Westminster enters the final season of the Carroll County Football League with the same kind of grip it has had for most of the last decade, and the rest of the county is still chasing.
The Owls have been the standard in county play since 2017, going 54-4 against Carroll opponents over that stretch. They’ve claimed the county crown with 6-0 records five different times and have never slipped below 5-1 in league games during that run.
That kind of dominance is part of why this season carries extra weight. Carroll County’s current setup is on its way out after the year, with the county’s seven programs set to join schools from Frederick and Washington counties in the Central Maryland Conference. It’s a return of sorts to an older alignment, since those same three counties were grouped together more than 10 years ago in the Monocacy Valley Athletic League, a massive league with more than 20 schools split into three, and sometimes four, divisions.
For now, though, the focus stays on one more county race, and coaches around the league keep circling Westminster as the team to beat in 2026, the final year before the switch. The Owls are coming off a 10-2 season and a run to the 3A state semifinals, even though they graduated a lot of production from that team. They still bring back two of the county’s best players in Gabe Lee and Isaiah Taylor.
Century looks like the most natural threat after Westminster. The Knights return most of their starting lineup from a team that finished 4-2 in county play last season, and Winters Mill is also in the mix among the top challengers.
Liberty, which reached the state semifinals after getting a playoff forfeit victory, could make noise too, along with South Carroll and Manchester Valley. Francis Scott Key, the county’s smallest school by enrollment, appears to have a tougher rebuilding climb.
Westminster’s non-league schedule should tell plenty about where the Owls stand once county play ramps up. Franklin, Urbana and Damascus are on the slate, and all three have been state powers at different points. Those games should give Westminster a real test before the postseason arrives.
The gap inside and outside the county has been striking. Since 2021, Westminster is 28-2 against Carroll County opponents, but only 9-6 in regular-season non-league games.
Even with all the turnover in coaching across Maryland this offseason, Carroll County has stayed unusually steady. There hasn’t been a head coaching change in the county since Mike Crumley Jr. took over at South Carroll after the 2022 season.
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For the Terrapins, the appeal is not just about landing a highly ranked recruit from Maryland, but about how his skill set could fit into an evolving attack. Early projections have already put Oladotun on the 2027 NBA draft board, a reminder that his ceiling is part of the conversation from day one, even as the real intrigue is how quickly he can translate that promise into meaningful production in College Park. [Read more 🡒]