6 Maryland high school football storylines to watch in 2024

As the season begins this week, here are some of the exciting narratives in Maryland high school football in 2024. 
 
DaLawn Parrish getting a fresh start at Westlake 
 
Now at Westlake, DaLawn Parrish yeilds a new program that already had one of the most successful runs in the history of Maryland state public high school football at Henry A. Wise. 
 
Parrish was 179-95 with six Class 4A state championships in 18 seasons at Wise, including this year’s title. He resigned in February to take up the coaching post at Westlake, close to his residence in Charles County (Maryland). 
 
Parrish who began the Wise program in 2006 takes over a Westlake program that was 6-6 last year with almost all juniors. 
 
“Well, yes there is a lot of talent in the SMAC and people from the community do get engage,” stated Parrish whose two kids are in Westlake and the wife is an alumnus of the school. “From this and the fact that everybody I met expressed a positive attitude towards Westlake and its athletic programs you could tell that athletics at Westlake has a great tradition and it is not only limited to football. ” 
 
Parrish will play road games at Northern-Calvert the first year at Westlake, the 2021 Class 3A champions and also, Calvert, who were the 2A/1A state finalists of 2023 and Huntingtown, the 2A state finalists in the same year. 
 
With Rapp’s appointment as the new president, Wise Organisation enters a new phase of its development. 
 
With Parrish on the Westlake side of town, Steve Rapp is the bench boss for what has become a powerhouse program at the 4A school in Prince George’s County, Maryland. Rapp was employed by the Pumas as an attendant to the 2013 season then had his advancements to be the leading firefighting officer of the Pumas. 
 
Rapp, who has played in five of the organisation’s titles, is well aware that the pressure is still on. 
 
“Pressure is man-made. It’s only about us all the time,” said Rapp. There is more power in mastering us than in even mastering the situation. ” 
 
Wise will again be a title favorite in Class 4A, thanks to University of Oklahoma commit Trent Wilson (defensive end) as well as one of the best two-way players in DeCarlos Young (Temple) who is both a running back and a linebacker. 
 
The SMAC (Southern Maryland Athletic Conference) speaks 
 
Since Parrish was appointed to head a Westlake program, which now possesses state championship genes (won 3A state title in 2008), SMAC might very well be the greatest public league in Maryland. 
 
In the previous year, Calvert from the 2A/1A region, Huntingtown from the 2A region and North Point from the 4A/3A region participated in state championships. Both North Point and Patuxent ended up undefeated in 2022; North Point took the 4A/3A championship and Patuxent challenged the defending state champion Dunbar in fourth quarter in the 2A/1A title match. Northern-Calvert was the winner of the 3A championship played in the year 2021. 
 
Since the state football playoffs have been enlarged to six classifications in the current 2021 season, seven SMA clubs have attained state quarterfinals. 
 
MIAA makeover 
 
The following changes will come into effect of the Maryland Interscholastic Athletic Association which is the largest private high school athletic league in the state this season: 
 
From the B, two teams are to join A Conference: Concordia Prep and St. Mary’s The latter clinched three A titles in the course of the last six full seasons, in 2022, 2018, and 2017, while the former earned B titles in 2023 and 2021. 
 
The schools will include Calvert Hall, Gilman School, Loyola Blakefield, McDonogh School, Mount St. Joseph and Archbishop Spalding; of the aforesaid schools A Spalding has been the A championships winner for the last two years. 
 
The B Conference will also have eight teams as St. Vincent Pallotti, who competed in the A for the last three seasons, drops down to the B Standard After refusing to be promoted to the A, two-time consecutive champions of the now-defunct C Standard Severn School will play in the B Standard as well as St. John’s Catholic Prep. 
 
The remaining B field is made up of Archbishop Curley, Boys’ Latin School, John Carroll School, Our Lady of Mount Carmel and St. Paul’s School. 
 
The Annapolis Area Christian School was a member institution in the C Conference but will participate in an independent schedule in 2024. St. Frances, another member of MIAA has been playing as a national independent schedule since the season of the 2019. 
 
With senior quarterback Malik Washington returning, Spalding will attempt at the first three-peat in A play since St. Frances in 2018. Washington, who will play for the University of Maryland, is unbeaten as a starting quarterback in league games (16-0; including the playoffs). 
 
The B Conference race in 2024 seems to be very open. John Carroll made the championship game last year and Curley has the potential league’s best player in two-way lineman Skylar Harvey who has turned down Syracuse. Pallotti should be a factor in its return after taking lumps in the A (1-17). 
 
Yet again, St. Francis is on the road. 
 
In 2024, St. Frances will have to gather more of frequent flier miles. SBLive/Sports Illustrated national No. 14 ranked Panthers will be traveling more than 18K miles through seven states where they will require two trips to California. 
 
St. Frances will get Orange Lutheran and consensus national no. 1 Mater Dei on September 6th and 20th respectively. The Panthers travel to Dallas for a nationally televised game with Duncanville (Texas ) on September 14. 

The 310-student Baltimore City private school will go on the road for the first ten games including to Florida, Indiana and New Jersey. The Panthers, who do not have a field on the campus, kick-off their first ‘home’ game on 1st November against IMG Academy from Florida at the Morgan State University. 
 
Last year, St. Frances logged 7,500-plus miles during the season; the team played games in such states as California, Florida, Georgia, and Utah. The Panthers participated in Florida, Hawaii, Ohio, South Carolina and Texas states in the 2022 season. 
 
If the team at St. Frances is able to overcome its difficult road schedule then this team would very much have a good claim of being the country’s number one team. 
 
Being a history geek at Fort Hill and Dunbar 
 
Fort Hill and Dunbar, two of the state’s most successful public programs, hope to soar to the elite of academic air in 2024. Both schools will try to take the fourth state championship in succession. 
 
The Sentinels, who have now captured seven of the past nine Class I A championships, reeled off four straight from 2013 through 2016 to tie with Urbana for the only programs to do so consecutively. Western Maryland school has a record of 39-1 in the last three seasons. 
 
The Poets will begin the year with the longest active winning streak of any team in the state at 38. The Baltimore City program said it won its 13th state title, earning the 2A/1A title last year. 
 
Dunbar and Fort Hill are scheduled to tussle Sept. 13 on the campus of Morgan State University.