Stephen Crounse, a Maryland football coach, will be inducted into the Maryland Football Coaches Association Hall of Fame on Saturday, April 29th at Gossett Field House. Crounse began coaching football in Maryland in 2002 as the head coach of the Patuxent Panthers.
After uprooting his family to Lusby, Maryland, Crounse rebuilt and reunited the team that had suffered a devastating one-point loss in the state championship the year before. He immediately built a connection with the community and preached that the players would work together as one team with one goal to bring a state championship to the Lusby community.
Over the years, Crounse won multiple Southern Maryland Athletic Conference Championships and had playoff appearances, but the championship had eluded him. This did not slow him down for a minute but instead fed his hunger to help the sons of Lusby to reach the pinnacle of high school football.
In 2015, Crounse led his team to the State Championship victory with his middle son, Reese, now quarterbacking the team. Crounse shocked the world and led his team to the goal they had set out for in 2002. Two years later, he would take an opportunity to become the Northern High School Head Football Coach.
Crounse brought his mindset of fighting for your brother that stands next to you to the Patriots and found immediate success. After a few years at the helm of Northern High, he became the Offensive Coordinator at WCAC powerhouse DeMatha. In 2022, the Patuxent High Head Coaching position opened up, and Crounse called it the easiest decision he ever made to come back.
Crounse is not just about winning championships. He uses football as an avenue to create men out of boys. He has been a mentor to so many players and also coaches. That is why he still has some of his original 2002 Assistant Coaches and his son on his staff. Crounse once again took his team to the state championship in his first year back. They fell to repeat champion Dunbar but this part of the story is unfinished.
Crounse’s coach success and commitment to his players earned him a spot in the Maryland Football Coaches Association Hall of Fame.