Playoff Snub Won't Deter Owings Mills Football

Following Saturday afternoon’s 36-6 loss at , Owings Mills coach Steve Lurz boarded the bus to find his players desperately wanting to know their postseason fate.

Lurz didn’t have an answer for them, but advised that, right away, they become big fans of Kenwood and Loch Raven.

A win over the Titans would have sealed the Eagles' spot in the 2A North Playoffs, but back-to-back losses to cap off the season meant needed a win from either of the aforementioned teams to beat out Dundalk—tied with Owings Mills at 5-5—for the fourth and final seed in the region.

After controlling their own destiny, the Eagles were relegated to scoreboard watching.

Lurz sent his players a disheartening text the next morning: neither Kenwood nor Loch Raven cooperated.

“It’s one of those things where, had we taken care of business in another game, or that game, it was in our own hands,” Lurz said.

Now, the Eagles must sit home while other schools are invited to the playoffs.

For a team that’s made huge strides from past years and held down second place in the standings for most of 2011, shaking off the disappointment won't be easy.

“We were kind of a little hurt,” said junior quarterback Shane Gaines, upon learning the Eagles’ misfortune.

“We had seen a lot of things about us going to the playoffs. In Patch we were going to the playoffs, on the [Baltimore] Sun we were going to the playoffs, the MPSSAA said we were going to the playoffs.

"Then, we heard after the New Town game that we needed a couple teams to win, so we’re all on edge checking up on if the teams we needed to win were winning or not.”  

A mostly junior-laden team, Gaines felt especially for the seniors who were deprived of suiting up for one last time.

“Most of the seniors are like brothers to me,” Gaines said. “I worked with them all offseason, and we knew that with the seniors and juniors that were on the team, that if we could have a great year, this would be our year and it didn’t work out that way.”

While missing out on the playoffs will be the prevailing negative, Lurz and his players have plenty of positives to take out of this season.

In addition to factoring into the playoff picture all year, Owings Mills earned a record of at least .500 for the first time in 2003.

The Eagles also produced dominating shutout wins over Loch Raven, Patapsco, and Lansdowne, and were a blocked punt away from taking now unbeaten Overlea (10-0) to overtime.  

A previous stretch of 50 losses in a row is long behind them, and although the Eagles lose a few talented seniors, such as De’Ante Keene, Quran Briggs and Darius Carroll (just to name a few), they are expecting to keep making measured improvements year in and year out.

“I felt as though we were going to have a great season, but at the same time I knew that we were coming up from being a bottom-half program,” Gaines said. “I feel that we’re progressing.”

The common denominator has been Lurz. Since his arrival, the Eagles have added a win to their regular season record each year, going 3-6 in 2009 and 4-6 in 2010 before this year’s 5-5 campaign.

And, he’s teaching a lot more than just X’s and O’s.  

Said Gaines: “He’s brought a lot of discipline to the program, and a lot of little things like making us become more brothers than just a team."