High School Sports Year in Review: Spring 2013 - Playoff Success Continues into June

This is the third and final part of a 3-part series by Viva Loudoun looking at the 2012-13 high school sports season:

(July 2, 2013) - Woodgrove girls soccer claimed the only state title in the spring but several other Loudoun schools came oh so close including both the Woodgrove and Stone Bridge softball teams, finishing state runner-up, as did the Briar Woods boys tennis team.

High School Sports Year in Review: Winter 2012-13 - Local Athletes Go for Gold

This is the second of a 3-part series by Viva Loudoun looking at the 2012-13 high school sports season:

(July 1, 2013) -Some habits are hard to break such as the Potomac Falls boys and Loudoun County girls basketball teams making another state tournament run to Richmond.

The Panther boys needed a one-game playoff to take the Dulles District top seed from Loudoun Valley and then the Panthers rolled to a fourth straight Region II Division 4 title. The Panthers bid for a third state title in four years fell short as they lost to eventual state champion Salem in the sate semifinals.

Potomac Falls (26-5) will be primed for another run in 2013-14 as they were led last year by sophomore Wanya Allen.

The Loudoun County girls (24-6) were a surprise in the Division 4 state semifinals – also falling to eventual state champion Salem – as the Raiders had spent most of the season in the shadow of Dulles District and Region II champion Woodgrove. The Wolverines, led by Samantha Purnell the Region Player of the Year, fell by four points in the state quarterfinals.

High School Sports Year in Review: Fall 2012 - A Time for Champions!

This is the first of a 3-part series by Viva Loudoun looking at the 2012-13 high school sports season:

(June 30, 2013) - How good were the athletic programs in Loudoun last year?

Considered that the undefeated Briar Woods football team claimed its third straight VHSL Division 4 state championship … and the Falcons couldn’t even claim bragging rights on their own campus as that honor went to the school’s competitive cheer team which brought home its fourth straight state title.
onsider that the undefeated

And as good as the Falcons were in the fall, the Loudoun County girls volleyball team boasted a better dynasty argument as the Raiders tied a state record with their fifth AA state title in six years.

In the spring Loudoun continued its hold on AA girls soccer in the state as Woodgrove won its second straight state championship beating local rival Briar Woods in the finals at Radford. It was the third time in four years that the AA girls soccer state finals featured two Loudoun schools.

How good is girls soccer in the area? Since the AA girls soccer state tournament started in 1999, Loudoun teams have won 11 titles and made 16 state finals appearances.

It wasn’t just a banner school year again for Loudoun teams but 2012-13 was perhaps the greatest year ever for individual performances, highlighted by two local athletes being named Gatorade Players of the Year for the state of Virginia – Stone Bridge senior defensive lineman Jon Allen (Alabama recruit) for football and Woodgrove senior defender/midfielder Brittany Basinger (Penn State recruit) for girls soccer.

While it is an incredible honor to be named the best at your sport for a given year, Loudoun County Patrick Joseph left no doubt after an amazing senior season that he is the greatest prep runner in Loudoun history.
High School’s

Joseph’s claim to fame included turning the fastest ever record 5K time by a Loudoun high school runner, clocking 15:11 at the Footlocker South Regional in Charlotte in the fall. He finished second in the AA state meet with a 15:40.

Just getting warmed-up, Joseph (Virginia Tech recruit) ran the fastest mile in Loudoun high school history with a 4:07.38 at the Penn Relays in the spring and he finished off his prep career by winning the 800 and 1600 AA state titles.

Joseph wasn’t alone in bagging double state titles as Briar Woods speed sophomore Brandon Polk, waiting for his turn to star on the Falcon football team, won the 100 Kaleigh Rosenburg capped her brilliant career by winning the 200IM and 100 breast at the AA state meet.
and 200 meters at the AA
state meet, and Heritage senior

Loudoun County’s Steven Graham pulled off the rare feat of winning the AA state 400 meters title for a third straight Michael Hulcher won the 126 pounds state title at a very tough AA state tournament.
year. In wrestling, Briar Woods junior

Here is a closer look at the Fall 2012 high school sports season in Loudoun:

2011-12 Sports Year in Review: Part 4

This is the last of a 4-part series as Viva Loudoun editor Dan Sousa takes a look at the 2011-12 high school sports year in Loudoun

Spring 2012: Woodgrove Takes Softball, Girls Soccer State Titles; T&F Stars Shine; Tuscarora Boys Soccer, Broad Run Girls Soccer, Softball Fall Just Short of State Titles

2011-12 Sports Year in Review: Part 3

This is the third of a 4-part series as Viva Loudoun editor Dan Sousa takes a look at the 2011-12 high school sports year in Loudoun

Winter 2011-12: Freedom gymnastics shined; Wrestlers Brought Home Gold; Potomac Falls Boys Hoops Makes Another Run; And Much More!

2011-12 Sports Year in Review: Part 2

This is the second of a 4-part series as Viva Loudoun editor Dan Sousa takes a look at the 2011-12 high school sports year in Loudoun


Fall 2011: Briar Woods Repeats Cheer, Football State Titles; Loudoun County Girls Volleyball Falls Just Shy of 5th Straight Title; and Much More!

2011-12 Sports Year in Review: Talented Class of 2012 Leads Loudoun to New Heights

This is the first of a 4-part series as Viva Loudoun editor Dan Sousa takes a look at the 2011-12 high school sports year in Loudoun

(June 27, 2012) - A talented Class of 2012 helped Loudoun County Public Schools athletes reach new heights in the 2011-12 school year with success on the individual and team levels. In all, a record 199 LCPS senior athletes committed to play athletics at the college level and before graduating many helped their schools raise championship banners on the district, regional and state levels.

On the team levels, the 2011-12 school year was about the rise of the two schools opened in 2005 – Briar Woods and Freedom – and the emergence of Loudoun’s two newest schools opened just two years ago – Tuscarora and Woodgrove.

Briar Woods cemented its place as a power at the Virginia High School League AA classification in the state with a third straight competitive cheer state in the fall and then the Falcons football team repeated its Division 4 state title. 

VivaLoudoun High School Sports Year in Review: Spring 2011

By Dan Sousa
VivaLoudoun Editor

(June 30, 2011) - Four years ago Broad Run’s Whitney Church and Ellie Zoepfl were freshmen rooming together at the VHSL AA girls soccer state finals wondering what the title game would bring the next day at Radford University. The next day it was Zoepfl scoring the lone goal in a 1-0 win over Courtland.

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For Church and Zoepfl and the Spartans it was just the start of four-year run at Radford as they have remained the top team in the state for their entire high school careers, capped by a 1-0 win over Blacksburg in the 2011 finals in June.

VivaLoudoun High School Sports Year in Review: Winter 2010-11

By Dan Sousa
VivaLoudoun Editor

(June 29, 2011) - The Potomac Falls boys basketball team not only repeated their Division 4 state title but the Panthers did it once again in dramatic fashion. In 2009-10 the Panthers became the first Loudoun boys team to ever capture a state hoops championship with a double overtime win in the finals and in March the Panthers repeated with Pete Simoneau’s 3-pointer giving them the 58-55 win over Hidden Valley with five seconds left.

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It was expected that the Panthers would be good with all five starters returning and a 10-member senior class and they made good on that promise with a magical 30-1 season behind the play of senior Lukas Mihailovich and 6-foot-7 junior Greg Graves.

VivaLoudoun High School Sports Year in Review: Fall 2010

By Dan Sousa
VivaLoudoun Editor

(June 28, 2011) - Good-naturally called the “Backyard Brawl” the football rivalry between Ashburn neighbors Briar Woods and Broad Run was the hardest ticket in town as a standing room only crowd saw the two teams tangle twice at Briar Woods in the fall – with the Falcons stopping the visiting Spartans 33-game winning streak with a 20-13 win in the regular season and then a thrilling 24-21 win in the Region II Division 4 finals.

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For Broad Run (11-2) it was the Spartans only two losses of the season under first-year coach Matt Griffis, who left powerhouse Stone Bridge as offensive coordinator to take over the Broad Run reigns after Mike Burnett departed on the heels of back-to-back state titles to start the new Tuscarora program in Leesburg.

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.

VivaLoudoun's 2009-10 High School Sports Year in Review - Part 1: Fall

(July 14, 2010) - It was quite a first year of high school sports coverage for VivaLoudoun.com so we thought we would give you a three-part review of last year's highlights in Loudoun.

Following a year when Loudoun County Public School athletes and their teams brought home a then-record five Virginia High School League (VHSL) state titles, it would seem that the 2009-10 school year had a lot to live up to and the local athletes not only met the high expectations but exceeded them with an amazing eight state titles strung out across five sports and seven schools.

The state titles captured in 2009-10 fell into several categories from the rare three-peat title run to the difficult back-to-back title defense to several historic firsts. All of them were testimony to the level of skill and teamwork displayed on the Loudoun playing fields.

In the area of three-peats both the Loudoun County girls volleyball team and Broad Run girls soccer squad won a third consecutive state title.

In both sports, Loudoun ruled the postseason. In volleyball, on the same afternoon at Virginia Commonwealth University that the Raiders won the AA state title, Loudoun Valley captured the AAA state title. In soccer, four of the final eight teams left in the AA and AAA state tournaments were from Loudoun with Stone Bridge winning the AAA state title, Loudoun County finishing runner-up in the AA finale to Broad Run and Loudoun Valley losing in penalty kicks in the AAA state semifinals.

Some teams in 2009-10 were able to turn their historic first state titles from the previous years into back-to-back state titles as Broad Run football, which won its first state title in 2008 after 40 years of competition, made it two straight in December by winning the Division 4 crown again. Stone Bridge just missed its second Division 5 title as the Bulldogs fell to Phoebus in the finals.

In girls basketball, Freedom, which had become the first Loudoun school, along with the Loudoun County girls, to ever win a state basketball crown in 2009, repeated in 2010 as the Eagles moved up in classification to capture the Division 4 state title a year after winning the Division 3 championship.

Then there were the historic first state titles as Potomac Falls became the first boys basketball team to ever win a state title with a heart-stopping double overtime victory in the Division 4 finals at VCU in Richmond. Another historic state title was won by the Briar Woods competitive cheer team as the Falcons brought home the first ever state title in the school’s 5-year history by winning the AA crown.

And there were some near misses as Stone Bridge just missed adding a AAA state competitive cheer title and Potomac Falls baseball fell in the AA state finals as did the Loudoun Valley boys lacrosse team in the VHSL open tournament finals.

In swimming, Broad Run High School junior Mark Sarman captured both the 200 IM and 100 fly titles at the VHSL A/AA state meet and helped the Spartan 200 free relay team to a state title as well. On the girls side, Briar Woods won not one but two relays as the Falcons swam away with the individual medley and 400 free titles.

Individually, Stone Bridge junior Hayley Springman won the AAA state discus title and the Park View High School boys 4x100 relay was crowned AA state champion as the quartet of Nathan Santana, Daryus Beale, Takim Gayle and Dennis April turned in a winning 42.48 time.

Finally, to show how far Loudoun athletics has come, several former Loudoun athletes were in the news as Ed Wang (Stone Bridge/Virginia Tech) and Adrian Tracy (Potomac Falls/William and Mary) were chosen in the NFL draft by the Buffalo Bills and New York Giants and Conor Mullee (Broad Run/Saint Peter’s) was selected in the Major League Baseball draft by the New York Yankees. Loudoun was even represented at the Winter Olympics as former Harmony Intermediate student Ashley Caldwell made the U.S. Freestyle Ski team at age 16.

Here’s how it broke down by season: