Clarksburg: Overnight success

You may know that the football team is a perfect 6-0 so far this season. But the Coyotes are at least competitive, if not downright strong, in nearly every fall sport. Eight of Clarksburg’s nine fall varsity teams had records at or above the .500 mark through this weekend’s games.

‘‘I would say that across the board, there are athletes in all of our sports,” Clarksburg athletics director Mike Riley said. ‘‘What we’re looking for is to have an overall, solid athletic program. We want every sport to be successful.”

For the Coyotes to be successful in one or two sports isn’t such a big surprise. Clarksburg sits between Germantown and Damascus, right in the county’s football breadbasket. When it opened, the school drew students from Seneca Valley and Damascus, which are a combined 11-1 this football season.

What’s a little eye-opening is the across-the-board nature of Clarksburg’s arrival on the scene. In many cases, the Coyotes are going head-to-head with schools from nearby areas, and winning.

Consider:

The boys and girls cross country teams both won the county’s Division III title this season — that’s Division III out of IV, mind you, so the Coyotes are already rising up the county’s cross-country ranks. The girls had already won a division title last year. This fall, coach Nick Caretti led both teams to a perfect 5-0 finish in the division.

The golf team made it three division titles for the Coyotes, winning the Kohut under coach Todd Watson. If Larry Hurd’s football team beats Rockville Friday, it, too, will become a champion, in the county’s (albeit small) 2A⁄1A Division. That would be four regular-season division titles in nine tries. Not too shabby for any school, much less one that held a Homecoming football game last week despite no one ever having graduated from it.

It doesn’t end there. The girls tennis team, under Lauren McCabe, was leading Division III until last week, and finished third with a 6-2 divisional mark. Sissy Natoli’s field hockey team is 5-5 on the season. Jeremy Spoales has the boys soccer team sitting at 5-3-1 through the weekend. Troy Bowers’ girls soccer team won Monday to make them 6-6, including wins over Damascus, Seneca Valley and Watkins Mill (the three schools that spawned Clarksburg) and a winning record (3-2) in divisional play.

None of those teams will win its division title, but all of them look poised to make some noise in the upcoming regional playoffs, in which the Coyotes compete in the Class 2A West.

Clarksburg is something of a perfect storm in many ways. The growing area created demand for a new high school. The new school opened in an area of the county already known for being rich in athletic talent and community support. A new youth club, the Clarksburg Sports Association, opened at roughly the same time, aimed specifically at young athletes in the Clarksburg cluster.

‘‘Although CHS and CSA are two separate entities, there is a direct and persistent interaction between the two organizations that exists by design,” said Kevin Hutto, co-founder and executive director of the Clarksburg Sports Association. ‘‘All the Clarksburg cluster schools are also enthusiastic about what CSA is doing and the principles have been very supportive.”

CSA teams wear the high school’s colors (Columbia blue and navy) and bear its nickname, the Coyotes.

It was pretty apparent before the school ever opened that Clarksburg had massive potential. That, and a blank slate, attracted lots of highly qualified coaching candidates to apply to Riley, who was previously the AD at Poolesville.

‘‘It was a great opportunity, one you couldn’t pass up,” said Hurd, who went 31-4 in four seasons as the football coach at Poolesville before joining Riley at Clarksburg. ‘‘We’ve got a lot of coaches with a lot of experience, and almost every coach Mr. Riley hired has been very successful in the past. Put together a good area to draw from, successful coaches, and a good infrastructure, and you can be very successful.”

In many ways, this is the year that Clarksburg truly comes of age. The first year was always going to be a learning experience, particularly because the school opened with freshman through junior classes — no seniors.

The Coyotes’ improvement from last fall is not surprising. That most of their teams are downright good, though, is a little bit of a ‘‘who knew?”

True, the school has a senior class this year, but not a large one. Besides, there are 24 other public high schools in the county with senior classes.

True, the Clarksburg area is rich in talent, but is not particularly known for perennial success in fall sports other than football. The Coyotes’ win-loss records compare favorably with those of Damascus, Seneca Valley and Watkins Mill in most sports.

So just because the elements were in place when the school opened didn’t mean athletic success would necessarily follow. Least of all so quickly, and so consistently.

‘‘The great thing about our situation is that the coaches hit the ground running,” Riley said. ‘‘They did a great job last year getting their programs going; I would say that across the board.”