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Maggie Dyer walked into former Wootton athletics director Rhett Ross' office six years ago to interview for the Patriots' girls basketball head coaching position. She was 25 years old, five years out of college, and feared her age would be a detriment.
Ross, conversely found her youth to be a bonus when coupled with her energy and credentials.
Dyer took over a program that hadn't posted a winning record in more than 15 years. Since going 15-32 in her first two seasons, the Patriots are a combined 68-19, in the midst of their fourth consecutive winning season, and are the two-time defending Montgomery 4A West Division champions.
Dyer turned out to be such a good choice that when it came to hire coaches to turn around a long-suffering football program in 2005, and the boys basketball team in 2006, Ross chose coaches who possessed qualities similar to Dyer's.
"All of them sort of have some similarities," said Ross, who retired in 2008. "They're young. They have a lot of energy. And they are definitely all gung-ho their sport. Each one of them is completely dedicated to the sport they were involved in."
In 2005, Ross hired former Whitman assistant Greg Malling, 34, to head up a football program that hadn't seen a winning record in more than 10 years. In 2006 he put Chris Bohlen, 38, in charge of the boys basketball team, which hadn't experienced a winning season in more than 15.
Wootton has long had successful teams in sports such as tennis, golf and swimming; sports that generally flourish in the Bethesda, Potomac and Rockville areas thanks to strong youth setups.
But at the college level, football and basketball are termed "revenue sports." Those programs now complement Wootton's others to provide a strong across-the-board athletics department.
They now compare favorably in those sports to their closest rivals, the other so-called "W" schools: Winston Churchill, Walter Johnson and Walt Whitman. The renaissance in each case coincides with the hiring of the current coach.
The football team has done a 180 under Malling. This past fall, he led the Patriots to a 7-4 record and their first postseason appearance since 1991.
The boys basketball program is going through a rebuilding this year, but went a combined 28-19 in Bohlen's first two seasons. In 2008, the Patriots won their first division title in boys baskeball since 1985.
"Fortunately these three coaches turned out to be definite plusses," Ross said. "The three of them work pretty closely together. All three have done an amazing job of getting the Wootton community involved. They've all put in so much extra time that people don't realize."
Age is part of it. Bohlen, Dyer and Malling are still young enough to be able to relate to their students, and have cultivated unique bonds rooted in a sense of trust.
"I was joking with my mom the other day, Dyer is almost like a counselor," Wootton senior Chelsea Craig said. "I talk to her all the time. She's like a friend. She knows so much about my personal life. She's younger, so she's not as much like a parent figure. She just gets it more."
But it's more than that. Bohlen, Dyer and Malling were all hugely qualified applicants, despite having no Montgomery County Public Schools head coaching experience before arriving at Wootton.
Bohlen has coached at the high school and college levels since 1995, in various parts of the country. Dyer played on scholarship at NCAA Division II Lander (S.C.) University, was previously the coach at Holy Child and holds a Master's Degree in sports psychology. Malling learned the Montgomery County ropes part of Whitman's staff during a largely successful spell from 1999-2005.
The three have also instilled a sense of accountability with their players; Malling, for instance, installed a leadership counsel to encourage cohesion.
They tailor their own coaching philosophies to the available talent; the football team barely threw the ball during Malling's first two years, but prospered with spread offenses the last two.
And, perhaps most importantly, they've gotten the community involved. All three teams fundraise aggressively. The football team raised money for new weight room and safety equipment. The girls basketball team runs a Community Day each spring where girls bring canned food to donate and spend 1 ù hours training with the Patriots.
"You can't be surrounded by crap and think what you're doing matters," Malling said. "The environment is so important. If things are bad it's hard to have a sense of pride. And the fundraisers turn into a team-building type thing."
Students graduate and new ones come in. Results are likely to go up and down. But the foundation is the most important part. And Dyer, Bohlen and Malling have created good ones for themselves and future coaches to build on for years to come.
"I really wanted to come into a program that I had to build," Dyer said. "I knew I was young but I'm eternally grateful that Rhett Ross took a chance on me and gave me this amazing opportunity."
