It sounds like a story your grandparents

might tell, not a young father who just

welcomed his first child.

But Chantilly native Doug Ewell remembers

riding his bike through the area that became

Westfield High School as a

kid in the early 1980s. It was

nothing but vacant fields back

then, a testament to western

Fairfax County’s rapid growth

in the past two decades.

Ewell,

33, would have attended

Westfield if it had been built

10 years earlier and has

coached basketball and

football at the school since it

opened in 2000.

That community

connection made Ewell the ideal choice to

become the new boys basketball coach at

Westfield, which announced his hiring Monday.

Ewell succeeds Bob McKeag, who resigned last

month to become the activities director at the

new high school in Lorton that will open in the

fall of 2005.

“It is a heck of a compliment to Doug that we

felt comfortable going in this direction,” said

Westfield activities director Francis Dall, who

interviewed two in-house candidates for the

position. “He has shown great promise as a

coach already and this is the next big step for

him.”

Ewell, a 1990 Chantilly graduate, began as an

assistant boys basketball and football coach at

Lake Braddock in 1996 before moving to

Westfield in 2000 as a health teacher and varsity

basketball assistant. Ewell also coached the

Bulldogs’ junior varsity for four years, leading it

to three straight undefeated seasons.

“I’ve had success here, but that won’t mean

anything now,” said Ewell, who will no longer be

an assistant football coach. “I’m stepping up to a

whole different level of competition. But I’d like

to think that if I put in the same amount of time

and effort then we’ll continue to have a strong

program.”

Westfield, which has had only four varsity

seasons, reached the Northern Region semifinals

this past winter and in 2002, when it won the

Concorde District, the school’s first district

championship in any sport. The Bulldogs

finished 19-5 last season and return two starters

in senior guards Erroll Robinson and Matt Hale.

Westfield had a stellar summer, defending its

Kenner League title and winning the McLean

League.

“We’ve been blessed this summer and played

well,” said Ewell, who played basketball at

Chantilly under current Lake Braddock activities

director Mark Martino. “But we’ve told the kids

to make sure that leads to an even better winter.

We’d like to build on what the program has

already accomplished under Coach McKeag.”

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