Coachspeak: Catonsville football coach Rich Hambor
Catonsville's football team got off to a hot start last weekend, using a big second half to beat MIAA B Conference contender Boys’ Latin, 27-6. That sets veteran coach Rich Hambor’s Comets up for a tough five-game stretch in Baltimore County’s 4A-3A Division, beginning with Perry Hall at home Friday night.
The Comets have reached the regional playoffs four times in Hambor’s eight years as coach, including last fall when they fell to North Harford, 15-6, in the Class 3A North region semifinal to complete a 7-4 season. This season, for the first time in Hambor's tenure, the Comets move up to Class 4A North with some new foes, including Baltimore City’s Poly, Carroll County’s Westminster and Montgomery County’s Sherwood.
An Ohio native, Hambor has been at Catonsville for 15 years and was the offensive coordinator before taking over as head coach eight years ago. He was an assistant coach at Randallstown for three years before that.
As this week’s football Coachspeak guest, we asked Hambor to answer five questions about his team, this season and Mother Nature.
What were some of the highlights of the win over Boys’ Latin and how big a win was that to open the season?
We really like to try to get that first win. It really gets the whole school year off on a good note. I think the highlight of that night was that it was a 7-6 game at halftime -- we had a turnover inside our own five yard-line to give them that touchdown -- and that at halftime our guys were believing in the system and they felt like, "We’re just going to play these whole four quarters and things are going to work out.” We scored 20 points in the fourth quarter which is just a matter of continuing to do what we do and not really making any adjustments, just having faith in the system. We’ve always been a pretty heavily run-oriented team and we mix in the pass occasionally. Our philosophy is go three or four yards at a time and drive down the field and hopefully if we get a 10- or 15-yard play here or there, it will help us out and that’s what we did against Boys’ Latin. We had a couple big plays, but for the most part were we trying to get some sustained drives.
How has your Baltimore County league schedule changed this season?
Last year, even though we were a 3A school, the county placed us in a 2A-3A league. We played half the 3As and some of the 2As. We’re still playing Eastern Tech, Franklin and Towson, but we’re picking up Hereford again after a couple years off, we’re picking up a Perry Hall, always top teams in the county and you can throw Milford and Woodlawn in the mix as well. We have as tough a five, six-game opening stretch as you can get. We have Perry Hall [Friday] then we go Woodlawn, Franklin, Hereford, Eastern Tech. No breaks anywhere on the schedule, but everybody’s playing the same schedule. It’s gong to be a meat grinder. Hopefully, we get a couple teams into the playoffs out of this conference.
Is the Baltimore County getting stronger with that 4A/3A Division and who are the teams you see contending in the “meat grinder?”
I think it’s stronger top to bottom. You look at Western Tech last year. They were 11-1, 10-0 regular season at the 1A level. Eastern Tech was in the 2A playoffs and contended for a state championship. Franklin was in the state (Class 3A) final. I think we’re so much better than we were when I got here 18 years ago, it’s amazing. In our 3A-4A league this year, I don’t see how you can count against a team like Eastern that was there last year. Franklin was in the state finals and regardless of who they lost, if you’re coming off a state finalist season, you have to bea contender to win the county at least. I would say Perry Hall, because Perry Hall has given us fits for 10 years. And Hereford. Hereford’s the best program in the county.
What’s the difference between making a run for the regional playoffs in Class 4A now as opposed to Class 3A?
Now we’ve got some teams we haven’t been in a region with before. We’ve got teams like Sherwood and Westminster that we’ve never had to worry about playoffs-wise, so we’re just doing a little more keeping our eyes on that part of the state. If we get to Week 7 and 8, maybe having to go scout a few of their games which we haven’t had to do before. We’re moving away from the Harford County opponents, the C. Milton Wrights, North Harfords. In the county now it’s going to be kind of a weird situation. We’re competing now with Kenwood, Dulaney, Perry Hall and us. We’re the only 4As in the county, so we’re not in that playoff mix with Franklin, Hereford, Eastern Tech anymore. I wouldn’t be surprised if a team in our region maybe could get in at 7-3 where I don’t think that’s going to happen in 3A (North). Being in that (county) conference, we could conceivably come in behind a team in the conference, but make the playoffs in our region depending on how things shake out statewide. It’s a little bit different approach.
Montgomery County teams in your 4A North region like Sherwood and Springbrook play almost all 4A competition, so aren’t they at an advantage with points, because you play mostly 3As?
They are at an advantage. They’re going to gain those win points right off the bat. If they beat a 4A and we beat a 3A, they get the advantage. Dulaney, which is a 4A county school, they play a 2A schedule this year. They moved down, so that’s a 4A team we’re not going to get to play. But we have to beat the teams we’re going to play. There’s only X amount of points to be had and we have to get what we can get.
Bonus Question: Have you ever experienced a season where the first month was so disrupted by Mother Nature?
I’ve been playing football since I was eight years old. That’s since 1979, and I don’t remember August and September being like this. I’m sure there are people that do. Growing up in Ohio, we have our share of terrible weather in November, but not this early. Then again, everyone’s in the same boat. One thing I told the kids last week, we opted to play our game against BL. They were more than willing to change if we wanted to, but my philosophy was we’ve been preparing for that game since we lost to North Harford. We’ve been getting ready since last November. The fact that we missed two days out of those almost 10 months wasn’t really going to affect us That’s how we approached the game. That’s how we’ll approach [Friday] if we can’t get outside [Thursday]. We actually went outside on Tuesday, but we have advantage, because we have a turf field. Even in a downpour, we can go out and use the lines and work a little bit where we wouldn’t be able to do that if we had to go on grass.
