Parkdale defensive coordinator Todd Sommerville has taken over the football program at Laurel High. The 29-year-old was named head coach on February 7, giving him the opportunity to lead a team for the first time.

Sommerville succeeds Brian Moore, who went 6-24 in three seasons at Laurel. The Spartans won just one game last year and have just 23 victories (against 86 defeats) in the last 10 seasons.

Somerville immediately becomes one of the youngest head coaches in the state. He graduated from Franklin High in Baltimore in 1999 before going on to Catawba College in North Carolina. He played football all four years and earned a degree in physical education. Sommerville, however, didn't leave the Catawba campus after graduation. He spent the next two seasons as a graduate assistant, working with the offensive linemen and tight ends.

But then Sommerville decided to pursue a master's degree. He attended The Citadel for graduate school, where, in addition to his studies, he became the football team's video control manager.

After graduating in 2006, Sommerville was hired to be a physical education teacher and assistant football coach at Parkdale High. He spent the first season coaching special teams, linemen and linebackers before taking over as defensive coordinator in 2008. Sommerville's defenses gave up an average of 27 points per game, but they improved in each of his three seasons at Parkdale.

MdHigh Publisher Dave Lomonico recently spoke with Sommerville about his first head-coaching job at Laurel. A full transcript of their question-and-answer session can be found below.

It does. Being the head of a program and showing what you can do is always something a coach should aspire to do. It's a chance to see if your philosophies will work and if you're cut out to run a program.

I want our team to be known for being disciplined and relentless. We want to keep offenses out of the end zone and really get after it. We want to be as organized and prepared as we can possibly be.

At the same time, I want kids to have fun doing it all. If you're not having fun playing football, you won't be as successful as you can be.

We were out-manned a lot of times. My first year there we had a defensive line with no one above 190 pounds. I mean, I'm trying to get these guys to play against the mammoths at Wise and Roosevelt, and they just weren't that caliber of player.

But I will say this: All of my players played their hearts out. They all made plays and shut down certain teams at certain times. We as a coaching staff felt they went above and beyond where we actually thought they could have gotten.

So, based on that, I don't think you can really look at how many points we let up and judge me in that way. I don't think it hurts my reputation at all.

I'm a base 3-4 guy and everything else comes off of that. We can get into a 4-3, a 3-3 stack, and even a 4-2 look out of the base 3-4. I believe the 3-4 allows you to attack the ball and at the same time adjust to certain things the offense is trying to do to you.

Offensively, honestly, I'm up in the air. I don't know the Laurel kids' full potential yet. I will say I'm a spread guy who likes to stretch the field as much as possible. But at the same time if I get there and we don't have any skill guys, then we're going to adjust our offense accordingly. Offense is one area where you have to play it to your strengths.

I looked around at the Laurel youth leagues and I see a lot of positives in those teams. They have a lot of talent, a lot of athletic kids in that area.

The challenge is going to be, How do I get those kids excited about Laurel High School? And then, How do I get those excited kids to actually play football for Laurel High School? On top of that, you have to get the kids eligible to play. You can go out in the youth leagues and get all the talent, but you have to find ways to get the kids excited to keep their grades up and be able to step on the field.

I kind of have to be one of those annoying car salesman, for lack of a better term. You sell every positive point you can think of about the program. I'll tell them what Laurel's potential is, I'll tell them we'll help them be eligible grades-wise, I'll tell them about study halls and weight lifting.

Then I'll stress the team-building activities where the kids will actually take control of this team. Basically that means I'll provide an environment where the kids start having fun, and once that happens they'll tell their friends, 'Hey, why don't you come out and give this a try?'

Yeah, I think so. They have a couple middle schools around here that are pretty strong programs. They feed right into the local youth teams like the Laurel Steelers and things like that. So, yes, the athletes are there and we want to get them in here and excited about Laurel.

I don't want to talk negatively about any coaches that have been there in the past. I know them all and they're good guys.

The only thing I can say is maybe they didn't figure out a way to get the kids eligible, like I said before. I firmly believe Laurel has the talent to play and compete against anybody. I've seen it. Two years ago they took on a solid Roosevelt team and lost like 14-6. So they have the ability, but they have to have the grades so they can actually go out and do something on the field.

Win the next game. That's pretty much the bottom line. We don't want to focus on 10 games down the road where we're picking out opponents and saying, 'Well, we can win this game, but these other games in-between are pretty bleak.'

You have to believe you can win every game. You have to worry about one game, one play at a time. If you win that one moment first, then you'll eventually win some ballgames.

I'm definitely a hands-on guy. I love being in the huddle, listening to the players talk and interact with each other. I love getting in there and demonstrating drills. I'm a very involved coach.

One thing that's positive is I'm still at an age where I can relate to the kids. I'm not that far removed from being in high school myself. Also, I'm a high-energy guy. I'm still able to get down and do the drills with the kids. So I think that's a benefit.

Maybe a negative would be how hard I'll have to work to prove myself. Being a younger guy, I haven't been around as long as some other guys. So I have to work very hard to show that I am the right guy for the job.

Staffing-wise, that's a work in progress. I'll start that process shortly.

But they have to be great coaches and great role models. I don't want to bring in a guy who's a bad influence or who's just half of a good coach. I want to bring in that solid guy who makes me look better (laughs).

I think they have the capability. I go back to a couple of seasons ago when Laurel was playing everybody very tight. They took Roosevelt into the fourth quarter before they gave out. They played Flowers and Suitland tight.

So they've been right there, but then something happened where they were just out-manned or they didn't have enough guys to finish. So they've always been able to hang.

Right now, I want to be able to field a jayvee and varsity team. That's my first and foremost goal, whether we go 0-10 that first year or 10-0.

The baseline is having two teams. That gives you more numbers to draw from. It allows the younger guys to get experience and repetitions. And you don't have kids on varsity playing above their heads. So that's key.

As for long-term goals, we want to be able to win six, seven, eight games and be in the playoff hunt.

But more than wins and losses, we want to develop players from their freshmen years and have them here all four years. We want to help them either get athletic scholarships or graduate and be successful men after high school. That's the ultimate goal - getting the kids to become better people all-around.