Shattuck still living the athletic life

Former CHS coach making his mark in Maryland athletics

August 22, 2018 by Fred Strohl

Former Clinton High School football coach Andy Shattuck has served as athletic director at North Point High School in Waldorf, Md., — a suburb of Washington, D.C. — since 2012.

Shattuck, who recently turned 50, oversees 44 teams on the varsity, junior varsity and freshman levels in 26 sports. The Clinton native, who coached Clinton football from 2004 through 2010, departed Clinton after the 2010 football season for the D.C. area.

North Point’s Eagle teams have won recent state championships in girls and boys basketball, golf and girls and boys track and field. North Point also hosts the annual state wrestling tournament.

“As I oversee many different sports teams, I had to learn a lot about some of these sports, such as field hockey and lacrosse, which I knew very little about when I arrived,” said Shattuck during a recent visit home to Anderson County. “My coaches have taught me the ins and outs of these sports and they’re still teaching me. I am fortunate I have a strong group of coaches who do their jobs well and they make my job a lot easier.”

Shattuck — who turned around Clinton’s football fortunes during the late 2000s from losing records to a number one state regular-season ranking and state championship contender — hired a football coach early in his AD tenure who has amassed 40 wins and six losses in four seasons.

The Eagles’ football team has been a perennial Maryland state playoff participant and annually listed high in Maryland’s prep football rankings. Former Eagles are currently playing at Penn State and Iowa.

North Point is located 25 miles south of Washington and across the Potomac River from George Washington’s home at Mount Vernon. Shattuck, wife Sharon and 11-year-old daughter Quin live in Alexandria, Va., not far from Mount Vernon. Sharon works for the U.S. Department of Justice.

Shattuck manages his schedule to avoid the Washington rush hour chaos crossing between Virginia and Maryland.

North Point was established in 2005 and is focused on career and technology education. Enrollment is more than 2,200 and the school is part of the Charles County, Md., School System.

Shattuck, who taught social studies at Clinton when he was football coach, is proud of North Point’s strong academic reputation as well as its athletic success. Athletes have contributed to that success.

“Our senior athletes last school year finished with an average 4.01 grade-point average,” Shattuck said. “That may seem hard to believe, but our coaches stress to their athletes the importance of work in the classroom and our athletes – as is the case with all North Point students – take their school work seriously. As the school’s athletic director, I’m very proud of that accomplishment.”

Upon arriving in the D.C. area in 2011, Shattuck worked as a sixth-grade teacher in Woodbridge, Va. He was not coaching.

“I had coached high school football on Friday nights for many years, but suddenly I could only watch the games from the stands and that felt different,” Shattuck said. “I started to get to know some of the high school athletic directors in the area and found out about the AD opening at North Point. I decided to apply and the rest is history.

Sharon Shattuck noted her husband beat the odds in being named AD.

“Andy was up for the job against people from the area who were well-known and would seem to have a better chance to get hired because they were from the area,” Sharon Shattuck said.

“However, the people doing the hiring were blown away reading Andy’s resume and all of the experience he had.”

Shattuck credits former Clinton AD Jim Davis, who hired him as football coach following the 2003 season, for teaching the basics of athletic management.

“I did my own budget at Clinton and got involved in a lot of things surrounding the football program that went beyond what the coach usually does,” Shattuck said. “Jim was a good teacher and I still use him as a role model in managing the North Point program.”

The Shattucks periodically make the eight-hour trip home to Clinton to visit Andy’s father Jerry and mother Betty. However, the Shattucks have made their mark in the Washington area and enjoy living there.

“I have great memories of growing up in Clinton and was honored to return as coach, but I also feel fortunate to be working at a high school well-known for excellence in academics and athletics and to be able to try and keep the bar high with regard to North Point’s athletic excellence,” Shattuck said.

A graduate of Clinton High School as well as its former football coach, Shattuck keeps abreast of activities in Dragon Nation.

“I still enjoy following Clinton athletics from afar and am great friends with (boys basketball coach) Chris Lockard,” Shattuck said.

“I also believe Randy McKamey is going to do a tremendous job with the football program.”