Seneca Valley: Calm, Cool and Collected
Max Nicholson, Kenneth Duhaney, Brandon Nassebeh and Gino Kennedy prepare for the coin toss against Kennedy.
Photo By: John Frank / GamedayMD.com | VIEW GALLERY
Seneca Valley head coach Fred Kim is pictured here with junior quarterback Max Nicholson.
Photo By: Raj Modak / GamedayMD.com | VIEW GALLERY
Written by: Marc Bastow
GERMANTOWN, MD - With one of the most important and competitive weekends of the Montgomery County football season kicking off this Friday night, it's difficult to determine exactly which game might be the "biggest" of the weekend.
For me, tomorrow night's game matching 5-2 Seneca Valley against 7-0 Quince Orchard is the most compelling, mostly because I am covering the game live and I had a chance to meet and speak with Seneca Valley head coach Fred Kim during the pre-season, which means before the Screamin' Eagles began 0-2.
I spoke with coach Kim again recently to discuss his team's turnaround heading into this critical contest, and as usual his demeanor and manner was calm, cool and collected, just like his team.
Seneca Valley is a young and inexperienced, with only one returning starter (inside linebacker Pierre Hinton), and eight returning rising seniors with varying degrees of playing time under their collective pads. What awaited this group to start the season was a brutal first two games, at Clarksburg and home against Churchill.
"Those games were a tough start for our young guys," said Kim. "We played well, but made a lot of mistakes and had to learn the hard way."
Indeed, they did play well, considering the mistakes, inexperience, and the quality of the opponents. Seneca lost to Clarksburg (6-1) on an interception return for a touchdown on the last play of the game, and lost a close game to Churchill, a veteran team now standing at 7-0.
For the Seneca Valley program, players and coaches alike, a 0-2 start was uncharted territory. The last Seneca Valley team with such a start was in 1979, and that team went on the win the State Championships.
For Coach Kim and his staff, the difficult start meant they had to get to work on both the physical and mental aspects of the game. From the mental standpoint, Kim told me "we (coaches) had to make sure we did not lose the team.
We had to make sure they knew that the season wasn't over, that they could come back to make the playoffs." Physically, the coaches turned up the intensity of the practices several notches, stressing fundamentals and especially stressing the need to play mistake-free football.
The one person on the team who perhaps had the biggest cross to bear from mistakes was junior-quarterback Max Nicholson, who threw the interception against Clarksburg, and was also picked off for a pick-six against Churchill.
In a sign of utmost respect, Nicholson was named as a team captain, the first junior chosen for the honor in the school's history. "Max has mental toughness and has rebounded completely from those losses," Kim said admiringly.
Nicholson has emerged as a leader, and his 138-yards passing effort in Seneca's third game win over Einstein started The Valley on their way back.
The critical game in the comeback came in Week Four against Damascus, a game coach Kim and his staff told their team was one that "has to be won at any cost." Led by Nicholson's solid 16-28-175 yards and one touchdown effort, Seneca beat the Swarmin' Hornets in overtime to even their record at 2-2.
According to Kim, "that was when we turned the corner." Seneca Valley has ripped off three more wins in a row heading into this weekend, and while Kim is in a good place with his team, he understands what is at stake over the remainder of the season, and how the schedule must play out.
As is stands today, Seneca Valley is in fifth place in the 3A West division, trailing Damascus by four points and Clarksburg by seven. After playing Quince Orchard on Friday, Seneca Valley hosts Whitman before finishing the season at Watkins Mill.
Kim is realistic about their situation. "First we have to beat Quince Orchard to prove to ourselves that we are contenders. Our mindset is that we have to win out in order to have a chance to make the playoffs." It is a tough road, but one that Seneca Valley's players and coaches have been on already this season.
Don't count them out.
