Dunbar’s Lawrence Smith Named Ravens High School Coach of the Week

Lawrence Smith, head coach of the Dunbar High School (Baltimore, Md.) varsity football team, has been named Ravens High School Coach of the Week for the first week of the 2007 season. Presented by Toyota, this is the eleventh year of the Ravens’ award program.

Smith earned the honor after his Poets defeated Gwynn Park (Brandywine, Md.) with a 27-6 rout on Saturday (9/8) afternoon at Poly. The second game of the day’s tripleheader at Lumsden-Scott Stadium proved to be a match of two top Maryland teams.

The defending Class 1A State Champions played well on both sides of the ball as Poets QB Jonathan Perry went 7-of-20 for 115 yards, adding 3 TDs (2 passing, 1 rushing), and Dunbar’s defense forced 5 turnovers.

Up 7-6 at halftime, the Poets held the Yellow Jackets scoreless through the rest of the game and put up 20 unanswered points. Dunbar’s Tavon Austin, the 2006 All-Metro Offensive Player of the Year, ran for 135 yards on 22 carries, with 2 TDs. Austin, a Nike Underclassmen All-American, one of only 24 in the nation, received high praises from his coach.

“Tavon stepped up,” Smith noted. “He’d been named a Nike All-American, and he had a big game against the No. 6 team in Maryland.”

The game was filled with emotion, with the loss of Ben Eaton less than two weeks prior. Eaton, who passed suddenly at age 58, was the former head coach at Dunbar who led the Poets to two state championships during his 10-year head coaching tenure.

“Our expectation is to take it one game a time,” Smith followed, regarding his team’s efforts to defend their title. “We need to cut down on penalties. We want to take the city championship, and then take our fifth regional title. Then, we want to capture the state championship.”

He added, “Our whole season is dedicated in honor of Coach Eaton.”

The former offensive/defensive line coach at Dunbar earned his first Ravens High School Coach of the Week honor. He is in his first year as head coach at Dunbar and in his eighth year coaching overall.

Each week during the season, the Ravens honor a high school coach who has made a significant impact on his athletes. Each of the season’s weekly winners will be present at a December Ravens game, for the naming of the Ravens’ High School Coach of the Year.