The varsity football team at Middletown High School’s three consecutive trips to the Maryland State Football Championship could hardly be considered luck. The team’s devotion to hard work, practice and relentlessness are just some of the factors that drive the team to success, all while being supported and encouraged by head coach Kevin Lynott.
Lynott is one of eight finalists for Maryland’s best coach in a contest organized by USA Today. If he wins the state contest, he can advance to the national Coach of the Year competition.
“… [The nomination is] all about our team, our program, and our great community. We have awesome community support from our students here, parents, and it’s unbelievable. I was overwhelmed that our program and our whole entire area’s being honored,” Lynott said.
Lynott began his coaching career at Brunswick High School, and stayed there for six to seven years before working at MHS as an assistant coach for about three years. He then returned to Brunswick for a first-time-head-coaching opportunity, but switched back to Middletown about six years ago.
“The reason I got into coaching is because I was influenced a lot by my coaches,” Lynott said. “I came from a very good high school in Virginia, and I played at a great college in West Virginia, at Shepherd University, and I was surrounded by great coaches, and I thought, ‘Hey, that’s a great way to give back and be a part of something positive,’ and so here I am right now.”
Despite the fact that he has coached at another school, Lynott is a vital part of the Middletown community. Not only does he coach at the high school, but he and his family also reside in nearby Myersville, the elementary and middle schools of which feed into MHS.
“Both experiences have been great… The difference at Middletown is I live in Myersville, I have four kids, my daughter graduated two years ago – she’s a Middletown graduate. I have three boys, they’re all through Middletown. We’re Middletown through and out,” he said.
Lynott’s background has molded him into the coach he is today, and he’s used the knowledge that he’s gained throughout his career to his advantage and to help the teams that he’s coached be as successful as possible. He has also used his experiences to develop plans and philosophies with the team off the field in order for them to do their best on the field.
“On Mondays, we meet in the classroom and the team creates goals for that particular week, and then we have game plans – an offense, defense, special teams – that’s put together with the coaches,” Lynott said.
“We have a saying on the team that we’re a ‘blue collar’ team,” he added, “and we firmly believe that. What we mean by ‘blue collar’ is that nothing is given to us, we have to work for everything, we don’t have a sense of entitlement or a sense that because things happened in the past they’re going to happen to us now.”
Although it’s clear that Coach Lynott instills in his players important lessons and values, it is also clear that his players inspire him in many ways.
“They’re constantly teaching me that, number one, this generation of young people is the best generation, and number two, a lot of things haven’t changed… They’re constantly giving me hope that our future’s going to be great because there’s hard-working people in this world,” he said.
Lynott sums up the team this year with one word: togetherness.
“And that’s the coolest thing,” he added, “is that everything we do, we do together, and we strive to keep together as a team.”
