When Northwestern defensive end Otis Fields found out last winter that his Wildcats would merge with Forest Park to form one football team, he wasn't sure what to think.

That feeling didn't last long.

As soon as he got to know the new coach, Forest Park's Sean Markley, and some of the Foresters, Fields grew more and more excited about the season, which began with the first day of practice Wednesday.

“I feel like this is another home,” Fields said. “They just welcomed us in.”

Forest Park quarterback David Medlin?III agreed. “It's been really easy,” he said. “We all have the same goal — to win.”

The athletics merger for all teams from the two schools came about when Forest Park closed for renovation and moved into the Northwestern building this summer. The two schools will remain separate within the building, but they will join forces on the field.

Markley, who is bringing together about 15 Wildcats and 30 Foresters, was surprised by how well the players have gotten along.

“With Northwestern and Forest Park being rivals, I thought they would bring a little bit of that rivalry, but there hasn't been anything like that at all. It's been all positive, and I mean all positive,” said Markley, a Forest Park graduate in his fourth season as head coach.

Northwestern's coach left after last season, but Markley had to reapply for the position after three years as Foresters head coach and several previous seasons as offensive coordinator. He brought the rest of his staff, which already included three Northwestern graduates — Medlin's father and volunteer coach, David Medlin Jr., and his uncle Shawn Medlin as well as Roy Caster. Another assistant, Dominic Boyd, played football with Markley at Forest Park in the mid-1990s.

With so much crossover already, there was never a sense of us versus them.

“To me, archrivals? I wouldn't even really call it a rivalry,” Fields said, “because some of us don't really know it that way. For instance, we didn't even play them last year. I would say that would be the old people's rivalry.

“After not having a good season last year and we [were] low on kids, combining us, we'd be bigger now and we'd be a bigger threat, because both schools have good players.”

Although few of the athletes from the two schools had ever played together, even in youth leagues, many of them knew each other from growing up in the same West Baltimore neighborhoods. Over the summer, about 15 to 20 players hung out together on a regular basis.

“When we first got the heads-up that we were officially combining,” Forest Park receiver Shamond Davis said, “we started off by having conditioning workouts three, four times a week to get us back in shape. After that, we would go on Thursdays to have actual seven-on-seven games to get us prepared for this season. So far through the rest of the summer, we've just been growing as a team. Instead of being called one team, we're actually just a family now.”

Last year Northwestern finished 2-8 and the Foresters were 7-3. The Foresters advanced to the Class 1A South playoffs but fell in the first round. Both programs have been playoff contenders in the recent past, but neither has won a regional football championship.

With the combined team, they move into Class 2A North this fall with such perennial contenders as Dunbar, Eastern Tech, Hereford and Patterson.

Markley said he has looked to his five senior captains to help with the merger and bring their perspectives to the coaching staff. Along with Fields, Medlin and Davis, that includes running back-slot Marquis Pack from Northwestern and senior linebacker Cameron Brogden from Forest Park.

It's no secret the team will run a spread offense, and Markley said they'll be led by the five captains, who also will see time on defense. Although Medlin hasn't played much defense to keep him healthy as a quarterback, Markley said he should see more time at safety, where he's likely to play in college.

With the players working so hard over the summer, Markley said, this team is further along in the preseason process than any he has coached before.

“We've been hungry before, but I don't think they've ever been this hungry and excited coming into a season,” he said. “Spots are still open but guys have put in that work in the offseason, so we've already got an eye on where they'll be playing, and in the past we'd come in wondering, ‘Who's going to be the defensive end? Who's going to be the outside linebacker?' And we were kind of filtering guys into those positions. Now it's just kids fighting for time, competing.”

The team is loaded with upperclassmen, so Markley expects strong competition among veterans to secure many of the starting spots before Northwestern opens the season, after a first-week bye, at home Sept. 9 against city Division II rival New Era.

Markley said he wasn't sure whether the team would wear Northwestern's blue and white and be called the Wildcats, but the players don't seem to care much.

“It's gonna seem weird if we do have to wear the blue and white” after three years of sporting Forest Park's green and white, Davis said, “but after time, I'll adjust to it, which I have no choice because I'm on a team. I'm not really worried about the uniforms; I just want to go out and have fun and see how far we can actually go this season.”

katherine.dunn@baltsun.com

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