Scout.com > Football Recruiting 2009 Crab Bowl Coaches Announced Story URL: http://recruiting.scout.com/2/838305.html Matt Alkire SuperPrep.com Feb 10, 2009 Last year Chuck Harmon and Sean O’Connor put together the first annual Maryland Crab Bowl and it was an enormous success, bringing together a ridiculous amount of talent onto one field and also quickly becoming one of the state’s premier high school sporting events. This week the coaches for this year’s game were selected and Scout.com has the names. Putting into words doesn’t really do justice to the talent that was on the field at Towson Stadium this past December for the Maryland Crab Bowl, so a simple statistic should tell fans all they need to know when asking themselves how important this game is. Out of the 84 players that participated in last year’s game, 69 have signed letters of intent to play college football and 20 of those 69 players didn’t receive their first scholarship offer until they played in the game. For those players in-state wondering how to really make their chances of playing at the next level skyrocket, the Crab Bowl seems to be the answer. Maryland and Penn State led the way on last year’s Crab Bowl roster as the two schools combined had 15 players represented. The Terrapins had Caleb Porzel, DeOnte Arnett, David Stinebaugh, Lorne Goree, Pete DeSouza, Travis Hawkins, Eric Franklin, Isaiah Ross and Marcus Whitfield and the Nittany Lions had Devon Smith, Sean Stanley, Darrell Givens, Malcolm Willis, Derrick Thomas and Brandon Felder. Last year will be tough to top for Harmon and O’Connor, but today they contacted Scout.com to let us know who would be coaching the teams next year and they have already taken one step in doing so by bringing one of Maryland’s greatest high school coaches out of retirement and snagging one of current best in the state as well. “Our Washington, D.C., team will be coached by Al Thomas this year and our Baltimore team will be coached by Rick Conner of Lingonore High School,” Harmon said. “It will be great to have a rematch of the Class AAAA coaches from the Maryland State Championship game last year.” “Coach Conner is a defensive genius and was the architect behind Urbana High School’s success in the late 90’s,” Harmon stated. “His Lingonore team is definitely the one to beat in Class AAA this year and we’re excited because Coach Conner will definitely add a lot to the mix with his coaching style.” “We’re ecstatic to have the legendary coach Al Thomas to coach in this game as well as Al has been a central force in Maryland High School football for decades,” Harmon explained. “It’s an absolute honor to have him come out of retirement to come out and coach in this game. He was extremely successful in his time coaching, posting a 232-47 career record and won eight state championships while coaching at three different schools which puts him at the top for most state championships in Maryland history.” Thomas indeed did win eight state championships over the years. He won his first as coach of Seneca Valley High School in 1976 and then went on to win four more at the school in 1977, 1979, 1980 and 1987. He then won two at Damascus High School in 1992 and 1993 and finished off his career winning the Class AAAA title last season with Sherwood High School. Those looking to learn more about the Crab Bowl can visit their site at www.marylandcrabbowl.com where updates will be constant. Scout.com will be at the game in full-force this year again. Copyright © Scout.com and SuperPrep.com