ACCIDENT — Northern football coach Phil Carr, the winningest head coach in school history, announced his retirement from the position Wednesday.
Carr, a 1984 Northern graduate, compiled a 146-133 record during his 28 years at the helm, and he capped his illustrious career by guiding his alma mater to the Class 1A state title game for the first time this fall.
Carr was honored as Maryland Class 1A Coach of the Year by Sports Illustrated following his final season.
“I have finally made my decision to retire as the head football coach,” Carr said in an email Wednesday. “It took a little longer than I thought to make the decision, but I wanted to make sure it was the right decision.”
A more in-depth story looking back on Carr’s career and with his full thoughts on the decision will be in Friday’s Times-News.
His 146 wins are the third-most in area history, behind only Tack Clark (Keyser, 220-110-8) and Charlie Lattimer (Fort Hill, 157-40).
Carr is the only Northern football coach to have coached multiple seasons to have a winning career record, and he has 86 more victorious than the second-winningest Husky coach (Jack Lear, 60-73).
Carr was a junior guard and outside linebacker on the first Northern team to win a region championship in football in 1982.
It came full circle this fall, as Northern upset Mountain Ridge, 23-13, in the co-region finals, ending a 24-year state tournament drought.
Carr referred to the victory as a “top five win ever” after the game.
Northern stunned Boonsboro in a mud bowl the following week, pounding the state’s No. 2 seed 49-0 to reach the semifinals. There, the Huskies defeated SEED School, of Baltimore, 41-27, to record their first championship game appearance.
Northern went on to lose to Fort Hill, 35-0, in Annapolis to end as state runner-up. The Huskies finished with an 8-6 record.
A graduate of Garrett College and Frostburg State University, Carr played baseball at both schools and earned a master’s degree in special education from West Virginia University.
Carr began his football coaching career as the junior varsity head coach (1988-91) and also served as a varsity assistant coach (1988-96). In his final year as an assistant coach, Carr was the offensive coordinator under head coach Tom Vent.
In 2020, Carr was one of 24 Maryland coaches honored throughout the year by the Baltimore Ravens as their Coach of the Week.
His 1999 team became the first, and remains the only, team in school history to have a 10-0 regular season.
Carr is also the school’s athletic director and baseball coach, and in 2020 he garnered his 400th win coaching baseball.
Carr was inducted into the Maryland State Association of Baseball Coaches Hall of Fame in 2022.
As baseball coach, Carr’s teams won consecutive area championships in 2007, 2008 and 2009 and again in 2021 and 2023.
The program has produced six players of the year: Jake Rush, Calyb King, Brooks Carr, Trey Beasom, Matt Sisler and Corey Carr.
Carr intends to continue to coach baseball at Northern.
Carr is also the head coach of the Garrett County Post 71/208/214 American Legion baseball team, which advanced to the Maryland state championship game in 2021 in Funkstown.
It was the best state tournament finish ever for a Garrett County team.