Archbishop Spalding’s Football Foundation Was Built By Former Severna Park Resident

Archbishop Spalding has one of the top football teams in the mid-Atlantic area and has sent several players to Power Five collegiate football programs such as Penn State, Virginia Tech, Navy and Maryland. One former player, Julius Chestnut, is an NFL running back with the Tennessee Titans.

But it was Severna Park’s Mike Whittles, who was the coach of the Green Hornets 120-pound team, who approached Spalding’s then athletic director Lee Dove about coaching at Spalding. During the interview with Dove, Whittles discussed his 20-year plan for building a program that has since won numerous Maryland Interscholastic Athletic Association (MIAA) championships.

“Mike approached me during one of our games and wanted to talk about coaching our football team,” Dove said. “He was confident, had a sense of warmth and understood young men, and thought he could build a successful program.”

Whittles started coaching the Cavaliers in 1999 and went through some growing pains but slowly found better players to come to Spalding.

In the early years of Whittles’ reign, Spalding did not have a large roster, their field was a blend of grass and dirt, and the school had limited seating for students and parents.

“I remember the field had a shed next to it and that is where the ‘weight room’ had an assortment of ‘hand-me-down’ free weights and a bench press,” said Nick Whittles, who is the youngest child of the Whittles family and played for Spalding from 2006 to 2010. “My dad had 15 to 18 guys on the team back then.”

Mike Whittles’ connection with the Green Hornets organization and other youth football coaches started to pay huge dividends and saw the roster increase in size and talent.

Spalding moved into the MIAA B Conference and won the B Conference championships in 2005, 2006, 2009 and 2010.

Whittles’ 20-year plan had the Cavaliers competing in the prestigious A Conference, which had Baltimore-area powerhouses Gilman and McDonogh as well as all the major Catholic high schools in Baltimore.

After the 2010 football season, the Cavaliers made that leap of faith and joined the A Conference.

Whittles’ plan was achieved, but he received some devastating news that same year: he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.

“My dad was told he had five months to live but lasted 17 months,” Nick Whittles said.

The players dedicated that 2011 season to Mike Whittles, even having the bus that was taking the team to play Calvert Hall stop at Johns Hopkins Hospital to visit their beloved coach as he received chemotherapy treatment.

Whittles was more than Spalding’s football coach; he was a father figure to his players. His memorable pregame speeches and his fun-loving personality galvanized his players.

One game against St. Mary’s, which was played in a torrential rainstorm, the Cavaliers were victorious after a late fourth–quarter touchdown. Whittles was so ecstatic after the game, he did mud slides with his team at the 50-yard line.

Whittles did more than coach football. He also taught life lessons every day. He would encourage his players to ask their parents how their day went and to call their grandparents.

“My dad always emphasized how to act off of the field,” said Nick Whittles. “He always taught respect for others, being polite and it was always “no sir,’ ‘yes sir.’ He was everyone’s dad. He loved every single player.”

One of Whittles’ main assistants, Brian Probst, became the interim head coach in 2012 after Whittles died. The athletic director (AD) at the time, Jeff Parsons, wanted to make a change and hired a rising star, Kyle Schmitt, out of Howard County. Schmitt took over the program in 2013.

Schmitt, who played offensive guard and center at Maryland and had great success at Atholton High School, impressed Parsons with his thoughts for the program and how he was going to achieve them. Schmitt wanted a year-round strength and conditioning program, and with Spalding’s outstanding new football stadium, he knew it was a program that was on the rise.

Schmitt’s first few years provided numerous lessons in playing the “big boys” of the A Conference.

“I will always remember we lost to Gilman 69-40 one year and I knew I had to recruit bigger, faster and stronger players as well as get talented quarterbacks to compete in the A Conference,” Schmitt said.

He vigorously went to work and gathered outstanding assistant coaches who had strong roots in the region from Prince George’s and Howard counties as well as local youth football leagues. Part of Schmitt’s recruitment strategy is to have area eighth-graders visit Spalding’s campus on game nights and witness the atmosphere of the football stadium, which is named after Mike Whittles.

As much as Schmitt gathered talented football players, he reinforced what Whittles stood for in a football program: respect and hardworking, dedicated players who represent the school in the community.

“We select players who will be good teammates,” Schmitt said. “Good people have strong values.”

Spalding has won two consecutive A Conference titles and is ranked 85th in the country by MaxPreps’ preseason list for this year.

The program has also had three players commit to the University of Maryland over the summer, including star quarterback Malik Washington.

Schmitt continuously states that the foundation of the program was built by Mike Whittles, the assistant coaches and dedicated players.

“I tell the players all the time that they are standing on the shoulders of so many great players and coaches, especially coach Whittles who had the vision of getting Spalding to compete in the A Conference,” he said.

Nick Whittles was proud to play for his dad, and he adheres to his dad’s motto of “make every day count.” Nick Whittles also became a father for the first time in July and named his son Michael Whittles II.