Year in, year out, when you played the Wildecats, you faced a clean, hard-hitting, disciplined bunch who understood the mission DuVall preached with clarity and showed by example.

Prepare harder than your opponent, don’t beat yourself and demand much of yourself.

Then, watch the wins follow, and use that model of success to guide you in the real world.

At 61, DuVall still is the same, jovial, youthful, plain-talking guy I was fortunate to cover during Wilde Lake’s incredible four-year run. From 1989 to 1992, the Wildecats went 52-2, won three state championships, sported a 29-game winning streak and sent a half-dozen players to elite, Division I colleges.

Just like the Wilde Lake team that is gunning for the school’s sixth state crown against Class 3A finalist Westlake tonight at M&T Bank Stadium, those Wildecats had a maturity and toughness about them you admired. They ran the ball relentlessly, blocked and tackled efficiently and boasted superior line play that no doubt was a reflection of DuVall, still an offensive line coach at heart.

And now, time officially has caught up with the coach who has patrolled the sidelines for the green and gold in those shorts he has worn superstitiously — freezing weather be damned — since 1985. After announcing earlier this fall that he is retiring at season’s end, DuVall finally will graduate, tradition established and intact.

“I can’t imagine what it will feel like next September putting the headset on for the first game and not having him around,” said Mike Harrison, 45, a 1982 Wilde Lake graduate who will succeed DuVall after playing for him, then coaching under him for 21 years.

“I’ve been around Doug my entire life since I was 14-years-old. I’ve spent more time with him than I have with my father since I was 18. He’s gone from being like a father, to an uncle, to a brother or just a good friend to me. He was always able to get people to want to be around him and work toward a vision he had.”

DuVall coached football with simplicity and sophistication.

The Wildecats run a double-wing offense, but it’s just a variation of the old wishbone they ravaged opponents with for years, all of which have added up to 19 county championships and 10 regional titles.

DuVall could have done this at the collegiate level. And he has been tempted. He spent a year at the University of Maryland on sabbatical in the early 1980s with then-coach Bobby Ross, whose staff included a line coach named Ralph Friedgen.

He learned invaluable stuff that year — how to scout opponents more efficiently, cultivate a staff and delegate authority, break down videotape, game plan and augment a playbook.

When Friedgen got the Maryland job eight years ago, one of his first calls went to DuVall. The Fridge wasn’t sure where to put him, but he wanted DuVall on his staff. By then, DuVall was 28 years into his teaching career at Wilde Lake, and his job and financial security told him to stay put.

And the loss of two good friends in recent years gave DuVall the nudge to move on. Several years ago, his former defensive coordinator and later a rival at Glenelg High, Ed Ashwell, died suddenly and too young. Then, 15 months ago, Dunbar coach Ben Eaton passed away.

“To be able to bring this to an end on my own choice is a good thing,” said DuVall, who is just starting to breathe in the tradition he created in his own special slice of the world. “I just think about all of the people who were a part of it, all of the players and coaches and just good people. It’s like when you’re building a house, you just want to put one nail in after the other. Then, you’re done and look at it and say, ‘Holy Cow!’”

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