LET THE BATTLES BEGIN: The Battlefield and Patior football teams are previewed on Page 9
August 22, 2018 | Serving Haymarket, Gainesville and Western Prince William County | Vol. 17, No. 34 | www.PrinceWilliamTimes.com | 50¢
Manassas Park High cancels varsity football By Jeff Malmgren Times Staff Writer
PHOTO BY RANDY LITZINGER
Manassas Park has had success in football, winning a state title in 2004 and going 8-4 in 2012. Since then the program has faltered, leading to low turnout and the cancellation of the 2018 season.
Manassas Park’s High School’s reluctant decision last week to cancel its 2018 varsity football season due to low turnout has since had a ripple effect in the schedules of nearby programs such as Brentsville and Kettle Run high schools. Low player turnout during preseason practices led to the move Manassas Park made Aug. 14, only 11 days before the Cougars’ scheduled season-opening game against Kettle Run. So Kettle Run had little time to find a new opponent for its Aug. 24 contest and now plans to play only nine games with byes during Week 1 and Week 10 (Oct. 26). Brentsville had better options
to adjust its schedule with the Tigers’ game against Manassas Park scheduled for Nov. 2. They switched that Week 11 game to a bye and added a game against Central Woodstock to their previous bye week, Sept. 21. Manassas Park, meanwhile, will play only a junior varsity schedule this fall with expected varsity athletes eligible to play. “My heart is heavy for everyone at Manassas Park,” Kettle Run coach Charlie Porterfield said. “I know that it was a tough decision to make, but ultimately was the correct one. “Having played them for the last three years I know those are tough kids,” he said. “They will bounce back.” Manassas Park canceled its varsity season after its preseason
practice roster included only 30 athletes with an average of only 15 healthy players available each practice, principal Pamela Kalso wrote in a letter sent to members of the Manassas Park community. “Many of these athletes have little, if any, varsity experience,” she wrote. So Manassas Park administrators consulted with the VHSL, which recommends that a school play a varsity football schedule only if it has at least 25 viable players. Otherwise, “Playing at the varsity level would expose student athletes to a higher risk of injury,” Kalso wrote, “and that participation posed a serious safety threat.” See FOOTBALL, Page 2
Last call for Kline’s Freeze Yorkshire ice cream shop closes after 53 years By Jill Palermo
Times Staff Writer
Kline’s Freeze, a Manassas summertime tradition since 1965, twirled its last soft-serve ice cream cones, cherry-topped sundaes and tall, frosty milkshakes to hundreds of loyal customers who stood in lines that snaked around both sides of its iconic blue-and-white building for most of the day Sunday, Aug. 19, the final day of business for owners James and Lorraine Kline Croushorn. Together, the couple have run the ice cream stand, located on Centreville Road in Yorkshire, since they took over from Lorraine’s parents, Paul and June Kline, when they retired. “My daddy’s favorite thing to do was to watch kids eat ice cream. It’s a happy thing,” Lorraine Croushorn said outside the restaurant Sunday evening. “I’ll bet he’s smiling on us today.” See KLINE’S, Page 2
TIMES STAFF PHOTO/JILL PALERMO
Saying goodbye: Members of the Kline family hung out at their family ice-cream shop, Kline’s Freeze, much of the day on Sunday, Aug. 19, the restaurant’s last day in business. From left, Donna Kline House, Lorraine Kline Croushorn, James Croushorn and Bonnie Kline Cheshire. INSIDE Calendar.............................................10 Classifieds...........................................12 News....................................................3 Obituaries.............................................6
Opinion.................................................7 Puzzle Page..........................................8 Real Estate..........................................11 Sports...................................................9
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FROM PAGE 1
Gainesville / Prince William Times | www.princewilliamtimes.com | August 22, 2017
Citing too few players, Manassas Park High cancels varsity football FOOTBALL, from Page 1 Two other VHSL teams recently decided to cancel their 2018 varsity schedules. Park View High School, in Loudoun County, reportedly had only 18 players attend preseason tryouts, which limited the school to only a JV team. Meanwhile Charles City High School, in **, had to scrap the season for its entire program. “It’s a shame, but it’s definitely a trend,” said Fauquier County’s Liberty High School coach Sean Finnerty, whose Eagles had to cancel their freshman season due to low turnout. “I guess times are changing. Maybe athletics aren’t as important as they once were.” Liberty’s freshman participation dropped from around 35 players the previous two seasons to around 20 this season. At nearby Patriot High School, in Nokesville, participation dropped from around 145 players in the overall program (varsity, junior varsity
PHOTO BY RANDY LITZINGER
A.J. Simon (3), Ethan Garza (10) and the Manassas Park Cougars struggled to a 1-9 record last season. (blue background) and freshmen teams) last season to around 115 this year. Pioneers coach Brud Bicknell speculated that participation may have dropped for many VHSL teams due to concern from recent studies that link
football to brain injuries such as CTE. “Residual [effect] from the whole concussion-awareness deal,” he said. “And, I hate to say this, but I think football’s become too hard for a lot of kids. “I don’t know what the future
holds in this” sport, he said. Participation in Liberty’s overall program dropped from around 85 last season to around 75 in 2018. “It really is a shame that we can’t get more kids,” Finnerty said. “Not having middle school sports [in Fauquier County] hurts us. For football, they have to go out and play in other organizations.” Manassas Park hopes its newly formed middle school program will help build the participation numbers at the high school level so the Cougars can play a varsity schedule again in 2019 and beyond. On-field success could also aid teams that have struggled to maintain adequate rosters. Manassas Park finished last season with a 1-9 record after going 2-8 in 2016, 0-10 in 2015, 1-9 in 2104 and 2-8 in 2013. Park View, similarly, has eight consecutive losing seasons with records of 0-10, 2-8, 2-8, 0-10, 2-8 and 0-10, from 2017 to 2012.
Last call for Kline’s Freeze: Yorkshire ice cream shop closes after 53 years
KLINE’S, from Page 1
Paul Kline, who passed away in 2006, grew up on a dairy farm near what is now Innovation Park. He was a door-to-door delivery man and brought milk to the ice-cream shop in the 1950s, back when it was a Tastee-Freeze, and then scooped it up for himself in 1965. Lorraine Croushorn said she remembers coming to work with her dad when she was 7 years old. All seven kids Kline kids helped out, five girls and two boys. The family expanded the operation to a second location, Kline’s Drive-In, which operated on Nokesville Road near the Manassas Airport for 38 years, from 1969 to 2007. Lorraine’s brother Lynn and his wife, Joan, ran Kline’s Drive In while the Croushorns ran the original store. But after spending decades running the shop every summer – a job that fell mostly to Lorraine, as James also worked as a service manager for Southern States in Calverton – the couple decided to make this summer their last. “It’s hard. We love serving ice cream but we’re getting old,” James
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Last call: Hundreds came out to Kline’s Freeze Sunday for one last soft-serve ice cream cone, milkshake or other sweet treat. Croushorn said. “This is a young person’s game.” The couple has three grown children and 10 grandchildren, ages 18 months to 14 years. They no longer want to spend their summers working, Lorraine Croushorn said. “We decided life’s too short for that,” she said. “This is a 24-7 business, and we have a big family. We want to spend
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time with them and enjoy.” Located on the busy corner of Centreville Road and Maplewood Drive, Kline’s Freeze has seen the passing traffic grow with the surrounding area.
The right time
Over the years, the value of the half-acre lot that includes the shop has risen exponentially. The property was purchased in 2007 for $2.7 million and then again in 2014 for $4 million by its current owner: Lindsay Holdings LLC. The Kline family never owned the building or the property, Lorraine Croushorn said. When the When the Lindsay group bought the property, they did so with plans to expand their automotive operation. The company operates Chrysler-Dodge-Jeep dealership and a collision center on nearby parcels. A site plan Lindsay submitted to Prince William County officials in 2017 as part of an application for a special-use permit shows a future Lindsay Volkswagen dealership where the Kline’s Freeze building now stands. The Croushorns have been on a year-to-year lease for the property since 2014, but the couple never felt pressured to close Kline’s, Lorraine Croushorn said. “The Lindsay family has been so good to us and so accommodating,” she added.
The decision to close now, she said, is theirs. “This is the right time for us,” Lorraine Croushorn said. The couple hung out at the walkup restaurant most of the day Sunday and were said they were heartened to see so many customers come out to say goodbye. “It’s been busy all week, but this has been extraordinary,” James Croushorn said of the weekend foot traffic. “I’m afraid we’re going to run out of ice cream.” The store was scheduled to close at 10 p.m. that night, but the couple said they weren’t sure if supplies would hold out that long. By 7 p.m., there were 88 people in two separate lines. Many said they’d heard about Kline’s Freeze closing on Facebook and had to make one last trip. They included Sarah Mysinger who came from Fairfax for one last cone of chocolate ice cream. She recalled coming to Kline’s when she was a kid, when her dad took her to the Old Dominion Speedway on Friday nights. “I’m sad to see it go for sure,” Mysinger said. “And I haven’t even been here in years.” Deborah and Molly Kelly were in line for a second time that night. They’d ordered chicken nuggets earlier and were waiting again for ice cream. Deborah Kelly recalled taking Molly and her friends to Kline’s Freeze after swim team practices years ago. Molly said she wanted her own daughter, age 1, to try it for herself. “You could just pop up to the window and they had every kind of cone,” Deborah Kelly said of their visits to Kline’s in years past. “There were places to sit outside, and it was just really nice. You’d usually see people you knew from the area.” Hiram Andradez was in line behind Mysinger, waiting for one last milkshake. He brought his family from Centreville. “I saw that they were closing and said I gotta come up here at least one more time,” he said. “For ice cream, this was the place.” Reach Jill Palermo at jpalermo@ fauquier.com
NEWS
Gainesville / Prince William Times | www.princewilliamtimes.com | August 22, 2017
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Speech teacher enters 2019 race for Brentsville supervisor By Jill Palermo
Times Staff Writer
Maggie Hansford is a speech teacher and mom of three who’s tired of Prince William County schools being perennially underfunded and overcrowded. She’s also frustrated by planning decisions that leave “sidewalks to nowhere” and create new schools that few students can reach on foot. All of these shortcomings, Hansford says, keep Prince William County from attracting the kind of commercial development that could take the pressure off residential tax bills. Those are among the issues Hansford, 39, says she’ll address if elected to the Prince William County Board of Supervisors in 2019. “I don’t want to have the highest class sizes in all of Northern Virginia,” Hansford said, noting that Prince William spends the lowest amount,
on a per-pupil basis, of all school divisions in the Washington, D.C., area, according to an annual report of the Washington Area Boards Maggie Hansford of Education. “I want to pay our teachers competitive salaries and address the needs of our students.” Hansford, a speech pathologist at T. Clay Elementary School in Nokesville, is the first Democrat to announce her candidacy for the Brentsville District supervisor’s seat. Supervisor Jeanine Lawson, a Republican, has held the seat since a 2014 special election called when former Supervisor Wally Covington, also a Republican, was appointed to be a district court judge. Lawson confirmed this week she will run for re-election.
The daughter of a federal prison guard, Hansford said she’s long been drawn to public service. She has Midwestern roots. She attended college and graduate school at the University of Central Missouri and began her career in Chicago, where she was speech therapist at Northwestern Hospital’s Shirley Ryan AbilityLab, formerly the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago, before moving to New Bristow Village 10 years ago with her husband of 14 years. The couple has three boys, ages 5, 8 and 12, who attend T. Clay Wood and Marsteller Middle schools, keep busy with youth sports and attend Trinity Episcopal Church in Manassas. After the sudden passing of their 3-month-old daughter in 2009, Hansford led a program in a local nonprofit that helps families cope with infant and child loss. She also serves as a volunteer board member of her com-
ACTS opens new Hunger Prevention Center
Monthly households served jumps from 660 to 950 since opening By James Ivancic Times Staff Writer
Bigger is better when it comes to feeding the hungry. The food collection and distribution service operated by Action in Community Through Service in eastern Prince William County just got bigger. The former 1,900-square-foot operation now covers 3,300 square feet. That means the new Hunger Prevention Center can take in more donations than before. It occupies a building behind the ACTS family services center at 3901 ACTS Lane in Dumfries. It no longer shares space with the ACTS thrift store. The hunger prevention center has been open for more than a month, but a ribbon-cutting ceremony and reception was held Aug. 15 to formally mark its opening. Attending were ACTS board members, Prince William Board of Supervisors Chairman Corey Stewart, R-At Large; Supervisor Maureen Caddigan, R-Potomac; Deputy County Executive Elijah Johnson and Prince William County Chamber of Commerce Chair Betty Dean. The Hylton Foundation underwrote the $1.4 million cost to buy the building and gave $115,000 to renovate it. ACTS Board Chairman David Strand said the expanded quarters will enable staff to be “more efficient and effective.” Classes on nutrition will now be available to help recipients make healthier choices in what they eat and how they prepare their meals. Health and wellness case managers will be working with those receiving food, said Steven Liga, chief executive officer of ACTS. Wegmans staff members will teach food-preparation skills. The poor naturally buy the cheapest food, which might not be the healthiest. “Our job is to make sure they get healthy food and know how to use it,” Liga told the crowd of about 50 people who came out on a hot morning
munity’s homeowner’s association. In addition to talking about adequate funding for Prince William schools and better mobility around the county, including more bike paths and sidewalks, Hansford is also campaigning on preserving the rural crescent, which she says should be protected from further development to protect green space and direct development in places already served by existing infrastructure. “We must respect and value the rural crescent. We need to protect green space, both for the preservation of the environment, as well as for our quality of life,” Hansford said. “The rural crescent is important not only for Brentsville, but also for Prince William County as a whole.” Reach Jill Palermo at jpalermo@ fauquier.com
ACTS fun fair planned Sept. 22 Nokesville United Methodist Church will hold a “fun fair” on Saturday, Sept. 22, to promote the work of ACTS. The 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. fair will be held on the church grounds at 12550 Aden Road. The event will offer fun, food and health screenings. There will be a scavenger hunt, tractor cars on display, an obstacle course, face-painting, silent auction, raffle and a bounce house as well as a high school choir and dance team. Chicken and pork barbecue sandwiches, cole slaw and baked beans will be sold. Health screenings will include free sight and hearing checks by the Lions Club, free oral cancer screenings by Nokesville Family Dentistry and free self-defense instruction by Damsel in Distress.
COURETSY PHOTO
ACTS opened a bigger food pantry in Dumfries. for the ribbon-cutting. ACTS receives donated food and other items from area grocery stores, private donations and allotments from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and goods from the Capital Area Food Bank. ACTS serves up to 1,000 households per month. In the past year, ACTS served an average of 660 households per month. That number jumped to more than 950 households per month for the past three months when the new center was open, Liga said. About 680,000 pounds of food are distributed by ACTS each year. Refrigeration units allow the hunger center to provide various meats, dairy products, fresh fruit and other foodstuffs not always supplied at other food pantries. Deli sandwiches and baked goods are also available. Everything is weighed to track the amount of goods received through donations and dispersed to the needy. ACTS serves the needs of diabetics and others on special diets. It also supplies baby food and diapers – “5,000 diapers a month,” said Philip Edney, the hunger prevention center’s program manager. Household supplies and pet food are also given out.
A team of volunteers keeps the center going by helping those going through a check-in process to receive aid and filling bags with the requested food items. The hunger center is open from 9 to 11:30 a.m. and 1 to 3:30 p.m. Monday and Thursday; 1 to 3:30 p.m. and 5 to 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday, and 9 to 11:30 a.m. Friday. It is closed Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday. ACTS has been serving the needy for nearly 50 years. It will celebrate its golden anniversary in March with a gala at the Hylton Performing Arts Center in Manassas. ACTS is trying to line up a speaker from each of the churches involved in founding ACTS in 1969. The churches came together to help a family displaced by a fire. Their work expanded into starting the county’s first food bank and establishing homeless shelters in local churches. ACTS today also operates a crisis helpline, assists victims of sexual assault and domestic violence, runs an emergency homeless shelter, operates an affordable housing program and helps women achieve economic independence and self-sufficiency. ACTS uses the proceeds from its thrift store to help support its various programs. ACTS services the Greater Prince William County area, including the cities of Manassas and Manassas Park. Reach James Ivancic at jivancic@fauquier.com
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