As a young football coach looking to make an impact on players’ lives, Tyler Ward thinks he’s found the perfect spot.
Since graduating from Lehigh University, the 33-year-old has coached college and high school football in Georgia, Alabama and Pennsylvania. When a job at Calvert Hall College High School in Towson came open this past winter, Ward pounced on the opportunity.
“It’s an elite school,” Ward said of the Towson institution guided by the De La Salle Christian Brothers. “I wanted to be some place where everything was done at the highest level.”
Ward is among coaches at four area Catholic high schools who will be trying to get their new teams to the highest level.
In addition to Tyler Ward, Richard Holzer will take over at Loyola Blakefield in Towson; Rich Stichel Jr. at Archbishop Curley High School in Northeast Baltimore; and Josh Ward (not related to Tyler Ward) at Our Lady of Mount Carmel School in Essex.
When he was an assistant coach and recruiter at Lehigh and then Franklin & Marshall University, Ward got a firsthand glimpse of Calvert Hall’s program and the caliber of its students.
“The sky’s the limit,” said Ward, a father of a 15-month-old with another on the way, who also is assistant athletics director and assistant dean of students. “We’re going to focus on the culture and the details.
“You can’t just turn it on Friday nights,” the Charlottesville, Va., native said. “You have to do the little things right in the classroom and with everything else to truly be great. The first goal to winning is the mirror test. Calvert Hall has a great tradition with great athletes, and we’re going to try to be the best version of ourselves.”
The Cardinals and the rest of the Maryland Independent Athletic Association “A” Conference have a tough road ahead to get past three-time champion Archbishop Spalding.
That’s the ultimate goal for Holzer with the Loyola Dons as well.
Holzer is returning to the MIAA after four years at Northern High School where he led the Calvert County school to a 3A state championship in 2021. He previously compiled a 41-16 record in six seasons at Mount St. Joseph in Irvington, leading the Gaels to their first private school title since 1949.
This time, rejoining the MIAA is “personal” for Holzer, whose 13-year-old son, Luke, will enroll at Loyola this fall with plans for 10-year-old Rhett to follow.
“It’s special for us as a family,” said Holzer, who is a parishioner of Our Lady of Sorrows in West River along with his wife, Lauren. “It’s a little different this time around because of my sons. After moving around, this is a little personal for me. We chose the school for its culture and Jesuit environment. I get a chance to build the program around the Loyola values, knowing that my own kids will be coming through.
“I’m looking forward to continuing what Coach (Anthony) Zehyoue and Coach (Blake) Henry started the past few years and getting us back to the championship level that Loyola was under with Coach (Joe) Brune and Coach (Brian) Abbott,” said Holzer, who will also teach health education at Loyola. “We want to build this into a consistent winner year after year.”
Stichel, an educator for more than two decades, brings a veteran touch to Archbishop Curley. The McDaniel College graduate coached The John Carroll School in Bel Air to an MIAA B Conference title in 2012 and has had coaching positions at New Town, Loyola Blakefield and Calvert Hall.
A teacher at Stemmers Run Middle School in Essex, Stichel is returning to Curley after serving as an assistant coach there 2009-13. He looks forward to bringing some coaching stability to the program and emphasizing what he calls a “true brotherhood” at Curley.
“We want to consistently pursue championships while emphasizing what Curley is all about – faith, service, discipline and accountability,” Stichel said. “Curley has a strong tradition, especially with its alumni participation, and we want to make that a strong part of the program. We have a strong core of players returning and expect to have a great season.”
Josh Ward finds himself in a familiar situation at Mount Carmel. He spent the past four years at his alma mater Calvert Hall, helping the Cardinals to the 2021 A Conference title. Before that, though, he built the program at Concordia Prep in Towson into a program that annually contended for B Conference titles and eventually moved to the A Conference.
The parishioner of St. Ignatius in Hickory considered taking a year away from coaching to help his wife Megan raise their 3-year-old daughter and twin 7-month-old sons. However, the lure of coaching at a rising athletic program such as Mount Carmel, which just won its first Baltimore Catholic League basketball title, proved irresistible.
“As an alumnus, it broke my heart to leave Calvert Hall,” Josh Ward said. “The opportunity at Mount Carmel and the chance to build a program was so enticing. It’s a small community with a lot of history and a blue-collar approach.
“I think we can build a consistent winner in the B Conference,” said Ward, who will also serve as the school’s director of advancement. “As a former college coach (a West Virginia Wesleyan assistant), it’s about getting kids to the next level. That’s how I sell myself and the program; kids are going to get coached on all facets of life.”
Mark Modeste is beginning his third year at John Carroll, and he is a strong believer that new coaches can make a quick impact.
When he took over at John Carroll, the program had only 55 players in the entire program. Now there are more than 100 with 45 incoming freshmen players at the Harford County School.
The father of six and parishioner of St. Margaret in Bel Air makes prayer a part of every activity.
“I love working at a school like John Carroll that takes a faith-based approach and incorporates it in extra-curricular activities,” said Modeste, a native of California and former Catholic high school coach in Houston and San Francisco. “We try to teach the young people to love the game, preparedness, discipline and all of the underlying benefits. My job as a coach is to make your experience as a player a great one.
“We do things daily to build community and integrate the core values of our Catholic faith,” said Modeste, also John Carroll’s dean of students. “As the only Catholic high school in Harford County, we want to grow the program and let that take us wherever it goes.”
Email Gerry Jackson at gjackson@CatholicReview.org
