News: New Tuscarora High School Confirms Burnett as Football Coach, Adds Becky Puterio as XC Coach and Jeff Kaplan as Golf Coach

Leesburg (Jan. 28, 2010) - Tuscarora High School announced Wednesday evening that, as expected, two-time state champion Broad Run High School football coach Mike Burnett has been approved to lead the new Huskies program and the school opening in the fall also added Becky Puterio as cross country coach and Jeff Kaplan as golf coach.

According to a release from Tuscarora Athletic Director Derek Farrey: "(Puterio) is extremely excited about developing a new cross country program at Tuscarora High School, and she is looking forward to working with individuals she can develop from elementary school runners into high school athletes."

Puterio is currently as assistant cross country coach at Broad Run High School, where she has been for three years and her husband John Puterio is the wrestling coach. Before that she was an assistant track coach at Potomac Falls High School. She currently coaches "Girls on the Run" at Frances Hazel Reid Elementary School, and has been a volunteer coach with the Loudoun Track and Field club.

As an athlete herself, Puterio ran both cross country and track competitively in high school and college. She was the mile champion on the Massachusetts state championship track team during her senior year of high school, and competed for Mary Washington University during her collegiate years. Puterio currently teaches fifth grade at Frances Hazel Reid elementary school.

According to the release: " Kaplan is very excited and honored to be the inaugural head coach of the Tuscarora High School golf program."

Kaplan has been teaching and coaching for 16 years. He is currently a health and physical education teacher at Smart’s Mill Middle School and helping coach baseball at Heritage High School both located in Leesburg. Although Coach Kaplan has an extensive baseball background (14 years at the high school level), he has a great passion and knowledge for the game of golf. For the past three summers he has worked as a starter/marshall at Raspberry Falls Golf and Hunt and Belmont Country Club.

He graduated from Frostburg State University in 1990 with an exercise physiology degree. At Frostburg he was a member of the baseball, football and rugby teams. Upon graduation, he worked as an assistant Athletic Director/Trainer at Worldgate Athletic club in Herndon. In 1994, he received his health and physical education degree from the University of Maryland. Kaplan resides in Leesburg with his wife Christie, two sons, Brady and Garrett, and daughter, Courtenay.

The news about Burnett leaked out prior to official approval by the school board. According to the release: "He is extremely excited and looking forward to developing a new football program at Tuscarora High School."

Burnett has been coaching football for 12 seasons and prior to taking the job at Tuscarora High School, he served as the head football coach at Broad Run High School and Santa Monica High School in California.

At Broad Run, he led the Spartans to two VHSL Division 4 state championships and leaves the score on a 28-game winning streak while accumulating a record of 43-6. He was named the Washington Redskins Coach of the year in 2008 and the VHSCA AA Coach of the year in 2008 and 2009. He is a graduate of Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine where he played varsity football and basketball and received his law degree from the University of Washington, in Seattle.

Burnett is married to Kimberly Burnett, and has two sons, Jack and Sam.

Football: Burnett Tells Players: "I Won't Be Back at Broad Run", Accepts Position at Tuscarora

By Dan Sousa
VivaLoudoun.com Editor

Ashburn (Jan. 13, 2010) - Broad Run High School varsity football coach Michael Burnett, who turned around a 1-9 football program and in four seasons led the Spartans to a 43-6 record and back-to-back VHSL Division 4 state titles, confirmed Wednesday that he told his team on Tuesday that he will not return to Broad Run next season. He has accepted the social studies department chair at Tuscarora High School in Leesburg, which will open in the fall.

There are media reports that Burnett will also be the first football head coach at Tuscarora. (Read Matt Brooks story on WashingtonPost.com here and Read Andy Hayes story at GameDayMagazine.com here, and VirginiaPreps.com was listing the Broad Run position as open Wednesday)

"The County hasn't approved my hiring, but I did tell the kids yesterday that I won't be back at Broad Run," said Burnett in an email to VivaLoudoun Wednesday. "I have accepted the (social studies) department chair position at Tuscarora."

Tuscarora Athletic Director Derek Farrey released the following statement in response to the hiring of Burnett as the Huskies first football coach: "There are no confirmed sources. The School Board has made no appointments."

Coaching hires in Loudoun can be offered and accepted but aren't publicly released until the school board officially approves.

Broad Run High School Athletic Director Jake Kirby, when reached by phone Wednesday, also said he could not comment on if his head football coaching position was open.

Loudoun County Public Schools Public Information Officer Wayde Byard when reached Wednesday about the reports of Burnett's hiring said that "nothing has been done. No contracts have been finalized."

Byard expected official word on Tuscarora's new football coach and possibly the other new high school's football opening, Woodgrove in Purcellville's, as well as other new coaching hires for the schools at the Jan. 26 school board meeting.

Burnett was a surprise hire in 2006 when Broad Run went out of the county ... way out of the county ... to snag Burnett from Santa Monica High School in California. In the first season under Burnett the Spartans went 5-5 and since then have lost just one game, winning 28 straight while defeating Amherst County two straight seasons for the school's first ever state football titles, and winning 38 of the last 39 played.

In other Broad Run football news, the Washington Post reported that Spartan star senior running back T.J. Peeler would undergo surgery Wednesday for a torn ACL suffered in the state title win in December. Peeler has committed to Pitt but the injury may delay his entry into college as he rehabs.