Billy Krop:
This season, Billy Krop is in his second year of coaching the Pickleball team here at Damascus High School. Pickleball is the newest sport at Damascus High School, being added to the fall sports roster just last year. Like Bocce, it is also one of the allied sports offered, where both people with “general educations” as well as those who might have accommodations will play together on the court. Previously, Krop was involved with the allied softball team at Damascus, so when Pickleball was introduced and they needed a coach, he was their guy. Pickleball is played in 2v2 matches, so everyone on the team is split into smaller teams that rotate week-to-week. Krop believes that an important part of allied sports is everyone’s participation and building relationships. Last year, Damascus, under Krop’s leadership, became the first county champions of the sport. There are 11 people on the team this season, and Krop hopes to keep building the important relationships that make Pickleball what it is as an allied sport. The team has 2 wins, 2 losses, and 1 tie, and will play their final match on October 13 at Damascus. Come out and support the team!
Lindsay Burns:
Lindsay Burns is the dominant head coach of the Damascus High School Varsity Cheer team. Her leadership and high expectations for the girls have led them to back to back state titles, becoming the first Montgomery County cheer team to win this championship. But her high expectations are filled with love and support for every one of her athletes. “There is no off season for these girls,” Burns claimed. “They should be working hard and pushing themselves even when the school season is over.” Building a state championship level team was no easy work, but Burns relied on her core coaching philosophies to achieve this. “I want to build confidence through structure, consistency, and accountability. Our success comes from teamwork and holding each other accountable,” Burns explained. Her only challenge with this team is how she manages things. Burns described herself as “structured” and explained that she realized she “needed to step back.” Her philosophy is that by stepping back and having the athletes take ownership of their own faults, they will grow to be more responsible and confident. She makes sure the girls stay motivated by showing them that they are their own biggest competition. “This might be my best squad to date,” Burns professed. “They are an extremely talented young group. They have strong leadership skills and big goals for themselves. I make sure they know that they will be unbeatable when they find that their biggest competition is themselves.” Burns is extremely proud to call herself the head coach of the Damascus “Queen Bees,” a self dubbed nickname. Her favorite memory from her time at Damascus was the 2022 and subsequent 2023 season when they won back to back state championships. Altogether, Burns has an amazingly talented group and everyone is looking to see how they fare in the 2025 season.
Emily Prather:
Outside of teaching, Emily Prather has served as the head coach of the Damascus High School JV cheer team for four years. Before coaching DHS JV cheer, she coached middle school Intramural cheer and Special Olympics cheer. Ms. Prather describes her coaching style as a “warm demander.” She has high expectations for her athletes, pushing them to reach their highest potential. As a cheerleading coach, Ms. Prather puts a lot of thought into the safety and wellbeing of her athletes. A typical practice for JV cheer includes stretching, warm-ups, practicing routine sections, conditioning, and static stretching. Ms. Prather watches and provides feedback, slowly putting pieces together for their full routine at the end of the season. At the end of practice, Ms. Prather brings athletes together for a pep talk, and before leaving, JV cheer has an exciting “hands-in” team chant. Keeping students motivated in such a demanding sport could be hard for some coaches. However, Ms. Prather uses humor to create a comfortable environment within her team. She also balances specific constructive feedback with compliments and positive reinforcement. Her positivity and excitement keeps students motivated to keep growing in the sport. Overall, Emily Prather is an extremely talented coach who inspires her skilled cheerleaders to aim high and lift each other up.
John Jeffries:
John Jeffries is the Cross-Country coach at Damascus for his third season. He retired from full-time teaching three years ago, but decided to take over coaching Cross-Country to pursue his love of endurance sports. Last year, the team had two people, one girl and one boy, qualify for states. While the team overall performed well, they were plagued by a few injuries which ended up being a major setback. This year, the goal for the team is to qualify for state competition, while also “build[ing] from there for years to come.” He plans to accomplish this by instilling “consistency of training, effort, and the will to win” in the athletes. As a coach, he’s trying to build overall fitness in the players, not just fitness that applies to Cross-Country. He stated that both the boys and girls’ teams show strength this year, with the boys team having “many runners that can run a 5k in under 20 minutes,” as well as a standout freshman, Dylan Allen on the girls’ side. They had a meet this past Saturday at Thomas Johnson HS, make sure to come out and show support for the team.
Hilary Blake:
Hillary Blake is not only a DHS coach, but also a teacher and administrator. Before coaching Damascus High School’s varsity field hockey team, Hillary Blake worked with younger athletes. Her transition to high school sports was smooth thanks to the dedicated student-athletes at Damascus High School. She describes her coaching style as “inquisitive.” She challenges herself to find what keeps her players motivated. As a varsity coach, Hillary Blake pushes her team to meet the high standards set for them. She takes time to observe what her team needs and implements it into each practice. She understands the academic pressure her athletes face and tries to plan fun practices to keep her team’s energy positive. Motivation can be a struggle when games don’t go as planned. However, with a coffee and snack bribe, Hillary Blake takes those rough games as opportunities to work together and challenge her athletes, drilling the harder skills until they are perfect. As for team bonding, Hillary Blake says, “A session of goat yoga will fix anything that we may be going through.”
Josh Klotz:
Josh Klotz has the significant job of coaching Damascus High School’s Varsity football team. As the football coach, Josh Klotz takes time throughout the week to correct his athletes, whether it’s offense, defense, or special teams athletes. He uses his coaching skills to keep his athletes strong. His goal for his team is to coach his young men into talented, winning football players. During the off season, the goal is always to improve and expand on skills. They also have opportunities during winter and spring to utilize the weight room and do sprints. The team starts their week on Mondays with pads, helmets, and girdles. Throughout the week, practices include full pads, uppers, special teams, offensive, defensive, and tackling. After the loss to Oakdale, Josh Klotz lifted his players up. He reminded them that they are young and still learning. He reminds them that the scoreboard does not represent all the effort they put in.
Jason Sprankle:
Mr Sprankle, Damascus’ JV Football coach. Other than being good at teaching, he is really good at coaching the JV Football team for the Damascus Hornets. As the JV Football coach, he claims that he wants to be a player’s coach. He wants his players to enjoy playing and learning the game and techniques of football. He wants his players to respect him while also knowing that he would always have their backs. He will always try to get the best out of each player through motivation. Being the coach, he has goals; he wants all his players to be successful on and off the field. Though he wants wins, he believes that having the team learn through teamwork, sportsmanship, and being a good person on and off the field are the most important. He also reminds his players to focus on the little things because if they do the little things correctly, then they will succeed in football. During the off-season, he supports and suggests that his players play other sports. If his players don’t, he is happy for them to come work out together in the offseason. “Staying in shape is essential to a good program.” When his team has practice, he gets straight to work. He makes his team lift or he explains his plan for the day, makes the team warm up, sprint, start offense and defense drills, then special teams, finally he ends practice with a motivational talk and reminders. While being a coach, he has and will face many challenges; a main challenge he has faced has been injuries. Though injuries happen in all sports, football is one of the main sports where players get injured almost every game. Him and his team’s philosophy is “next man up,” which means if they lose someone to injury, it is the next person’s job and responsibility to fill in that spot. At the end of the day, if his team has lost a game, he tells them to “Use it as motivation and harness the feeling of losing and use it to motivate you to not lose again.” No matter what happens, Mr Sprankle will always help his team the best he can.
Andre’ Wise:
Andre Wise is entering his second year as the Girls Flag Football coach, but he coaches like a seasoned pro. Wise admits that he has had some challenges going from a soccer coach to flag football. “My biggest challenge has definitely been learning the sport and its rules,” Wise explained, “The assistant coaches are especially helpful since most of my knowledge is in soccer.” Going into this season, Wise is very optimistic. Having 13 freshmen on the team definitely makes for some hard decisions for playing time. One of his favorite parts of coaching this sport is being able to watch his younger players grow. He claims his coaching style is based on integrity. He hopes that all of his players can look up to him for guidance and he can be a role model to them. Wise fondly recounted his favorite memory, “When we played Sherwood last year, the girls showed me just how serious they were about this sport. They stayed dialed the whole time and completed, probably, the best comeback win in our program’s short history.” Looking to the future, Wise has many small changes in place that will make big differences. “We’re going to start focusing on conditioning. Next summer when we start workouts, we’re going to focus on getting into physical shape rather than just practicing the sport,” he stated. The girls flag football team is under some amazing management and seems to have a very bright future ahead of them.
Kyle Foreman:
Kyle Foreman is the proud head coach of the Damascus High School golf team. Foreman spent his high school years on the green, whether that was working at a course or competing for Damascus. Foreman has been playing golf his whole life and still plays regularly. He preaches proper course etiquette to his athletes along with many other core values, “I like to put a strong emphasis on rules, course management, and etiquette.” He also wants his athletes to have fun but still be competitive. Since high school golf season is so short, Foreman expects his athletes to keep up with golf during their off-season. “They should keep a simple but steady routine. Putt and chip a few times a week, play nine to 18 holes when possible, and track their basic stats,” Foreman explained. His biggest challenge has been with poor weather, course access, and transportation issues, all while balancing a strong roster to win rounds. His favorite memory from this year was when his athletes scored 149 points in their first upper division match against Urbana. This score happened to be one of the best at Damascus in years. He emphasizes celebration within his team when they meet their goals and hit personal records. He wants all of his athletes to feel confident and motivated going into their rounds. Foreman said he is extremely proud of all his athletes and that he has met some very talented players during his time at DHS. He is very happy that some of his players have gone to the collegiate level or went on to work in the golf industry. In the past four years, he has consistently led his team to qualify and even medal individually at divisional events. Monday, Oct. 6, these golfers head to district qualifiers with a positive mindset and the most supportive coach.
Brianna Nelson:
Brianna Nelson went to Damascus High School, and returning to coach here is what she calls a passion project. It’s her fifth year coaching at DHS, and with a degree in dance, she is excited to continue the team’s undefeated streak. She considers her coaching style firm but understanding, as she wants the girls to be well rounded individuals, not just athletes. Although it’s a high school team, she holds everyone to Division One expectations and pushes to be the best they can be. Their goals for this year are to defend the title while still enjoying their time on the team. She wants everyone to grow as dancers and people, and with one of the longest dual sport seasons, they have a lot of time to do it. Nelson said that winning counties last year was really special, as the last time the team won it was when she was in school with her assistant coach. This year, the team will be in three regular season competitions on Jan. 10, 1,7 and 24. The championships will be hosted on Feb. 7. Come out and support the undefeated team.
Jeremy Spoales:
Being a high school coach, Jeremy Spoales prioritizes the “student” in “student athlete.” His soccer players are not only taught how to be better athletes, but also better people. This season, Jeremy Spoales has a goal of taking his team to the state championship. His expectation is for players to be on a club team during the off season. He also recommends daily fitness and technical work. Practices with Jeremy Spoales include functional, technical, and tactical skill practice. The team is always working to prepare for their next opponent. To stay motivated, he reminds his players that the playoffs are a whole new season. His team is taught to work together, put in effort, and make the most out of every opportunity to win.
Robyn Dubois:
Robyn Dubois was an unexpected addition to our Damascus High School coaches. After joining the boys’ junior varsity soccer team late, she has to establish expectations and learn her players at a fast pace. As a coach, Robyn Dubois emphasizes teamwork, supporting players, being positive, and putting 110% into the season. Practice for her team, warming up, specific skill drills, tactical and strategic skills, and end with a game or modified scrimmage. Every good season also comes with losses and mistakes. To keep her team motivated, Robyn Dubois focuses on the positives. As a team, they prioritize working together and supporting each other. After this season, her athletes are expected to stay motivated and desire to improve in fitness and skills.
Alex Hall:
In 2025, Alexander Hall is once again the Girls’ Varsity Soccer Coach. He has been coaching soccer for six years now, ever since his first year at Damascus, where he initially coached JV Boys’ Soccer. Before Damascus, he co-coached at Parkland Middle School. Although last season wasn’t a standout year for the team, where they only amassed two wins on the season, Hall is more confident in the team this year than ever, as they have already gotten three wins, more than last season, as well as defeated their biggest rivals at Clarksburg High School, which Hall said was easily the team’s biggest challenge this season, and a game they have really wanted to win for a while now. Despite a couple of “tough losses” against Poolesville, Gaithersburg and Northwest, which were all a “one-goal difference”, Hall says the team has shown their resilience and played very well this year so far. Hall believes the team’s biggest strength is their high morale and unity, and he is very proud of the sportsmanship the team has developed. In terms of next steps for the team, Hall hopes to keep building resilience and sportsmanship with all the players, and hopefully improve the record to have a stronger foundation to build on next year to win those one-goal difference games. Come support the team in their next game at home against Springbrook on October 15.
Ken Diehl:
Kenneth Diehl has been a part of the Damascus High School community for longer than the current classes have been alive. He’s been coaching soccer since 2001, but his career at DHS didn’t start until 2007. He spent eight years with the boys’ soccer team from 2007 to 2014 before moving to the girls’ soccer team in 2016. He hasn’t looked back since. The reason he began coaching at Damascus is heartwarming, as his son was playing soccer here, and the coach at the time became injured. The boys on the team voted to have Diehl step in for the rest of the season. His work with the team focuses on striving for excellence while creating an environment that’s fun and allows development without the fear of failure. His main goal for the girls’ soccer team moving forward is to continue to develop skills and make the best varsity players possible. This year’s girls’ JV soccer team consists of 20 players: one junior, 12 sophomores, and seven freshmen. Their end-of-season record is five wins, four losses, and one tie. The team had an impressive four shutout wins and is taking an undefeated away game streak into the next season.
Brianna Gordon:
Unlike most coaches, Brianna Gordon started her coaching career in her senior year of high school. Her leadership skills led her to be the creator of a middle school volleyball program in her school district. That opportunity was the starting point for the next 20 years of coaching, with many more to come. Brianna Gordon encourages her players to collaborate, make strategic decisions, and respect her as a coach. When asked about her coaching style, she said, “I believe participation in sports is meant to be a transformative experience, not just physically but by shaping the athletes as people as well.” Brianna Gordon teaches her team to not only be great players, but also great teammates, daughters, sisters, and friends. Volleyball practices with Brianna Gordon consist of warm-ups like stretching, ball control, and mental processing time. After her players warm up, they progress into drills that focus on every level of the game. Then, to finish practice, they play a 6 on 6 game. As a Varsity and Junior Varsity coach, there are a lot of students with different personalities and learning styles. This season, Brianna Gordon has 37 athletes in the program to coach alone. Given the large number of students, it can be difficult to make sure all her athletes have everything they need all the time. She asks her athletes to give her grace and understanding. Brianna Gordon sees her teams as more than athletes; they are her family.
