Park View High (Sterling) | Archive | July, 2008

Ramblin Man Blog: McGrath Ready for the Challenge

By Dan Sousa
LoudounPrepSports Senior Content Editor


I’m Back from Colorado and our big family vacation (more later!) and the big news of the week is the hiring of Park View High School assistant football coach Danny McGrath as Loudoun Valley’s new head coach.


 


Wow! This threw me for a curve ball as McGrath at age 25 probably wasn’t on many radar screens for a head coaching position. McGrath, however, comes with a wealth of football experience, having played at Herndon High School and utilized an unmatched work ethic at Virginia Tech to not only become a starting offensive lineman but a team captain.


 


“I have a lot of experience and I want to share it with the kids,” said McGrath over the weekend as he was nice enough to chat with me on the phone.


 


I didn’t have the heart to tell McGrath that I have yellow legal pads in my wreck of an office that are older than 25 years old! Bad jokes aside, hiring a young coach can work out quite well … just ask Park View where McGrath’s “former boss” Andy Hill became a head coach at age 26.


 


McGrath had the support of Hill in seeking the position, even though the hiring came at the unusual date of just three weeks prior to the first official practice date.


 


Yes, in an age of year-round programs … McGrath has 21 days to prepare for his first head coaching job … though, it looks like this hard-worker has been preparing for such a job since he first laced up a pair of shoulder pads in Herndon.


 


Loudoun Valley is a top of the line program and I’m excited to put my stamp on it,” said McGrath.


 


The Vikes are not entirely new to McGrath as his mother moved to Purcellville five years ago and he now lives in the area as well so he has been following the team.


 


McGrath will borrow as much as he can from his past experiences and the past year at Park View in setting up his program at Valley.


 


“I’m going to take everything I can from Coach Hill in how to run a successful program,” said McGrath.


 


Prior to hiring on at Park View, McGrath’s background was grounded in the ground game having played in a power running game in high school and then been exposed to Tech’s running game and tough defense concept.


 


The last year, however, McGrath was exposed to Hill’s play book which at times appears to have pages taken out of a book from Hogwarts (my first ever Harry Potter reference … if you are scoring at home). Seriously, it looks like some of the Patriot plays are drawn up by David Blaine.


 


“Working with Andy opened my eyes,” said McGrath who often had to find creative blocking schemes for his Patriot lineman to fit Park View’s sometimes unorthodox sets.


 


McGrath was hired on Friday and by Saturday he was already getting a first-hand glimpse of his players as he watched the Vikes play in a 7-on-7 football league game at Millbrook.


 


“Open to all options” is how McGrath put his mindset and he will need that flexibility as he has just three weeks to find a coaching staff at a time when most assistants are already onboard for the coming season at other schools and he will take over a program where out-going coach Bruce Sheppard spent some significant time last year installing a spread offense.


 


“It will be a collective effort his year … seven football minds working together,” said McGrath of how he will work with his new hires.


 


The Vikes suffered through a tough first year in the AAA Cedar Run District in 2007 with a 1-6 league mark and 2-8 overall finish. Restoring some confidence early in the season may be key to McGrath’s first year at the LV helm.


 


“I’m ready for it. I’m ready for a new challenge,” said McGrath.


 


Countdown to New Website


 


This summer brings our exciting change from our current website over to the Digital Sports platform … look for a “sneak preview” of the new site in a week or two. Like any shift on the Internet … there will be a trial and error period as we get things up and running but I’m looking forward to some of the cool features.


 


For one, schedules and scores and standings will now be linked such that we can update our scores in the schedule area and it will update the standings automatically … those of you that emailed me over the years pointing out mistakes we made in updating the standings as we attempted to do that by hand will now have free time to start new hobbies!


 


But seriously … we will still appreciate your sharp eyes to  help us get things looking great when we make the shift.


 


Rocky Mountain High


 


No … not that type of high (and trust me, Digital Sports is making me take a drug test as a new hire to prove it! That is a first for me but I’m glad to see that my “clean living” is finally paying off … luckily they don’t test for overuse of Mexican food … my chimichanga withdrawal of ’97 was not pretty) … but we just returned from 12 days of high altitude fun in Colorado.


 


The trip got off to a slow start … we spent almost eight hours sitting at Dulles Airport after our on-time departure went five feet before the captain told us there was a “problem with the right engine” … better to find that out on the tarmac than at 30,000 feet!


 


We lost one night on our first three-night rental which was in the mountains about midway between Vail and Aspen … our cabin came without a TV, telephone or even cell phone reception. This period of the vacation to my two boys is known as the “Dark Ages”.


 


We later spent eight nights in Vail … a nice week of that spent in a two-bedroom condo … which, yes, had TV and telephone and even high-speed Internet! All the better to keep my 8-year-olds Webkins “alive”.


 


My wife and I were huffing and puffing every time we walked up any incline. Thank goodness for my Velocity workouts or else I would have been dialing 9-1-1.


 


We went white water rafting on the upper Colorado … sounds more adventuresome that it really was as we opted for a class 2 trip … think Lazy River vs. the River Wild (my first Kevin Bacon reference in 2008!). All the creeks and rivers were going crazy as Colorado had twice the usually snowpack and the melt-off was in full roar.


 


We went on an alpine jeep tour (hello Theo! Best jeep driver ever!) which was cool … especially when it started raining at 10,000 feet with the jeep’s top down! We got up high enough that there was still snow on the ground in places and we got off road enough that the jeep at time was going sideways (honest!).


 


We went to two fireworks shows … a nice July 4th parade in Vail Village and even to a rodeo. It was the kids first rodeo … it was a bit for the tourists if you grew up in the part of California I grew up in but the boys enjoyed it.


 


We had time for mini-golf (always!) at Beaver Creek and the coolest bowling alley ever (yes, the coolest!)


 


We rode the gondola to the top of the mountain in Aspen and Vail and in Vail we played the disc golf course at the top of the mountain … a thrilling view and bit of a challenge for me to stay upright as I went sliding around the dry ski slopes.


 


We rented bikes one day and I learned a valuable lesson … when you go cruising down a really big hill … you later have to go up that hill to return the bike back to the rental place … Lance Armstrong’s Tour de France record is safe for now.


 


We also just spent time at the condo rental … using the racquetball court, pool and even the chess set in the rec room. My 16-year-old took much delight in finding various ways to defeat me in chess. Since I was on vacation and trying to relax, I didn’t swipe the pieces off the table upon defeat … though, mind you, I surely wanted to!


 


It won’t be long before my oldest is off planning his own family vacations so we are sort of counting down these family vacations and trying to make the most of them. Next year we have even set up a trip to Cancun in the summer … ah, I can taste the chimichangas now …

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