young people."
After one of the program's best years – an 11-1 finish with the only loss, 14-13, to St. Edward, Ohio – 22 Greyhounds graduated. Ten moved on to Division I programs, including Stanford, Michigan and Penn State. Several younger players transferred, among them quarterback and Maryland commit Kasim Hill (St. John's-D.C.) and All-Metro defensive tackle Taron Vincent (IMG).
Still, Holley said 94 players should be out for the varsity, junior varsity and freshman-sophomore teams. Between 50 and 60 showed up regularly for summer workouts.
He said that while expectations from the outside are not high, the players' dedication is.
"My expectations are we'll be in the hunt," Holley said. "We'll compete and try to defy the odds. From the inside, we're confident the product will be competitive. From the outside, I think the kids want to prove to people that they're still here, that this prevailing notion that Gilman is not interested in football, they're not going to let that happen on their watch.
"Part of it, too, is that the seniors, they played for the most successful coach in school history. They have a confidence, an attitude, an expectation to win, because that's what they've been a part of and I think that they feel strongly that they can carry that attitude and expectation forward into the next phase of Gilman football."
While it will take considerable work to reconstruct the lines – both of which were among the best the Baltimore area has ever seen last season – the coach said he has a strong contingent of skill players returning, including junior quarterback Purnell Hill, the back-up last season to Kasim Hill, who is no relation.
He also returns senior receivers Ayende Watson and Brandon Willis, junior running back Brandon Madison, junior tight end Thomas Booker and senior linemen Will Weinfeld and Vince Reilley. On the defensive side, four key seniors come back – defensive backs Drew Ehrlich and Piper Bond and linebackers Antonio DiCerbo and Bryce Bush. Several of them will play both ways.
Holley has quickly assembled a coaching staff that includes a Baltimore legend, Roger Wrenn, as offensive line coach. Wrenn, who won 285 games at Patterson and Poly before retiring in 2011, will work with his son Russell Wrenn, the Greyhounds' new offensive coordinator.
Russell Wrenn is a Gilman graduate, as is defensive coordinator Jeff Gouline, who is also the chairman of the Gilman math department and had been on Poggi's staff for 11 years. He's one of a handful faculty-member assistant coaches who have transitioned to Holley's staff.
While Poggi was clear about his intentions to field a nationally-competitive team, Holley is looking at this season more like the educator he has always been.
"Gilman's been playing football since 1902. First undefeated team was in 1905," Holley said. "So I think, in terms of our history and tradition of football, the school thinks that football is an important part of the curriculum … while under different coaches over 100-plus years, the emphasis may have changed from coach to coach.
"Biff and I played for the same high school coach (Alexander Sotir). We're both Gilman graduates. I think there will be a lot of similarities in the way we go about our business, but I will let the results speak for themselves. I'm going to worry more about the process, the journey than the end point."
The Greyhounds still have a competitive schedule. In addition to their MIAA opponents they play perennial national contender Good Counsel as well as Bishop Sullivan, Va.; Malvern Prep, Pa.; and Friendship Academy from Washington D.C. They open against Dunbar in East Baltimore on Sept. 2 and end the season by hosting the 101st Gilman-McDonogh game on Nov. 12.
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