VivaLoudoun High School Sports Year in Review: Overview

By Dan Sousa
VivaLoudoun Editor

(June 27, 2011) - The Loudoun County Public Schools graduating Class of 2011 just didn’t exit the local playing fields with a banner year but their legacy is a 4-year run in athletics unmatched in county history.

Consider this: these talented seniors formed the nucleus for an amazing 14 Virginia High School League state title captured in their final two years, including six in 2010-11.


Factor in that two of those titles earned were “4-Peats” – Broad Run girls soccer and Loudoun County girls volleyball each won a dynasty-inspiring fourth straight state title – and you have to look the Class of 2011’s entire four years in high school … and the result is a whopping 25 state title earned:

Since the Class of 2011 entered high school:
2010-11 (6 total)
Briar Woods Cheer – Back-to-Back
Briar Woods Football
Loudoun County Girls Volleyball – 4-Peat
Potomac Falls Boys Basketball – Back-to-Back
Briar Woods Softball
Broad Run Girls Soccer – 4-Peat

2009-10 (8 total)
Briar Woods Cheer
Broad Run Football
Loudoun County Girls Volleyball
Loudoun Valley Girls Volleyball
Freedom Girls Basketball
Potomac Falls Boys Basketball
Broad Run Girls Soccer
Stone Bridge Girls Soccer

2008-09 (6 total)
Broad Run Football
Stone Bridge Cheer
Loudoun County Girls Volleyball
Freedom Girls Basketball
Broad Run Girls Soccer
Broad Run Softball

2007-08 (5)
Loudoun County Girls Volleyball
Stone Bridge Football
Broad Run Girls Soccer
Broad Run Softball
Park View Girls Track and Field

To put that success on the state level in perspective, Loudoun County Schools Public athletes brought home a total of 18 state titles in the 30-year span between 1970 and 1999.

One of the bigger athletic stories in 2010-11 was the emergence of Briar Woods High School,
which opened in 2005, and the Falcons accounted for half of the county’s state titles during the school year starting with a second straight state title for the competitive cheer squad and then the school’s first ever football title.

For Ashburn athletes it was a fourth straight state title as the Falcons ultimate win followed Broad Run (2009, 2008) and Stone Bridge (2007) state crowns.

The third state title for Briar Woods came in the spring with the softball team beating first-year Woodgrove in an All-Loudoun AA state final at Radford University.

Woodgrove, with no seniors to pull from, had a spectacular spring with the softball team capturing the Region II title in a win over Briar Woods and the girls lacrosse and girls soccer teams also advancing to the state tournament.

In the winter , all eyes were the Potomac Falls boys basketball team as they returned all starters after capturing Loudoun’s first ever boys hoops state title the year before and the Panthers did not disappoint as they made it back-to-back state titles with a dramatic championship win in Richmond.

Individually in the winter, Broad Run’s Mark Sarman capped his brilliant 4-year career by grabbing gold at the AA state meet with a victory in the 100-yard fly and a runner-up in the 200 IM.

The best was yet to come for LCPS athletes as they did something unprecedented in the spring – turning the Region II baseball, softball, boys soccer and girls soccer finals into All-Loudoun contests as the AA Dulles District – which boasts 9 of the county’s 12 public high schools with the other three schools competing at the higher AAA classification – shut out the other three districts in the region from advancing their teams to States.

On the track, Loudoun boys had their finest season ever at the state level with Loudoun County – the county’s oldest school opened in 1954 – finishing runner-up in team scoring behind a record-shattering performance by the Raider 4x800 relay team of senior Dejuan McConnell, sophomore Steven Graham, senior Thomas Curtin and sophomore Patrick Joseph. Their time of 7:49.61 broke the state record by almost four seconds. Rival Potomac Falls was runner-up in the race and well ahead of the state record as well.

The Raider quartet was just the start of a long line of Loudoun boys to stand on top of the podium at Harrisonburg as Graham captured the 400 meters and Potomac Falls senior Juan Campos won the 1600 meters.

The Broad Run 4x400 relay team of senior Eric Hiatt, senior Zac Kish, junior Marcas Anderson and junior Jonathan Russell took first place and Russell had an outstanding meet, also winning the 300 meter hurdles in a state record 37.54 and taking runner-up in the 200.

At the AAA state track and field meet Stone Bridge’s Haley proved back-to-back state titles are not confined to team sports as she won her second straight discus title.

The explosion of talent in Loudoun athletics takes the success beyond the playing fields of the county as the area has now sent 300+ athletes to the collegiate level in the past two years and they are continuing their winning ways with Loudoun Valley grad Blair Brown being named the top female college volleyball player in the nation after leading Penn State to its fourth consecutive NCAA women’s volleyball championship.

Another Loudoun Valley grad, Garrett Swankowski, who almost led the Vikings to a VHSL state title his senior year as the team finished runner-up, was part of the University of Virginia squad that captured the NCAA men’s lacrosse title this spring.

And LCPS athletes are transcending collegiate athletics onto the professional and world stage with former Harmony Intermediate student Ashley Caldwell becoming the youngest U.S. Olympian in the 2010 Vancouver Games as part of the U.S. Ski Team; Stone Bridge grad Ed Wang becoming the first Chinese-American player drafted into the NFL; Potomac Falls graduate Conor Shanosky signing a professional soccer contract with D.C. United right out of high school; and C.S. Monroe Technology Center grad Tommy Milner winning the prestigious “24 Hours of Le Mans GTE Pro Class” race with his Corvette Racing team in France in early June.

Considering the accomplishments of the graduating Class of 2011, we can expect more and more LCPS athletes to be in the news in the coming decade across the nation and the world. Starting Tuesday, I will take a closer look at each of the three seasons.