There’s a dingy little weight room at DuVal High School on Good Luck Road in Lanham. A converted shower, the dimly lit chamber contains a modest collection of old exercise equipment and it’s said to reek of sweat most of the time.
But this is the original home of The Stable, where unheralded high school athletes have been known to grow into thoroughbreds.
And for the Terrapin football team, it’s a location that generated a pair of starting safeties.
When the original six members of a group that named itself The Stable began putting in extra hours at the gym, there was no precedent for success at DuVal. The football program wasn’t a hotbed for major collegiate talent, and group members Madieu Williams and Milton Harris had no reason to think they’d ever be starting at an ACC school.
“I think we definitely tend to get overlooked a lot just because we went to DuVal,” said Harris, now the Terps’ starting strong safety. “We were in between two [Maryland] 4A schools and we didn’t get the number of players they got.”
But this past Friday morning, Harris was on his cell phone anxious to talk about an upcoming Homecoming game against Virginia, and former Terp safety Williams was sitting on the other end of the line preparing for practice in the Cincinnati Bengals’ locker room.
Like the DuVal gym where The Stable originated, the catalyst for all its success was far more influential than his description would suggest.
Upon meeting the high school’s assistant football and track coach, Henry Brady, The Stable members didn’t initially take a liking to him. Brady, a former DuVal star, wasn’t bashful about sharing his knowledge of how to prepare, and many of his proteges are now thankful for that.
Brady introduced a regimen heavy in plyometric exercises that were specific to each player’s position on the field. He would attend workout conferences in his spare time and had his players ahead of opponents at other schools.
But the 35-year-old who works at Target influenced more than these players’ muscles.
“He took each and every one of us under his wings,” Williams said. “It went beyond coaching. He was more like a father figure. He was very instrumental in my development as a person.”
Brady often drove Williams to practice when the teenager’s mother was at work and made sure to talk to the other members of The Stable when they were having problems.
He also made sure Harris – “the baby of the group” according to Williams – didn’t slack off. And Brady was the one who forced Harris to swallow his ego and give up his crusade to play running back in order to concentrate on being a better defensive back.
As a form of payback for his support, Williams, Harris and several of Brady’s former players return to his gym every summer to work out with his current high school team. Brady is now an assistant at Charles Herbert Flowers High in Springdale, and The Stable – now much larger in membership – always makes its way back to his school for workouts and occasional seven-on-seven scrimmages.
“They’re just a fun group of kids to be around,” Brady said. “What I’m proud of is that their heads don’t get big. They show the younger kids that you can work out and have fun at the same time.”
Initially there was no reason to believe The Stable would produce players with reason to carry an ego.
Aside from Brady and The Stable members, not many people were high on Williams’ talents coming out of DuVal. Brady said the fierce-hitting defensive back would have received several Division I offers if he had gotten more exposure during his high school career.
But in 1999, Williams wound up at Towson, where he played for two years before transferring to the Terps. After redshirting one season, Williams earned a starting job and built up an NFL-worthy resume with 163 tackles and seven interceptions over a two-year span.
Williams – who the Stablemates call the “test dummy” because he led the way – is now starting at free safety in his second season with the Bengals and had a chance to play in front of his friends twice last season when the team visited Baltimore and Washington.
Similarly, Harris wasn’t thought of as much of a prospect when he graduated in 2000 and wound up at Delaware State. He admittedly wasn’t happy with that program’s “downfall” but he planned to ride it out.
Then one summer day when Harris was back in town working out with Brady, Williams approached him about joining the Terps.
“Madieu was just telling me about athletes on Maryland and that I could play with them,” Harris said. “I wasn’t even really thinking about it, but he told me I should transfer. I checked into it over the summertime and the opportunity was there.”
Terp coach Ralph Friedgen spoke last week about how much Harris has grown through his first two and a half years in the program. The Terp coach realized he had another player similar to Williams, and he actually thought the two were cousins because of their special bond.
Williams said he checked in with Terp linebacker D’Qwell Jackson a few weeks ago and said he was proud to hear that Harris has developed into a leader as a senior.
Cornerback Josh Wilson also sees a similarity in how both Williams and Harris have the ability to motivate teammates with their hard-hitting play and even their swagger.
“I see a lot of Madieu [in Harris], especially when he makes a play and decides he wants to dance,” Wilson said with a chuckle. “I don’t know where they learned to dance, but it’s terrible. It’s like a little chest bump. It kind of looks like the Macarena or something.”
The original six members of The Stable still hang out, often just watching football, shooting hoops or going to a local T.G.I. Friday’s restaurant. But the most fun they have together is training with Brady.
Caleb Cranke, one of the original Stable members, is now a graduate assistant at Bowie State and often calls Brady for advice to pass on to his players.
“He’s very critical,” Cranke said. “A lot of times you can’t get that from your college coaches because they have a handful of people to deal with.”
But Brady has built up a healthy legion of followers, who pack his gym on certain summer afternoons.
Brady doesn’t seek praise for the success of his pupils, but once he gets started talking about his old ponies, he’s like a rumbling stallion impossible to halt.
He seemingly has a knowledge base of every significant high school player in Prince George’s County, and he could probably give each of them individual advice about how to reach their maximum potential.
People have suggested Brady open his own fitness facility, but he said he doesn’t have any interest in turning a profit for his tutelage.
“He remembers us all running around as boys,” Harris said. “To be able to teach us and see us grow, that’s his reward, not getting the recognition and stuff that other coaches get. He’s the type of guy that he likes to stay under the scenes and get the talent at the high school level before they go to college and get all changed. He likes to create and send you off.”
While Williams, Harris and their comrades set the standard for The Stable’s legacy, its reputation is undoubtedly continuing to bloom. Former Eleanor Roosevelt High School wide receiver Derrick Williams (no relation) has been training with Brady and The Stable since he was in middle school, developing into the high school player of the year last season according to popular recruiting site Rivals.com.
He began his collegiate career at Penn State this fall and is already starting at wide receiver.
“Normal kids his age were going to the movies or hanging out with their friends, but he was doing routes and working on his backpedal and getting schooled by the older guys,” Harris said. “That’s why we call it The Stable, because we’ve got the top thoroughbreds.”
TERP NOTES: D’Qwell Jackson missed practice yesterday after spraining his leg Tuesday. Friedgen said he is “probable” for Saturday’s game.
Contact reporter David Selig at dseligdbk@gmail.com.
