Football: Broad Run Trio Holds Signing Ceremony; Heritage's McCarthy Headed to Air Force

Heritage's David McCarthy will play next year for the Air Force Academy.

(Feb. 4, 2010) - Not even the snow can damper the special day when high school athletes officially sign to play college football.

While signing ceremonies at Park View and Loudoun County got postponed Wednesday, Broad Run went ahead and held a private ceremony for a trio of players: Adrian Flemming (Syracuse), T.J. Peeler (Pitt) and Frank Foreman (Monmouth).

On Thursday morning at Heritage High School, David McCarthy celebrated his acceptance to play football at the Air Force Academy with his family, coach Steve Williams and Pride administrators.


View a photo gallery from the McCarthy signing

Coach Steve Williams on David McCarthy


Photos from Broad Run signing courtesy of BR coach Mike Burnett

Football: Peeler to Have Surgery on Knee, Likely to "Grayshirt" First Year at Pitt

(Dec. 31, 2009) - At the holiday basketball tournament this week at Broad Run High School there were many of the Spartan back-to-back VHSL Division 4 state title winning football players in the stands, including running back T.J. Peeler on crutches.

Peeler, injured in Broad Run's state title win over Amherst County earlier this month, confirmed that he will have knee surgery in January and faces a one-to-three month rehab.

One of the Washington D.C. area's top backs, Peeler is likely to "grayshirt" at Pitt next year, delaying fulltime enrollment until January/February 2011. This would allow Peeler to "redshirt" for the 2011 season and give him plenty of time for full recovery and to get his academic footing set.

Football: Peeler Suspension Lifted

Well ... aren't going to say "we told you so" but our first thought over the weekend was that the "T.J. Peeler will be suspended for Broad Run's semifinal football game in three weeks" was basically a non-story as it was likely to be overturned on appeal and now the Washington Post's Paul Tenorio is reporting as such ... read the article here! Now ... onto the actual football!

On the Sidelines with Dan Sousa - Covering All the Stories

On the Sidelines with Dan Sousa
VivaLoudoun.com Editor


(Nov. 1, 2009) - When the Washington Post made their lead prep story this Sunday morning -- devoting 12 column inches no less! -- to the possibility that Broad Run High School senior running back T.J. Peeler might not play in the Spartans AA Region II semifinal game in three weeks after he received two excessive celebration penalties in Friday's 47-7 win over Potomac Falls, it made me do something that a good journalist and publisher does from time-to-time: evaluate my coverage priorities.

One of the goals I had when I started LoudounPrepSports.com five years ago and when I started this new site, VivaLoudoun.com, less than three months ago, was to provide balanced and comprehensive coverage of all the high school sports in Loudoun County ... not just the most popular such as football.

Let's face it, there are online pay and free sites that cover Loudoun and big papers such as the Washington Post, that make football their top priority, and have a lot more resources to throw at that coverage than I could ever dream of.

I am a small operation (I may say my world headquarters is in Ashburn but really that just means my home office overran by cats, one is sleeping in my inbox, and children, such as my 9-year-old that just has to use my computer to set his fantasy football lineup!) and so I am always making choices each day on what to cover.

One of the competitive advantages I have is that I live in Loudoun and am part of the community ... My kids go to Loudoun County Public School and play athletics and I am likely to run into Park View High School AD Joe Breinig Jr. at Bonefish with his wife on a Saturday night like last weekend or flag down Stone Bridge High School cheer coach Nick Marchio, like I did last night during Trick-or-Treating with my son, to learn that the Bulldogs are seeded second after the semifinals of the Northern Region competitive cheer meet.

While I learned of the Peeler ejection from Friday's game before the game had even ended, I chose not to run a story on VivaLoudoun for several reasons.

For one, the individual player getting disciplined has always been a touchy issue for me. I simply do not like negative news, probably a shortcoming in my journalistic resume but so be it, and I am always mindful that we are covering kids and not college or professional players. Maybe that is the dad part of me as I have a son the same age as T.J. Peeler and whenever I approach a topic, I think about how I would want my son to be covered.

Over the years I've had phone calls from people at one high school with an ax to grind with another school and they will suggest an investigative topic and my reply is always: "While I would love to spend time on that topic, I have about a dozen other stories, all of them positive and with meaning, that I simply don't have time to cover ... why would I focus on the negative?"

Now don't get me wrong ... T.J. Peeler, one of the area's top rushers and a Pitt recruit, possibly not playing in the regional semifinal for the undefeated defending VHSL Division 4 state champions is news no doubt ... but given the fact that this is a "may" situation and still three weeks away from actually affecting anything ... my thought this weekend was why devote energy to the story.

If Broad Run wins an appeal and Peeler plays in three weeks, then it was a non-story. When it comes times for regional semifinal previews and key players are out -- for injury and other reasons -- then that is big news.

Besides, I had a great volleyball match to cover on Saturday (got me out of Halloween decorating!) between Loudoun County and Broad Run at Briar Woods High School. Fantastic high school volleyball, to decide the Dulles District's top seed and automatic regional bid, between the two district co-champs. Stone Bridge coach Jill Raschiatore was at the match simply, as she put it, "to watch great high school volleyball."

The only media outlets that chose to cover the match were the Loudoun Times-Mirror -- sports editor Carl Lukat was on hand -- and VivaLoudoun.

That is the type of story that VivaLoudoun wants to devote its energy towards or to this latest update on injured William and Mary, and former Stone Bridge High School, football player Ryan Moody: his father Gil posted this update on Ryan's recovery from a serious car accident last weekend on Facebook yeterday:

From: Ryan Moody-THANK YOU EVERYONE FOR YOUR WISHES!!! FEELING A LITTLE BIT BETTER

Now that is something worth devoting a headline to ... anytime.