Scrimmage Play: June 2012

31 STATE TITLES FOR PUBLIC TRIO

23 CHS LAX DEVELOPS

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VOL 3 . ISSUE 9 :: JULY 2012

Filling Faults Louisa County banded together to handle quake fallout Page 9

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ON THE TRAIL Miller excells in HSMBS series

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LOCKED OUT Louisa makes due with unusual circumstances

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PROJECT LAX CHS’s lacrosse program hits its stride

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VOL 3 . ISSUE 9 :: JULY 2012

x’s and o’s S TA F F Bart Isley, Creative Director Bob Isley, Infrastructure Director Ryan Yemen, Creative Editor Journey Group, Art Direction Jim Kuznar, Business Development O N T H E COV E R LCHS’ David Copeland and Madison Stanley

TRIPLE CROWN Three public school teams came home with titles

M I S S I O N S TAT E M E N T Local sports are the lifeblood of every community in America, and we’re here to reach beyond the basics and give compelling accounts about Central Virginia athletes to our readers.

REVAMPED LEGION Albemarle and Fluvanna take to summer baseball

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PREGAME

Up and over

Louisa County’s Javanique Burruss had an exceptional Group AA championship as she won state titles in the long jump, triple jump and here in the 100-meter hurdles. It was a wild year from start to finish for all of the Lions in all sports as the school and its administrators had to deal with the truly unexpected. To read about how Louisa dealt with problems the earthquake this past August presented, head to page 9. ✖ (Photo by Bart Isley)

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First Quarter On the trail

VAHS MTB shines in just second time around

By Bart Isley

T

hey’ve been looking for a place to compete for some time now, and the state’s mountain bikers proved it by coming out in droves for the Virginia High School Mountain Biking Series’ second annual state championships out at the Miller School’s newly-minted trails.

Chris Keeling earned a second place finish in the VAHS MTB championship. (Bart Isley)

{ CLOCKING IN } Miller put up two of the top four times in the race with Rocktown taking the other two.

KING (MILLER)

1:05:12

ZIMMERMAN (ROCKTOWN)

1:03.06

KEELING (MILLER)

1:01.06

BELL (ROCKTOWN)

59.05.5

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The series came together in 2011 as part of the emergence of Miller’s unique endurance program and had a rousing six-race series in its first year. The series’ producers repeated the process in 2012 with expanded, new trail systems at various locations that made for a tougher, more competitive test of the state’s top riders.

For the second straight year, Connor Bell took home top honors, winning the championship and the series. Bell, who’s from Harrisonburg, has emerged as a formidable presence on the series after winning the very first race back in 2011. Bell has trained and raced overseas and he’s clearly emerged as the series’ most-talented presence.

But Bell is far from the only terrific rider out in the Series.

Miller’s own Chris Keeling took second at the state championships, and is an extremely talented rider who’s had a major impact since he joined the Mavericks’ endurance program this year. Keeling is a local rider who grew up around Charlottesville and attended St. Anne’s-Belfield before heading to Miller for the endurance program.

There’s also Jake King, a road cyclist who has started emerging as a solid trail rider after giving the series a shot.

“I did mountain bikes in the offseason for fun,” King said after the first race of the season when he logged a second-place finish.

“I started to take it more seriously and it’s actually something I train for now.”

It didn’t hurt that King was able to practice

regularly on the state championship track out at Miller on a regular basis.

“We’ve got outstanding coaches here, they took me on a couple of practice laps before the (first) race (of the year) and pointed out the good lines enough that I was able to keep it upright,” King said.

With key outdoors programs like Blue Ridge, Miller and Woodberry Forest in the area and an abundance of incredible outdoor venues, Charlottesville is a natural fit for the series and the marquee event, the state championship.

The seeds have clearly been sown for an incredible future for the VAHS MTB series.

Several local coaches and administrators have built the base with the help of a lot of sponsors and enthusiastic support, now we’ll get to see what happens next for a fast-growing sport that’s bringing local riders to a competitive circuit, in many cases for the first time.

Many are already showing that it’ll be far from their last. ✖ The VAHS MTB series will fire back up again in the spring marking its third season as programs across the state continue to embrace mountain biking as a high school sport.

go online »

For more biking coverage, go and check out the outdoors page at www.scrimmageplay.com.

Elder receives honor from CHS

Black Knights’ assistant steps up

By Bart Isley

By Bart Isley

He didn’t set out to be a coach, but the Charlottesville High School community is a lot better off for the fact that Curtis Elder fell into coaching track and field.

Elder started working in the high schools as an educator first. Though the Brunswick native had an extensive background from Elizabeth City State as a college javelin thrower and as a high school football player, he wasn’t intent on coaching.

But he soon found a parallel calling, becoming the Black Knights’ head track coach. He led CHS to seven total state titles including three boys outdoor championships in the 1990s.

In early June, Charlottesville High recognized him by naming the school track facility after Elder while also giving him a long overdue varsity letter.

He’s handed out a slew of those letters over the year, but he was quick to let everyone know that he wasn’t done yet.

“This is not a retirement,” Elder said in his acceptance speech after graciously accepting the honors from Charlottesville City Schools’ administrators. ✖

To say newly-named Charlottesville head girls basketball coach James Daly has been coaching since he was a kid wouldn’t be a stretch.

At all.

Daly coached his first high school game—a junior varsity girls contest—when he was still in high school. After not making his school’s boys varsity squad in Danbury, Connecticut, Daly served as an assistant coach for the girls junior varsity and the school’s head coach had to miss a few games, leaving Daly to take over. “,” Daly said. “.”

Now he’s running one of the most storied programs in Central Virginia, taking over the Black Knights after former UVa player Deanna Mitchelson’s three-year stint that followed a long reign by Harry Terrell.

For the immediate future, Daly has several young standouts including multi-sport star Kendall Ballard, to build around. The Black Knights qualified for the Region II tournament last year with Daly as Mitchelson’s lead assistant. ✖

BELOW » Charlottesville’s new track and field facility was named after its long time coach.

Tale of the Tape Anchoring the OC boys

E R I C WA S H I N G T O N

Free Throws

ALEC MILLER

Mile Spits

Versatile forwards, Miller and Washington can both rebound and handle cleanup duty underneath the basket for Hornets coach Keyode Rogers.

ALEC MILLER Class :: Senior Position:: Forward Height :: 6’4” Weight :: 165 lbs Best part of living in Orange :: “I live out by Lake Anna. So its great in the summer. There’s a lot of wakeboarding.”

Playing for Rogers :: “I love how he gets out there in practice and plays with us.

He makes us better doing that.”

ERIC WASHINGTON Class :: Junior Position:: Forward Height :: 6’3” Weight :: 200 lbs Best part of living in Orange :: “That I know everybody. Everybody.”

Playing for Rogers :: “He’s a hype-up coach. He’s not quiet. He’s fun to be around on and off the court.”

Quotables “I told her earlier this year that she was our go-to going into the playoffs, getting us through the district and regionals. She’s done that.” — Madison softball coach Jesse

Yowell on pitcher Taylor Seale. The sophomore went 6-2 this postseason including a no hitter in the Region B semfinals against Central Lunenburg to clinch the schools second straight Group A Division 1 bid.

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Success stories begin here.

Success Story: Olsen Pierre Few University programs have pumped out more defensive stalwarts over the last 20 years than Miami, and in Olsen Pierre, the Hurricanes have a talent capable of wreaking havoc on offensive linemen.

At 6-foot-4 and 265 pounds, the Rahway, N.J. native had all of the physical tools that you would want in a pass rusher. And when he came to Fork Union’s post graduate program run by John Shuman in 2010, colleges lined up as he became a polished product.

Pierre piled up an impressive 12 sacks for the Blue Devils that fall and it panned out in an expanded list of colleges interested in the defensive lineman. With Al Golden taking the helm after the 2010 season at Miami, Pierre became the new coach’s first commitment,

a significant honor.

He made a solid impression during his first year in Southern Florida. It’s not easy to get on the field as a freshman, much less in the trenches, but Pierre managed to do just that this past fall as he saw action in seven games and recorded four tackles including a pair in a 24-7 win against then ranked No. 20 Georgia Tech.

Pierre enjoyed a solid spring training camp and registered four tackles and one for a loss during the Hurricane’s spring game.

With the tools he acquired at Fork Union, Pierre stands poised have a breakout season for Miami as the team looks to improve upon its 6-6 record. The sophomore has three years of eligibility left, so in many ways, his success story is just getting started.

Fork Union Military Academy is the leading Christian military boarding school for boys in grades 6 - 12 and PG. www.forkunion.com — 1-800-GO-2-FUMA

On the Sidelines

Unlike any other Even baseball haters have to admit, winning a title is unique

O

ne of the most common questions we get from fans when we’re out and about is how we think one really good private or public school in one particular sport would do against another. Who would win? More than a year ago the question was asked about Woodberry Forest versus Louisa County in football. We would have paid good money to see those two 2010 teams go head to head. This year it came up in the spring when I was asked who I thought would win, last year’s St. Anne’s-Belfield state title team or this year’s William Monroe championship squad. I have answers for neither of these. This past fall I learned I was right to not have an answer when Goochland throttled Fork Union in football and then the Blue Devils then beat up Powhatan, who went on to recover and win the Jefferson District. There’s no real way to know how to compare the two factions. Having said that though, I came away from this spring with a great appreciation of how different a playoff run in baseball is for a private school as opposed to a public school.

Baseball is truly unique in this fashion, you can’t always have your best players in their proper positions. Pitchers need rest and as such, baseball teams are vulnerable in the sense that after an ace pitches, the team has to look for someone else. In the private school ranks, there are two rounds of playoffs, with more often than not, just one round of win-or-gohome play in the three round VISAA tournament.

In the public ranks, it’s an odd 3-round mess of elimination games mixed with games where only seeding is on the line. And William Monroe and Monticello both went through fascinating playoff runs where they dealt with that nature of must-win games and managing their pitching.

In his first year with the Mustangs, Corey Hunt showed faith in his arms as Monticello played in eight postseason games, six of which were elimination games. With Josh Malm and Kyle Jacobson anchoring the pitching staff, Hunt and his team ran into a situation where they had to play in a 4-round regional tournament because of their regular season record and runner-up status to Powhatan in the JD tournament. After the Mustangs got through the first round and the quarterfinals of the Region II tournament, neither Malm nor Jacobson was available to pitch in the semifinals where a win over Sherando guaranteed a Group AA berth. Thanks to strong a start from Chandler Lee and timely hitting (that should go without saying in any postseason game), Monticello earned its state tourney ticket. How Hunt decided when and where to pitch both Malm and Jacobson, lean on his bullpen and choose Sean Byrnes or Brandon Beasley is beyond me. There’s no formula for how to split so many innings between that staff.

For Monroe, coach Mike Maynard had his ace, Jordan Gentry and then had to decide how far to push him and lean on Lamar Neslon and Jack Morris for help. The Dragons 1-loss regular season afforded them a guaranteed Region B bid and as such, this team wasn’t under the gun in the Bull Run District tournament. But once region play rolled around, Maynard chose to use Gentry as often as possible as opposed to for complete games. Nelson and Morris played pivotal roles in chewing up the rest of the innings and their efforts were truly rewarded in the scorebook with Nelson earning the extra inning win over Chilhowie in the state championship game and Morris getting the victory the previous day in the semifinals. How Maynard came to the decision that Gentry should pitch for innings as opposed to picking up wins, again, is beyond me.

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“Only in baseball does the most important player spend the majority of the playoffs out of position.”

What it comes down to is that in my mind, there is no harder state championship to win in high school sports than the public baseball tournaments and it simply comes down to managing the pitching over a vast number of games. In football, the best 11 always line up. In basketball, the top five to six players are always on the court. Lacrosse and soccer players always get their minutes. Only in baseball does the most important player spend the majority of the playoffs not doing what they’re meant to do, because physically, it’s impossible. That’s what makes the game on the diamond chess and not checkers, with all due respect to all the other sports.

In the private tournaments in 2010 and 2011, I saw that talent truly prevailed between STAB and Covenant in their playoff runs. This year, I saw depth and the bullpen prevail with Monroe and Monticello. Who’d win between those four teams? Baseball fans, Ryan Yemen, regardless of outcome. ✖ CREATIVE EDITOR

back talk »

Is the VHSL baseball tourney the hardest thing to win? Let me know at ryan@scrimmageplay.com

LLOOCC K E Story by Bart Isley | Portraits by John Berry

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From left to right, Jacob Conley, Madison Stanley, Hali Goad, Lyndsey Jones, Jason Guy, Kerri Chisholm, Lakey Harkrader, Autumn Wood, Kendall Catterton, Roger Jackson, Leah Chaney, Megan Lively, David Copeland and Tierra Jackson

D O OUUTT

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TT

The creativity of Louisa County’s leadership over the last year is striking. The school board, administrators and supervisors — among a host of other groups — found a way to make things work, repeatedly coming up with innovative solutions with little to work with in the wake of the August earthquake.

But that didn’t make the frustration, as a senior tennis player, of

watching your home court get dismantled, deconstructed and turned into a slab foundation for a small portion of Louisa County’s current mobile high school, any easier to bear.

“It was a little sad actually to know we weren’t going to be able to

play at home — that we weren’t going to have that home field advantage,” said senior tennis team member Madison Stanley. “It was a little frustrating.”

Like everything else has been this year in Mineral — flat out frustrating. The earthquake fundamentally changed the entire landscape of Louisa County High School’s 2011-2012, with a particularly acute impact on a proud, well-respected athletic department and a class of senior athletes hoping that their final year of high school would be everything they hoped it would be.

But that day just before football season started flipped the script and packed this school year full of uncertainty, change and, eventually, adaptation. It also left everyone — from the baseball players who had to get creative about offseason workouts to the basketball team that

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Keon Winkey (above) and members of both the boys and girls basketball team called Monticello home this winter.

played all its home games on the road up to the athletic director — with a story to tell.

Louisa County High turned the timeless Ernest Hemingway quote about how people lose their money — “slowly, and then all at once,” — on its head in 2011. In Mineral, things changed suddenly and then slowly over the next nine months as the entire community adjusted to the fallout of the 5.8 magnitude earthquake on August 23, 2011.

After a few moments of sheer terror, captured on video cameras inside the hallways and seared in the minds of the students, teachers and faculty inside the building, Louisa County’s public education system went into flux as administrators worked with outside groups to assess the damage to the system’s infrastructure.

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During that time, the athletic department did everything it could to pull its vast equipment storage out of the main building that already had limited access at that point. Because they feared they might not get another chance to get in and get what they needed as far as fall sports equipment, a posse of coaches and assistants, led by athletic director Michael Parsons, determined that the storage area was safe and went in. They spent six to eight hours unloading all the equipment they could into eight buses they brought up from transportation.

Parsons, Louisa’s first-year athletic director, experienced a baptism by fire after taking the department over from former leader Lee Downey. More remarkably, Louisa was also operating with a first-year principal, Thomas Smith. The fact that they were able to, with the help of

PERSPEC TIVES “It was hectic, you had to adjust, like when it rained. We practiced in the cafeteria sometimes or over at Mineral Baptist Church.

You just had to adjust.”

CHARLES ELKINS many, many others, keep the LCHS community steering forward is a testament to the system’s well-established track record of promoting from within. Smith had been at the school for 13 years while Parsons had also learned the ropes under Downey. Despite being rookies in their current posts, the two were well-equipped to navigate the uncharted waters they faced.

While Parsons eventually got limited access to the building to snag a few more key items — small wish lists like “all the basketball stuff” — that initial equipment extraction was critical to keeping the high school’s athletic department operating in the transition that followed. Much of the football team’s gear and day-to-day equipment like helmet repair kits were moved into a couple of portable storage units at the back of the middle school. When practice got back into a regular routine — which was no easy task as student-athletes were alternating days with the middle school while what would become the mobile high school was constructed starting in late October — football players changed into equipment wherever they could find a free spot.

There was no locker room and no real clear indication of when there might be again.

“A lot of guys changed outside, a lot of guys changed in the middle school locker room when it was open,” said Louisa senior running back Andre Mealy. “All our equipment was in the POD, that little shed. It was hectic. You had to adjust, like when it rained. We practiced in the cafeteria sometimes or over at Mineral Baptist Church. You just had to adjust.”

Mealy, who’s headed to James Madison this fall to play football, and his teammates adjusted well, winning eight games while earning a Region II, Division 4 playoff berth. The Lions beat Sherando in the playoffs before falling to Jefferson District foe Powhatan in the region semifinals.

But the season and the daily grind of going to class for extended periods on alternating days took its toll.

“We (didn’t get to play) our first game against Eastern View and then after that, school wasn’t in,” Mealy said. “Then (when the students got back into class) the days were just so long.

We’re talking 12-hour days and Fridays were even longer.”

Finding enclosed practice facilities was a struggle right out of the gate that continued throughout the school year, particularly

SCHOOL SECURIT Y Charles Elkins has one son that graduated from Louisa County in 2010 and another currently at the school. A former law enforcement officer, Elkins was brought on staff at Louisa to help out with school security.

Something that often gets over looked at any school, any sporting event is those standing in the wings ready to help out. Parents send their kids to school with a given sense that the school will look out for them and that the environment will be safe at all times. With what this school endured in the sheer physical changes should have raised concerns. Louisa was on top of it between its move to the middle school in the fall and it’s move to the trailers late in the winter. With so much movement, the concern for security was keeping the defacto hallways, open pavement, and the school entrances and exits on constant watch.

“There’s so many entry points here,” Elkins said.

“Our administrative staff here, they’re not behind a desk. They’re out on the concrete beating the paths.

The hallways in this school are the concrete (paths between mobile units). In the six minutes when the kids are changing classes you’ll see principals, administrators, athletic directors, head of counseling, you’ll see all of them outside monitoring the kids.”

Of course the other great concern for any school is where students meet up. In this situation, there was no way to predict where the school hangouts would be, but once established, those areas became a focus as well.

“There are two (congregation) spots,” Elkins said.

“They’re right outside the cafeteria and right outside these soda machines outside (the athletic office’s) door.

That’s where they hang out.”

Incidents were few and far between at Louisa, a credit to the student body and the group that always gets forgotten at any school, the security team in place to make sure that the environment is safe at all times.

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A ongtime assistant Jon Meeks (below) took over the football program this fall and put them in the playoffs.

for indoor sports that needed them every day.

The school’s volleyball team had it the worst in the fall, riding an activity bus or car pooling to and from the Betty Queen Center, part of the Louisa County Parks and Recreation system.

It was far from an ideal environment for a volleyball team hoping to take a step forward this season, but the Lions made the best of it.

“The floors are different and it’s just not the same environment,” said senior captain Kerri Chisholm. “It was definitely frustrating.

We had to practice (sometimes) in the morning before school and the games definitely got moved around.”

The sheer volume of square footage lost with the closing of the main school building, the main gym and auxiliary gym among it, had a huge impact on the department’s ability to coordinate practices. The Louisa cheerleading teams faced a struggle similar to the volleyball team during the fall, completing a tumultuous four years of practice space for the squad’s seniors bouncing between campus and Mineral Baptist.

“My freshman year was normal, we practiced at the gym,” said senior Kendall Catterton. “My sophomore year we had a problem with the wall so we actually practiced at the church. Junior year, it was back to normal and this year, it’s like ‘here we go, back to the church.’”

The cheerleaders occasionally had to share that limited area when the Lions’ football squad needed space for inclement weather.

Field hockey faced similar challenges with inclement weather and limited indoor space available. Even the marching band had to make do with a venue shift and had to break out some elbow grease to get things straightened out for its halftime and competition shows.

“When we got moved we didn’t have any lines so we had to go paint our own, and we didn’t have hash marks so we painted those too,” said senior David Copeland. “We had to fit an entire marching band onto one bus and that’s us and all our instruments and equipment. That was stressful.”

Basketball was an entirely new challenge once winter rolled around. That’s when both the girls and boys squads had little choice but to win tough road games because that’s

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scrimmageplay.smugmug.com real game photos for real fans

absolutely all they played. In a partnership agreement put together by Monticello athletic director Fitzgerald Barnes and Parsons, Louisa made Monticello High, more than 40 minutes away, its pseudo-home court.

The Lions squeezed in home games on random nights when the Mustangs weren’t playing, sometimes logging doubleheaders in a partitioned main gym with Monticello practice going. The move was the only real option that Louisa had as far as playing games but that had a major impact on the athletic budget, which, at one point according to Parsons was down nearly 60 percent as far as gate receipts go for a typical season.

It was likely even more frustrating to watch a pair of new head coaches — Brian Wilson on the boys side and Jarred Soles on the girls side — struggle to establish a routine or really get a fair shake in their opening campaign at Louisa. The boys squad practiced at the middle school and at Moss-Nuckols Elementary School, a court senior guard Keon Winkey referred to as “basically a slip-n-slide.”

Not practicing on their “home” floor never allowed the Lions to get a feel for their home court. Winkey, a talented guard wrapping up a solid high school career with a year where he earned second team All-Jefferson District honors, had to play in front of dwindling crowds,

“We didn’t have a lot of fans and my mom could barely make any of the games because it’s so far away.” a product of the distance, long school days and athletes still in practices when games would start for the Lions’ varsity. Attempts by the athletic department to organize fan buses were hamstrung by those other commitments, certainly not a lack of school pride or support, something Louisa has been renowned for for years. Winkey even had to play without his mother looking on in many instances, changing the very nature of the memories forged during a senior year.

“We didn’t have a lot of fans and my mom could barely make any of the games because it’s so far away and she’s working,” Winkey said. “My dad was able to get to some but only because his work was close to Charlottesville.”

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Athletic Director Mike Parsons (above) faced countless decisions after the earthquake.

The girls team faced the same plight, and both teams’ seasons ended in the Jefferson District first round. Still, senior Tierra Jackson pointed out that the folks who did get over to home games at Monticello or road games against district foes that were nearly as far away, made their presence felt.

“Our parents were supportive and some of our friends made it and cheered for us,” Jackson said. “It was an okay season, but I felt like we could have done better if it (weren’t) for this situation. We kind of got knocked down a bit because of all of it.”

The winter transportation situation took some time to work out between Parsons and the system transportation office. The Lions’ athletic director, who was stretched thin with multiple trips each week to Monticello during that season for night games, had to find a solution to move

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a trio of teams to the various temporary facilities that Louisa had to lean on.

A bus would pick the kids up right after school, take the girls basketball team to Betty Queen and then drop the wrestlers off. Then there was a second bus that took the boys basketball team out to Moss-Nuckols, which is close to I-64 and about 15 minutes away.

“It took boys basketball every bit of 25 minutes to get to practice after school,” Parsons said. “And another 25-30 back to ride to catch activity buses if they needed it.”

Coordinating all that proved one of Parsons’ biggest challenges.

“Initially coaches would cancel middle school practice and practice at the middle school and they wouldn’t tell me so there’d be a bus going to pick kids up that weren’t there,” Parsons said. “We had a lot of little kinks to work

PERSPEC TIVES “We had a lot of little kinks to work through initially. That was a nightmare, to be quite frank. ”

through initially. That was a nightmare, to be quite frank. For about a three-week stretch it seemed like there was always a glitch with that.”

One program that had to significantly rebuild its identity in some ways was Louisa’s accomplished wrestling program. A wrestling room is a sacred place, often a single-purpose room that celebrates past accomplishments and is the breeding ground for future success. It’s where sweat and toil is poured out and where a program binds itself together.

The Lions’ wrestlers had much of that jerked away with the quake, and a sport that requires an incredible amount of dedication, focus and commitment suddenly required more of those things without a permanent home. The fallout from the quake pushed Louisa’s wrestling team to a mixed-martial arts studio in a space attached to the Louisa True Value hardware store 10 minutes down Route 22 from the school. The MMA center provided the space and time for the Lions’ wrestlers in exchange for using the mats during off times for training.

It made for yet another nomadic experience for one of the school’s teams.

“It was a lot different than having our own wrestling room because our wrestling room we have too many memories in there just to know that it’s gone,” said junior Gavin Tingen, one of the program’s elite wrestlers. “We didn’t have too many seniors this year -- I guess they kind of lost interest.”

Facing long days at school made facing long nights of practice with added travel a less appealing prospect. While Parsons has indicated that participation generally wasn’t down despite all the distractions, scrambling and work around scenarios that the system had to undergo, it seems plausible that some student athletes would bypass the idea of putting in more hours on top of an already taxing schedule.

That was ameliorated when Louisa County High got some routine and structure back with the opening of the mobile high school in the parking lot of the school toward the end of the winter athletics season. Despite the completely different setup, surroundings and the predictable confusion that came with a new facility, the new school at least allowed things to start getting back to normal.

“Now that it’s May, we’re kind of used to this,” Winkey said.

“But at first it was tough going from trailer to trailer, especially

KELLY FITZSIMMONS PARENT, FAN Kelly Fitzsimmons has three children in the Louisa County school system including Andre Mealy, a senior captain on the football team. As a parent, she spoke boldly when asked how she thought Louisa administrators handled the changes in venues, schedules and everything around athletics.

“I think they were awesome,” Fitzsimmons said.

“They kept us informed in all the things they were trying to do. I really think they tried and did their best.

There was so much talk at first. There was talk of splitting the kids up into different counties and I think the alternate day schedule was great because it kept everyone together.”

Before Louisa went to everyday classes Fitzsimmons watched her three children all adjust and find ways to cope with long days followed long breaks. Some what concerned at first, her worries were put behind her when she saw how resilient this student body was, including her own children.

“The kids came home and they pretty much passed out,” Fitzsimmons said. “Once they got used to that schedule they learned to crash on their days off. I worried (the schedule) was a little much early on, but everyone seemed to figure it out.”

One thing Fitzsimmons observed and enjoyed was how the students came together for one another and the community as a whole.

“The football team, they went out into the community to help out a lot,” Fitzsimmons said. “They pulled together helping some of the boys on the team who lost their houses. They went in and helped the schools too, moving things for them to get everything set up.”

And so in a situation where you’d expect a parent to feel stress, most of that was put to bed thanks to the community as a whole between the work of the administration, parents, and most notably, the spirit of the student body.

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on rainy days.”

It also helped to transition out of winter’s demand for indoor facilities as track, baseball, boys and girls soccer and softball could all utilize the current school facilities. The softball field sits next to the shuttered school building and foul balls launched onto the school roof are largely lost while fans have to stay away from the actual building.

Tennis though, had to hit the road as the court had been moved under some of the mobile units used in the temporary high school, playing at a variety of locations in order to get practice or games in.

“We had to drive 30 minutes to Shenandoah Crossing and there were just two courts,” Copeland, who also plays tennis for the Lions. “So we never had a home place to practice. For me, I used to come to the school at night on the weekends and play. I couldn’t do that this year.”

The girls soccer team had an equally pressing dilemma on its hands before the season got going. The squad didn’t have any uniforms at all.

“After the earthquake when everything got boxed up, some how those boxes got lost,” Lyndsey Chaney said. “So we had to raise money to get new ones. We actually were able to raise enough for uniforms and warm ups, something we’ve never had before, so that actually worked out.”

Still, Louisa’s athletic department persevered throughout the spring, highlighted by a strong season from the softball team that won the Jefferson District regular season title in a playoff game against Powhatan and then took the JD tournament before advancing to Region II play.

The track team also performed well at the Group AA state

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championships in Harrisonburg after winning the JD title, highlighted by junior Javanique Burruss’ three-title day in the hurdles, long jump and triple jump.

The baseball program finished a win away from a Region II tournament berth and bore the brunt of its frustration during the offseason, being forced to come up with a lot of unorthodox training methods that seemed to be pulled out of a Rocky movie training montage.

“We had to use whatever we could find like tractor tires and buckets full of metal,” said senior Josh Seay. “We got scrap from the shop class and put it in buckets and

called it a Farmer’s Carry. We called (those sessions) Mentally Tough Mondays to make us keep going and pushing through.”

Louisa’s well-developed strength training program for many programs like football has started to finally find its footing in a trailer that serves as a weight room, but even now only around 20-25 athletes can fit in that room at once. Stations are often pushed outside and teams are rotated in and out of the facility according to football head coach Jon Meeks.

Meeks’ squad is already pointed at the 2012 fall season

and as usual his football program will play a large part in the continued return to normalcy in Louisa County.

The Lions’ games last fall were a terririfc opportunity for the community to come together as it always has in its beloved Jungle.

Every member of the Louisa athletic community has been impacted in some way by the August earthquake.

A newly-minted administrative team got what might be its biggest test of its career, facing the headache of facility management and handling transportation nightmares that most athletic directors couldn’t even imagine.

June 2012 ::

20

PERSPEC TIVES “This brought us together closer than I think any of us expected. To me, I feel like this united us. ”

They handled it the only way they could, resolving one problem at a time, with one innovative and effective solution at a time. Coaches had to handle equipment, transportation and facility issues too, sometimes unsure where they’d even be able to practice on that day.

Those struggles aren’t over yet as Louisa is still resolving what exactly to do moving forward for the high school facility and how to handle the next chapter in secondary education in the county. For now, the facility in the parking lot where cafeteria food is trucked down to the makeshift lunchroom will remain in place.

But for a senior class that had its sights set on the kind of storybook year that anyone coming up through the ranks would hope for, they’ve ended their time in high school with one of the most unbelievable, chaotic years anyone could expect.

Predictably, they’ve found the lessons in the experience.

“This brought us together closer than I think any of us expected,” said Hali Goad, who played field hockey in the fall and helped lead the Lions to Region II semifinal in softball. “To me I feel like this united us. We were pretty close, and everyone seems to get along so we weren’t a bad class to begin with. But after this, it’s completely different how much closer we are. We were all in this together. I was actually worried that a lot of people were going to leave and get out of the school or try and graduate early or something. But we’ve all pretty much stuck through it.”

The entire community in Louisa has stuck through it, and the students have all stuck together and because of that they’ve now all got a story to tell.

One that seems to have, at least for a group of senior athletes, a happy ending. ✖

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PROJEC STORY BY BART ISLEY PHOTOS BY ASHLEY THORNTON & BART ISLEY

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CT LAX Y

OU CAN’T FAKE IT IN CENTRAL VIRGINIA LACROSSE. THERE ARE TOO MANY

GOOD TEAMS, TOO MANY TEAMS STOCKED WITH TALENTED, DYNAMIC PLAYERS TO PULL ONE OVER ON ANYONE. YOU’VE GOT TO BE THE GENUINE ARTICLE. THAT’S WHY OVERNIGHT SUCCESS CAN’T, IN THAT ENVIRONMENT, HAPPEN OVERNIGHT. IT’S FORGED OVER TIME, BRICK BY BRICK, AS A PROGRAM IS CONSTRUCTED FROM THE GROUND UP. THEN, IN WHAT SEEMS LIKE A SUDDEN EXPLOSION, THE PROGRAM, TEAM AND COACH ARRIVE ALL AT ONCE. BUT IT’S THE FOUNDATION THAT GOT THE TEAM THERE.

June 2012 :: 24

Charlottesville has that foundation and that’s why this season they were the last area boys lacrosse team standing. With just a handful of seniors on the roster, the Black Knights fell just a goal short of advancing to the state tournament in a road game against Patrick Henry-Roanoke just years after the program was struggling to keep its head above water. It was an incredible turnaround and it started with head coach Drew Craft demanding from the time he took over three years ago that the Black Knights put in the work. Craft knew his team couldn’t fake it, so he made sure they bought in.

“We’ve been working our program up so it’s not pure talent it’s hard work,” said midfielder Lucas Levine. “That’s a big part of it.”

Mix that in with an infusion of talent and a sense of purpose, and you end up with the Black Knights’ incredible 2012 season.

“We didn’t even make it to districts last year so this is pretty revelating for us,” said junior Casey Devine. “You can’t even put it into words.”

It started with players like Jack McCarthy, a big, hard-shooting attackman who made drastic improvements to his game during the first couple of years in Craft’s tenure. McCarthy became the Black Knights’ most reliable scorer as a junior and took a leap forward this year while earning All-West Central section honors, showcasing a knack for scoring from tough positions against tight defense. The attention McCarthy drew on offense helped open the door for a group of classmates that have as much potential any class to come through CHS in some time and started to scratch that surface this season.

That core of juniors who were freshmen when Craft took over, have been the heartbeat of the program’s revitalization, with players like Levine, Casey Devine, Wynter Warren, Elliott Bocock and Deon Rainey leading the way.

Devine emerged as a solid two-way midfielder who helped run the CHS offense and handled a lot of transition defense. Levine and Warren were a force on faceoffs, with War-

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ren’s speed—he doubles as a fullback for the Black Knights’ option-oriented offense during football season—turning into a game-changing force in key wins over Monticello High and Western Albemarle during regular season play. Rainey had a huge game in the season-ending loss against Patrick Henry, scoring back-to-back goals that kept CHS’s hopes of an upset win on the road alive.

The Black Knights were balanced in 2012 and if everything goes as planned, they’ll be just as balanced next season with a slew of underclassmen playing critical roles on the defensive end. Sam Runkle is perhaps the area’s most talented sophomore defensman, drawing Division I interest and a nomination for All-American honors after earning a West Central Section first team nod. Runkle, perhaps more than any single player, represents a significant shift in the CHS lacrosse landscape. He’s an immense talent who’s proven that if you’re good enough, college coaches will find you right at your home school.

“He always kills it,” Devine said after the Patrick Henry game. “He’s a D-1 recruit, he just plays out of his mind.”

Joining Runkle is Jack McCarthy’s sophomore brother Liam

“We didn’t even make it to districts last year so this is pretty revelating for us. You can’t even put it into words.” ­— Casey Devine McCarthy, a tough, bruising defender who handled transition play extremely well for the Black Knights. Back in the cage is Austin Hall, a freshman who stepped up huge in a win at home over Western Albemarle in the division tournament and held a dynamic Patrick Henry team to just nine goals. “(That) is a team that was projected to beat us by a lot and we had them for the most part actually,” Runkle said.

“That was the least we’ve dropped the ball and the best defense we’ve played all year.”

While the Black Knights have some definite talent, they

“They’re always willing to talk to the kids that we lt hang out on the sidelines.”

— Drew Craft weren’t the fastest or the most dynamic squad on the field most nights. They’re a blue-collar team with a workman-like approach, a reflection of Craft’s Pittsburgh

27 :: scrimmageplay

background. They eschew flash for an efficient, methodical offense that can change tempos to suit the Black Knights’ needs. That’s a product of Craft and his staff, one of the area’s most creative and flexible. Facing Patrick Henry, Craft seemed to draw inspiration from both Maryland’s NCAA tournament run and noted thinker Malcolm Gladwell, who’s written extensively on the topic of how underdogs can significantly shift the odds in their favor with an unconventional strategy.

Charlottesville slowed the game down to a crawl much like the Terrapins did against a much more-talented Johns Hopkins team and held control for much of the game before a few tough calls and a late run from the home squad cost Charlottesville the game. Craft does whatever

it takes to put his team in a position to win games instead of being married to a single set of plays.

“He’s the best coach I’ve ever had,” Runkle said. “He understands us and we understand him. He’s really smart.”

That isn’t a surprise, as Craft comes from a background of program building, having essentially kickstarted the development of youth lacrosse in the Shenandoah Valley after working at private schools in Pittsburgh before heading south.

He knows what it takes to get a program headed in the right direction.

That’s why on Sundays you can often find Craft, who teaches at Walker Upper Elementary School in the city school system, helping out his feeder teams, the Buford Middle

School and Walker Elementary squads in the Boys Middle School Lacrosse League. Craft has those players wearing CHS gear in many cases and helping lay the foundation for even more success in the future.

“The kids on our team have been great role models, they’ve volunteered at practices at the fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth grade levels,” Craft said. “They’re always willing to talk to the kids that we let hang out on the sidelines. We’re just trying to change the culture and make it a sport that kids in Charlottesville(’s feeder pattern) want to play again.”

The BMSLL itself has been an excellent tool in the development of both public and private school programs locally, and Craft is finding a way to use it in a similar way. With

At left, CHS celebrates a runner-up finish in the West Central Division while below Jack McCarthy looks to pass.

“We’ve got it going in the elementary schools now and it’s just coming up. CHS is going to be a threat.”

— Casey Devine players coming up through the ranks excited to play at CHS, the Black Knights have a chance to become one of the area’s premier programs.

“We’ve got it going in the elementary schools now and it’s just coming up,” Devine said. “CHS is going to be a new threat.”

The Black Knights will be on the hunt next year for a West Central Division title, and, perhaps, a state tournament berth. Despite the leap forward in 2012, there’s a great deal still to be accomplished.

See you can’t pretend to be good in Charlottesville-

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area lacrosse. You’ve got to be the real deal. Charlottesville proved in 2012 they’re exactly that.

One hurdle the Black Knights couldn’t climb this season was Albemarle High, a team that had a senior keeper in Jake Huber as well as a host of experienced attackman and midfielders on the offensive end. Charlottesville battled the Patriots three times, falling twice in the regular season and again in the West Central section tournament championship. Charlottesville actually had Albemarle on the ropes in their first meeting, but a huge rally by the Patriots in the second half allowed Albemarle to prevail.

But the Black Knights were 2-0 against a Western team that they beat for the first time in a long time just last season and 2-0 against a Monticello High team that is in the midst of a similar reconstruction project under their own talented young coach Matt Hicks. The Black Knights didn’t just slip into the playoffs, they kicked the door in and made themselves far and away the second best team in the section and then outlasted Albemarle in division play by a round.

Next year, we’ll get to see where they can climb next. ✖

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TRIPLE CROWN STORY BY BART ISLEY & RYAN YEMEN PHOTOS BY RYAN YEMEN 31 :: scrimmageplay

They all three took very different paths to get there.

All three teams converted when they arrived.

Western Albemarle’s boys tennis team put the old band back together for one more run, utilizing a senior-heavy lineup that’s largely been a factor since they were sophomores and advanced to four Group AA championship matches in their four year career.

William Monroe adjusted seamlessly to a new set of teams they knew little about in Group A, Division 2 baseball and rolled unbeaten through the Bull Run and Region B tournaments. Albemarle’s boys soccer team didn’t win its own district, falling to Colonial Forge twice in the regular season and once in the Commonwealth tournament before piecing together a lot of dynamic talent to make an incredible run in the Northwest Region tournament and past Forge in the region title game.

All three had to scrap and claw their way to a title in some form or fashion, but in the end, all three were state champions, part of one of the most successful springs in recent memory for Central Virginia high school sports.

The adage that William Monroe athletic director Katie Brunelle typed out onto Twitter shortly after the Dragons’ championships is true — that state championships are won by teams for schools and communities.

They’re not just for that squad. For that group of 20 players and coaches. They’re for an entire community, and three public school communities here in Central Virginia were rewarded handsomely this spring.

Despite being new to Group A this year, Monroe’s baseball team was thought by many to be a serious contender for a state title. The Mike Maynard-led ball club’s 2011 season in Group AA ended with a Jefferson District title and was barely cut short in the Region II playoffs and nearly everyone was back in the fold. There was staff ace Jordan Gentry, all-around standout Logan Forloines, hard-hitting Ryan Morris, young star Austin Batten, senior hurler Lamar Nelson, Spencer Breeden and a host of others like Ryan Leake and Trey Kirby.

The Dragons were deep and battle-tested, an excellent combination for a squad with their sights set on a title from day one.

They also seemed to have a cohesiveness that some immensely talented squads don’t, a closeness forged by playing together growing up. In the state championship game, Jordan Gentry was having trouble keeping his arm loose, and Forloines, his catcher, turned around and called into the stands for his mother to come down toward the dugout to help him out. Forloines’ mother rubbed down Gentry’s arm twice during the game with a natural ointment she makes with a group of ladies at the Mennonite Church she attends.

“Some of them have been using it for years and they swear by it,” Maynard said.

It’s indicative of the community effort that surrounded this team that bonded over the tragedy of Gentry’s mother’s passing

June 2012 ::

20

from brain cancer earlier in the year.

“We just take care of each other,” Forloines said. “Like family, we take care of each other.”

They took care of each other all the way until the very end in the state championship game. They jumped out to a 4-0 lead on the strength of Leake’s three-run blast in Salem and rode that lead until late in the contest.

Despite ointment treatments, Gentry eventually ran out of gas while throwing 7.2 innings for Monroe. He gave way to Nelson who gave up a pair of hits, but Forloines and the Monroe defense refused to let either pitcher’s efforts be in vain with Forloines finishing off a tag at the plate in the top of the eighth to close out the inning and keep Monroe’s hopes alive.

That opened the door for an improbable extra inning hit by a freshman, Keegan Woolford, who likely couldn’t grasp the magnitude of the moment and that may have helped him come through in the clutch.

Woolford brought home Austin Batten and gave Monroe the title they’d been seeking.

Western Albemarle’s boys tennis team has been through all the battles. They’ve survived all the tough clashes with foes like Jamestown, Salem and E.C. Glass over the years, including a pair of state championship match losses to Salem and Jamestown in successive years as sophomores and juniors.

But this year, while flying a little under the radar despite bringing everyone back, Western Albemarle put it all together.

Under first-year head coach Andrew Wymer, the Warriors found an edge and started picking up steam during the Region II tournament and carrying it into a Group AA quarterfinal win over James Monroe.

But the fact that the Warriors were back in Blacksburg for the state final four was no big surprise. After a two-year title drought that followed a three-peat from 2007 to 2009, the Warriors needed a jumpstart down in southwest Virginia to get them over the hump.

Enter Cam Scot’s incredible performance on Thursday of state championship in the individual tournament. Scot won the first individual title since 1990 for the Warriors and in the process gave the

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Lamar Nelson (above) earned the win in extra innings for Monroe while Albemarle (bottom right) put together a complete team effort to roll to its state title.

Warriors a jolt of confidence going into the semifinals.

Western cruised in the semifinals, with Scot falling but the rest of the Warriors rolling or gutting out tough three-setters like young Timmy O’Shea did at the No. 6 slot.

O’Shea had a terrific weekend in Blacksburg that helped lift the Warriors as he knocked off his opponent in the 5-3 title match victory over Glass. He combined with Gray Evans for the clinching win in doubles against Glass.

“They’re efficient,” said Wymer of his senior core. “They don’t mess around, don’t waste time and they take care of business on the court and keep unforced errors low and serve well. They’ve stepped their game up, hit another level.”

The title helped solidify the Warriors’ senior class as one of the most accomplished in Western tennis history, making good on the potential they displayed when they took over the lineup as a bunch of unknown sophomores.

Now nearly everyone in the tennis community knows exactly who they are.

The loss that Albemarle’s soccer team endured at the hands of Forge in the Northwest Region tournament was its last. The first two rounds of the Group AAA tournament were daunting tasks for the Patriots. In the team’s last home game of the season, the first round of the state tournament, Albemarle held off Grassfield 1-0 thanks to a goal from Luc Fatton. As gritty as that performance was, the Patriots traveled up to Westfield High for the semifinals and punched their ticket to the state championship game behind an unreal showing against Lake Braddock.

When Albemarle took a 1-0 lead thanks to a goal from Alex Bohn in the 11th minute, this team looked like it was destined for something special. But when Braddock answered with a second half score and both teams stood in a stalemate in overtime, the stage was set for

“This is what you play for. We just worked so hard for it. We traveled so far.”

— Rowen Perry arguably the most intense event in sports, a shoot out. The Patriots endured the storm, because once it got to PKs, they cruised. Goalkeeper Matt Natale set the tone for his team as he stopped the first shot he faced. From there, Shane Rose, Fatton and Jesus Duran buried three of the Patriots next four penalty shots to wrap up the school’s first ever trip to the title game.

After Albemarle won its semifinal, Forge endured a similar match to set the finals as they advanced through penalty kicks as well. With the way these two played in the first four meetings, there was no way a state championship was going to come easy for either squad. If it wasn’t easy for Albemarle, it sure made it look that way. Four minutes was all it took for Kai Marshall to convert a Rowen Perry pass into a lead for the Patriots. Four minutes into the second half, Andrew Soloman made it 2-0 for Albemarle on another assist from Perry, a senior captain.

“This was the fifth time we’ve played them and we didn’t want to give them anything.” Perry said. “Last time we played them we were down 2-0 at halftime and ever since then we’ve been playing for keeps.”

At that point, Albemarle went from an aggressive approach to making sure nothing ugly happened at the other end. With 20 minutes to go, Victor Zarate put the icing on the Patriots state title with his goal. Few state titles are won in blow outs. A 3-0 win in any soccer game is nothing short of a resounding win.

“This was the greatest feeling in the world,” Perry said. “This is what you play for. We just worked so hard for it. We traveled so far.”

For Monroe, Western and Albemarle, Perry’s statement boils down what the playoffs are all about. All the effort put in during the offseason, during the regular season, in practice, wherever. It’s all done for a chance excelling at the highest level.

When these three teams got to Salem, Blacksburg and Northern Virginia, they saved their best for last. ✖

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Full Count Revamped Legion

District 13 has a new feel after disbanded team and Albemarle rebuild

By Ryan Yemen

Ryan Morris is one of six Monroe players on a different looking Albemarle Post 74 roset

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It was bound to happen some time. The three time defending District 13 champions, Albemarle Post 74 hasn’t endured many rebuilding years but with so much of last year’s squad unable to play because of age restrictions, this will be one of the greener units coach Mike Maynard has fielded.

“We’re really young and have a lot of new pitching, it’s almost all high school players, but I think we’ve got the chance to be really good once we get all the pieces together,” Maynard said.

While Albemarle team is playing with just single college athlete — Mary Washington rising sophomore and Albemarle alumnus Jake Hendrix — nine of its 18 members participated in the Group A or Group AA tournament between William Monroe and Monticello. This group is also aided by the fact that just over half of the team can pitch, making it easier to spread out the nine inning games and not wear down one or two arms.

Hendrix, Albemarle’s Austin Turner, Monroe’s Jordan Gentry, Western Jack Maynard, Monticello’s Josh Malm and Kyle Jacobson all stand to benefit.

And speaking of wear and tear, between Monroe’s Logan Forloines and Monticello’s Connor Lilley, this team has solid depth at catcher which should make life easier for both players.

Fluvanna Post 2003 endured a rebuild last year and stands to benefit from the unfortunate loss of Orange Post 156, a team that was the last to oust Albemarle in the district tournament back in 2008.

With Orange Post 156 disbanding, a number of players have defected to Fluvanna including Virginia Tech bound Rahiem Cooper and former Covenant player Jesse Getchel.

With Fork Union’s T.J. Dudley, and Fluvanna County high’s Brock Harris, Sam Turner and Louisa County’s Josh Seay this is a Post 2003 team that is more than equipped to get back to the kind of status it had in 2009 when the team made it to the district championship round.

“We’re really young and have a lot of new pitching, it’s almost all high school players, but I think we’ve got the chance to be really good once we get all the pieces together,” Maynard said.

While Albemarle team is playing with just single college athlete — Mary Washington rising sophomore and Albemarle alumnus Jake Hendrix — nine of its 18 members participated in the Group A or Group AA tournament between William Monroe and Monticello. This group is also aided by the fact that just over half of the team can pitch, making it easier to spread out the nine inning games and not wear down one or two arms. Hendrix, Albemarle’s Austin Turner, Monroe’s Jordan Gentry, Western Jack Maynard, Monticello’s Josh Malm and Kyle Jacobson all stand to benefit.

And speaking of wear and tear, between Monroe’s Logan Forloines and Monticello’s Connor Lilley, this team has solid depth at catcher which should make life easier for both players.

Fluvanna Post 2003 endured a rebuild last year and stands to benefit from the unfortunate loss of Orange Post 156, a team that was the last to oust Albemarle in the district tournament back in 2008. With Orange Post 156 disbanding, a number of players have defected to Fluvanna including Virginia Tech bound Rahiem Cooper and former Covenant player Jesse Getchel. ✖

Academic Edge sponsored by hargrave military academy

June’s Academic Athlete of the Month: Albemarle’s Alex Bohn It’s hard to miss Madison County’s Nick Paxton on the basketball court.

At 6-foot-7, the Mountaineers’ big center is a force on both ends of the floor.

But Paxton also gets the job done in the classroom, where the senior checks in with a 4.20 GPA. Balancing his work on the court with his work during the school day is an old habit.

“My mom is an elementary school teacher and she brought me up that way,” Paxton said. “It was always homework before practice and I would be late to practice if I wasn’t done with homework. She’s drilled it into my head that it’s grades before sports.”

He’ll try and turn that work ethic and time management ability into a successful stint studying marine biology in college. In the meantime, Paxton is enjoying a thrilling senior season where he’s emerged as a crucial part of the puzzle for the Mountaineers.

“He’s a dedicated kid, he really buys into whatever we want to do from our program,” said Madison coach Ben Breeden. “We run a study hall for our players and he comes in and helps the other players in study hall. That tells you that he’s dedicated to our team and he just goes above and beyond in everything that he does.”

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The Academic athlete of the month is selected by scrimmage play’s staff with the consultation of coaches and athletic directors. to nominate an athlete email info@scrimmageplay.com

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Overtime

Play to the end It’s time to make the postseason truly count

L

et’s say, hypothetically, that lightening struck in Stafford County repeatedly on May 31. Let’s say it crops up around the time that 26 minutes are left in the half of Albemarle High boys soccer Northwest Region title game against Colonial Forge and makes it impossible to play out the remainder of the game and Albemarle’s squad ends the game with a 2-1 loss.

That loss in the hypothetically-shortened game leaves Albemarle out of the picture for a home game in the state playoffs. Maybe the energy that the Patriots built during that incredible, 3-2, come-from-behind victory against Colonial Forge and the ensuing home state quarterfinal game doesn’t carry them to an incredible state tournament run that includes a championship game win over those same Eagles.

At least Albemarle would’ve still gotten to play. The consequences of a rain-shortened game can be much more dire. Just ask Louisa County baseball. Or Monticello boys soccer.

As part of the Virginia High School League handbook, there’s a provision in most sports for ending a game locked in an interminable weather delay. And there should be, there’s no doubt about it. Schools can’t be tasked with trying to re-schedule buses, referees, gameday staff members and field availability for a game that doesn’t matter much. If anything, for safety and in the interest of time efficiency, most games should be called after one or two delays.

But games that have a season riding on them? Games that are elimination games?

Matchups between district teams that were separated in the district seedings by just a single spot?

We can’t let seasons and, in turn, high school careers end at the whim of a weather front.

Sure, it takes some work to get this one right. It’ll take calls from the athletic director, an extra trip for the bus drivers and some organization from the coaches to pick up a game and finish where it was left off because of the storms.

It might take playing part of a game and another full game later that day.

Still, it’d be worth it. It’d be worth it to give May 24 another shot, when two teams watched their season end from inside a locker room.

It’d be worth it to give Monticello’s boys soccer team, who trailed Fluvanna County by just a single goal with 21 minutes to play, a chance to equalize the game. Or give Louisa’s baseball team, down 5-0 with two innings left, a shot at a miracle rally to extend its year.

Four years ago, Albemarle’s baseball team drove away from James River High School after a pair of rain delays forced the game late. Without lights in the stadium and with Albemarle’s players scheduled for testing the next morning, the game administrators along with then-Albemarle coach Carroll Bickers, agreed to pick the game up the next day with Albemarle trailing 5-4 and two innings left to play.

On the bus ride home, Bickers got a call that his team’s season was over, that the game couldn’t be picked back up. A state quarterfinalist’s season ends with a partiallycompleted contest. That violates the very spirit of sports in an important way.

Coaches are always talking about playing to the whistle. They talk about playing a full

37 :: scrimmageplay

“We can’t let seasons and, in turn, high school careers end at the whim of a weather front.” game. About putting together a full performance.

The VHSL’s membership — the schools that actually control an organization that often gets blamed for things that are sanctioned by the schools they represent —needs to revise the rules to allow playoff teams to do just that.

Decide it on the field. Not on the phone or in the locker room.

Seasons — and careers — hinge on it. ✖

Bart Isley,

CRE ATIVE DIRECTOR

go online »

Would you change playoff rules?

Let Bart know what you think at bart@scrimmageplay.com.

HOMETOWN NIGHTS AT THE PARK P R O U D LY P R E S E N T E D B Y P E P S I - C O L A O F C E N T R A L V I R G I N I A

T H U R S DAYS I N J U LY

JULY 6

JULY 11-18

JU LY 27-2 8

7-ON-7 PASSING LEAGUE AT M O N T I C E L LO

FLUVANNA POST 2003 AT ALBEMARLE POST 74

VHSCA ALL-STARS AT HAMPTON

JEFFERSON SWIM LEAGUE AT FOR K U N I O N

The buzz for football starts here.

Albemarle, Charlottesville, Monticello and Western Albemarle get together each week for some great exhibition football that highlights skill position players.

This is the last regular season meeting between these two senior American Legion teams. It’s always a great rivalry between these two teams, and an improved Fluvanna team will only make this meeting better

Virginia’s finest senior athletes head to the beach in all sports culminating in the football game on the last day. Central Virginia has been represented well in softball, baseball, basketball and football the last two years.

A new venue for the JSL as the longtime summer league hosts its championship at the Estes Center in Fork Union. Can anyone get in the way of Fairview which looks to pick up its 22nd straight title?

P E P S I - C O L A O F C E N T R A L V I R G I N I A ­: S U P P O RT I N G L O C A L H I G H S C H O O L AT H L E T I C S F O R D E C A D E S

Tracking down the winning smiles we helped create

(434) 296-0188

Sarah Harper

Sarah Harper started breaking volleyball records at Western Albemarle as a junior outside hitter, putting her name out front for career digs en route to being named All-State and winning the Jefferson District and Region II player of the year awards.

Now at the University of Maryland, Harper’s made a seamless transition to libero, and as a sophomore broke the school’s mark for digs in a season with 569.

Keep up the good work for the Terps, Sarah.

We hope your smile serves you well!

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