Volume 5, Issue 6

05 OCHS FIELD HOCKEY HEADS TO VA BEACH

13 STAB PULLS OFF AMAZING FINISH

scr覺mmageplay THE CENTRAL VIRGINIA SPORTS AUTHORITY VOL 5 . ISSUE 6 :: NOVEMBER 14, 2013

Enough for Everybody Tigers find rare chemistry with a quarterback trio PAGE 7

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BACK IN THE SADDLE Orange field hockey makes big run

PASSING PLATOON Woodberry thrives behind QBs

13

TURNING IT ALL AROUND STAB football pulls off the unlikely

19

GAME TIME Covenant boys soccer takes state title

23

FISH OUT OF WATER Hockey and soccer in college? Yes.

13 STab pullS OFF amazing FiniSH

scrımmageplay vol 5 . issue 6 :: November 14, 2013

Enough for Everybody VOL 5 . ISSUE 6 :: NOVEMBER 14, 2013

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05 OCHS FiEld HOCkEy HEadS TO Va bEaCH

Tigers find rare chemistry with a quarterback trio page 7

S TA F F Bart Isley, Creative Director Bob Isley, Infrastructure Director Ryan Yemen, Creative Editor O N T H E COV E R Woodberry’s Hunter Etheridge 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.

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PREGAME

Senior night

Charlottesville’s Chris Thurston (1) and company storm their home field one last time on a cold November night. The Black Knights had to best Powhatan to cement their position in the Division 4A West playoffs, and thanks to Thurston’s play at quarteback, Rashard Brock’s bruising game at running back and a relentless night defensively, CHS was able to do just that. The last home game for this Charlottesville team was one they won’t soon forget, a 28-16 victory. ✖ (Photo by Ron Londen)

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Family

Corner PRESENTED BY

ABOVE » Western’s Nic Drapanas (left) stands next to fellow captain Kent Henry before the coin toss. Drapanas has stayed plugged in with the playoff-bound Warriors all year despite his injury.

Handling an injury In football this year, two of the area’s top players suffered significant injuries that changed the local landscape. Western’s all-state defensive back/wide receiver Nic Drapanas is now in a sling because of a shoulder injury and electric Monticello tailback Kyree Koonce wears a boot.

Both suffered serious injuries, forcing their teams to scramble and re-work the lineup.

The toll an injury takes on the injured player is even more of a concern. Getting injured and being ruled out of competition is one of the most frustrating parts of playing sports.

For any competitor it means your chance to even compete is being stripped away. The initial pain of an injury is obviously searing, but figuring out how to handle recovery can be just as frustrating and challenging.

You’ve got to deal with the injury internally first. Being angry about it is natural, but not particularly productive. Instead, start setting goals. Washington Redskins quarterback

Robert Griffin III immediately started setting goals after he suffered his knee injury last year and, along with his sponsor Adidas, built a marketing campaign around his “all in for week 1” approach. Work with your doctor and rehab specialist on a realistic plan and set some benchmarks and then get to work. Don’t rush anything of course, but having something to focus on and a goal set out there to work toward is almost always a positive for athletes who are wired to be goal-oriented.

If you play a team sport, once you’ve squared yourself away with a plan, it’s time to focus on being a great teammate.

Drapanas took it upon himself to do whatever he could from the sidelines to assist the Warriors. As a senior captain, he knew that it was going to be critical to the team’s success to help his replacements pick up the pace.

With the emergence of Tre Banks, Dylan Curry and Burks Summers who’ve all had big games

at different times this season, it’s clear he’s had an impact.

“I’m not on the field but I’m still a leader off the field,” Drapanas said in the preseason when he was dealing with his first injury, a broken collarbone suffered during summer lacrosse.

That’s the first key to finding a role on the team as an injured player — just stay involved. It comes off as a cliché when coaches say that a player is “just as much a part of this team as they were before the injury” but if the injured player does things the right way, they certainly can be.

Getting injured isn’t an excuse to take it easy or shirk your responsibilities to the team. Odds are good you’ve worked too hard to waste that effort and not try and contribute. Once you’re hurt, you’ve got to work even harder to be a great teammate.

Koonce has been on the sidelines during games this season supporting teammates that he’s only known a short time after transferring from Buckingham this summer.

That’s going to help the Mustangs now and in the future as his encouragement and involvement will strengthen those bonds.

Being plugged into the team can be a big part of the healing process. Your teammates can support you and lift you up when you’re in the most frustrating moments. If you close yourself off and don’t engage with the team, you’re shutting off a support mechanism.

Don’t feel sorry for yourself. Be productive, engage and then come back stronger than ever. Come back a better teammate and a smarter player.

Do whatever you can to turn misfortune into an opportunity. It’s going to make you a better person for your life. ✖

Bart Isley,

CRE ATIVE DIRECTOR

www.scrimmageplay.com :: 04

First Quarter Back in the saddle Orange finds its form at just the right time

By Bart Isley

F

Anna Bosworth (above) and the Hornets are the last CVa field hockey team standing. (Bart Isley)

{ RELOADING? } The Hornets have built up a strong roster behind its seniors in 2013.

This program is in good shape.

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K AR A EL DER

5 S OPH OM ORES

JUN IO RS

S EN IORS

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or Orange County’s field hockey team, a proud program that fell on hard times the last two years while the Hornets completed a rotation through the incredibly deep Commonwealth District, 2013 has been all about confidence.

The Hornets went into every game with the assumption they were going to compete and inevitably they did. And when they got down, the Hornets didn’t roll over at all.

“We don’t give up,” said co-head coach Tricia Grabeel. “(Last year) we would get down and then we’d give up. We know how to fight from behind and we’re kind of peaking at the right moment.”

That may be the biggest key to why the Hornets are the last field hockey team in Central Virginia standing and are headed to Virginia Beach this weekend for the Group 5A final four.

Despite not facing any 5A-level competition after two years of playing big schools, the Hornets turned it on in late October, and won six straight games before falling to mighty Mountain View in the Region 5A North finale.

“The thing about it is, we’re not that different of a team from this year to last year, but really and truly what it was is that they understood what we’re trying to do,” Grabeel said.

What they’re trying to do is complete combinations and advance the ball methodically in transition. With quick touch passes, the Hornets can control possession and in turn create more scoring opportunities while limiting the opposition’s chances. They’ve done it all season long, as if the light went on for players that struggled to do the exact same thing last year.

While the Hornets finished third in the Jefferson District behind champion Charlottesville and runner-up Western Albemarle with a pair of losses to each of them, Orange seized the opportunity when they won the Conference 16 title and then knocked off Deep

Run 1-0. Before losing to Mountain View, the Hornets hadn’t even been scored on since October 21. That run put them on the brink of a state berth with Thomas Jefferson High coming to town. Again their defense stepped up with Kayla Lawson making nine saves in goal, highlighted by an incredible glove save.

“Our defense, including Alana Foster, was really great (against Thomas Jefferson),” Grabeel said. “We had two underclassmen back there and they held their own too.”

With Alexis Williams, Cassity Marshall and Anna Bosworth all scoring against Thomas Jefferson, the Hornets, a year removed from a record that Grabeel described on her preseason form she submitted to Scrimmage Play as “awful”, Orange is back where it belongs, competing for a state title. The senior quartet of Foster, Reuss, Bosworth and Lawson are a big reason the Hornets have found their stride and transformed essentially the same roster from a Commonwealth also-ran into a state semifinalist.

“It took a long time get this far but they get it,” Grabeel said. “They believe that they can do it now.”

Not only do they believe, but they’ve actually done it. The Hornets are headed to Virginia Beach for the final four after one of the most incredible turnarounds by a local field hockey team in recent memory.

Orange County hockey is back and they’re as confident and as dangerous as ever. ✖

go online »

For more field hockey head to our website at: www.scrimmageplay. com.

College Update

We’ve gone digital

White excelling for final four favorite Kansas

But you can have it in print too!

By Bart Isley It’s par for the course when you’re playing at one of college basketball’s premier programs.

Every season, a group of stellar freshman are going to arrive and challenge for playing time and headlines right out of the gate.

So Miller School alum Andrew White surely wasn’t surprised when five new freshman guards arrived at Kansas led by the presumptive No. 1 pick in next year’s NBA Draft, Andrew Wiggins. Three of those players, Wiggins, Wayne Selden, Jr. and Brannen Greene are even guards of around the same height as the 6-foot-6 White. But White hasn’t lost focus and has already carved out a role for himself at Kansas.

His season got started off on the right foot against Louisiana Monroe on November 8th with a 12-point effort off the bench, entering early on in the contest. White went 4 for 6 from the floor for the Jayhawks and led a strong effort by the entire Kansas bench that gave KU a 33-14 advantage over ULM’s reserves. White needed just 19 minutes to post 12 points, a steal and four rebounds.

He’s on track to become one of Kansas’ most reliable 3-point shooters, as he buried 3 of 5 3-pointers against ULM at a clip of 60 percent.

That performance should be the beginning of a strong 2013-2014 for White, who’s now part an extremely deep squad that’s ranked No. 5 in the nation by the Associated Press.

White had a solid freshman campaign and appeared in 25 contests including hitting a pair of 3-pointers in the Big 12 tournament title game. He also earned a spot on the Athletic Director and Big 12 Commissioner Honor Rolls as he began pursuing his degree in sports management.

White knows quite a bit about playing on a talented squad. After all, the Miller teams he led were usually loaded with top-tier talent. But playing with Wiggins and Selden, both McDonald’s All-Americans and future professionals, White is proving he belongs right there with them as just a sophomore, helping lead a young but talented roster into what should be a rewarding campaign. ✖

BELOW » Miller alumnus Andrew White is seeing an increased role and increased success with the Jayhawks as a sophomore, despite new vaunted additions. (Kansas Sports Information)

HOW TO GET A PHYSICAL COPY OF SCRIMMAGE PLAY Step 1 :: Click here and head to the MagCloud version of the magazine.

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www.scrimmageplay.com :: 06

PASSING

PLATOON

07 :: @scrimmageplay

Story by Ryan Yemen Photos by John Berry

i

t’s the middle of September and Woodberry Forest has just lost its starting quarterback Hunter Etheridge to injury against Paul VI. The The team is 1-1 and coming off a narrow loss to Liberty Christian on the road. With Etheridge out, the questions loom large — how is the middle of Tigers’ season going to shake out before he returns, and is it too early to throw freshman Lindell Stone into the fire?

Etheridge’s return for his senior year at Woodberry was particularly important for the Tigers’ offense. The North Carolina native enrolled at Woodberry with great timing last seasonas Heys McMath, the team’s signal caller the year before, had to leave in the offseason, and Jacob Rainey was still recovering from the horrific accident that cost him a leg the season before. The very idea of whether Rainey could play was up in the air.

Rainey amazingly played a lot of snaps last year, but the bulk of the load at quarterback fell to Etheridge who showcased well as a dual threat, throwing for 1,086 yards and 11 touchdowns while running for 323 and four more scores. Having him back for 2013 was going to be great with what the Tigers were returning and adding to their receiving corps. Still, coach Clint Alexander needed depth and he had that in junior quarterback Christian Zaytoun and then got more of it, particularly for the future, when Texas native Lindell Stone decided to make Woodberry his home.

As adversity has a way of doing, it turned out that Etheridge’s injury, in an odd way, helped to make the Tigers a better team overall. When the senior returned at the end of October, his team was on a roll and just three wins away from accomplishing the two goals that stand every year for Woodberry — winning a Prep League championship, and of course, beating Episcopal.

What happened in those three weeks with

www.scrimmageplay.com :: 08

“THEY DON’T JUST SIT AROUND IN PRACTICE. THEY’RE ALWAYS GETTING MENTAL REPS.” — ALEXANDER

09 :: @scrimmageplay

Etheridge, Stone and Zaytoun was not a quarterback controversy with the players squabbling over playing time, creating in house problems. It was the opposite. Woodberry went from great to simply unstoppable. In consecutive games against St. Christopher’s, Fork Union and Episcopal, Woodberry scored 153 points. It’s opponents mustered up 20 in the same span.

“I kid around and call them the three amigos because they really do constantly support each other and when one’s snapping the ball, the other’s in 7-on-7 and coaching each other,” Alexander said.

“They’re watching each other, looking at the footwork and so on.

It’s just great to have them. They don’t just sit around in practice.

They’re always getting mental reps. All three of them work so well together and I’ve had situations where it’s not been that way. It’s really made it easy on us.”

With Etheridge etched in as the starter and Stone penciled in as the future, Zaytoun’s role in helping the Tigers along is easy to gloss over to the casual fan. It shouldn’t be though. When Etheridge got dinged up against Paul VI, it was Zaytoun who stepped in and on his first throw of the year, delivered a 17-yard touchdown strike to Zack Rodderick in the last moments of the first half. It put Woodberry out in front, 14-0, and provided the spark en route to a 36-0 win. Against Landon two weeks later he went 5 for 8 passing for 103 yards and another TD pass.

What the Tigers found out is that they had a backup capable of doing what he’s was asked and that matters a lot to Alexander.

Next up for the Tigers was to find out what they had in Stone.

Woodberry saw it in practice. Stone’s arrival at Woodberry came after he participated in the Nike Elite 11 quarterback camp. Before his freshman year even began, he had an offer to play at UCLA. At 6-foot-2 and 190 pounds, Stone didn’t look like a freshman when his helmet was on. He didn’t throw or run like one either.

Nonetheless, those were camps, practices, etc. The two biggest hurdles for Woodberry this season to reclaim their Prep League championship form (Fork Union ended the 4-year run in 2012) both rested in Richmond and Collegiate was up first.

With Michigan-bound Wilton Speight playing quarterback for Collegiate, you would think the task would be intimidating for a freshman. If it was, it didn’t show. In a 24-14 win, Stone went 12 for 18 in a conservative approach, finished with 101 yards in the air and scored a pair of short rushing touchdowns on his four total carries.

Most importantly? No interceptions.

“We are always going to play two quarterbacks, every year, right now we have three,” Alexander said. “I told the guys that and that they have to be each other’s best support, to not let anyone divide them. We saw it in the Notre Dame game a couple of weeks ago when they had an injury and the announcer says, ‘You’re only as good as your second quarterback.’ Well we’re as good as our three quarterbacks. And all of them took us to a victory this year.”

As big as the Collegiate victory was for Woodberry, it’s a glimpse into what they have going forward. A program that’s produced so many blue chip players (Ed Reynolds (’10) at Stanford, Aramide Olanyian (’10) at UCLA, Rogers Clarke (’12) at N.C. State, Nate Ripper (’12) at Richmond, C.J. Prosise (’12) and Doug Randolph (‘13) at Notre Dame), has found yet another. It didn’t take long for the Tigers

SUPPORTING THE FUTURE SPORTS STARS OF TOMORROW Best of luck to our 2013 student athletes as they embark on their college careers.

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“IT WAS IMPORTANT THAT OUR PLAY DIDN’T LET OFF WHEN I WAS OUT SO I WANTED TO HELP.”

to open up the playbook for Stone. He threw for 176 yards on 8 of 11 passing and touchdown while running for two more scores against Landon the next week.

Of course, sandwiched within this hyrda of quarterback play was what’s become the standard story for the Tigers these last six years, a defense as good as any in the state. While the Tigers were building back the depth they lost the previous year after Randolph’s exit, Notre Dame bound Greer Martini held down the fort along with help from Spencer Bibb on the defensive line. Aiding this quarterback trio was a group of young receivers in Roderick, a sophomore and junior Nate Ingram led by seniors Christian Asher and Trent Ragland, and on occasion when the situation permitted, Martini too. The running game had a reliable grinder of a back in James Hewell and then a homerun threat in H.T. Minor.

Alexander’s platoon system was hard at work on both sides of the ball, and it all came together rather perfectly for this quarterback situation.

With Etheridge back as a starter with two weeks to go in the regular season, no problems bubbled up as you might expect. It was as if nothing changed since he’d been gone. If anything, this group came together to help the team do the same.

When he was out, Etheridge did what he could in practice, in games, off the field, any way he could to help either Stone or Zaytoun.

“Being out still meant trying to help the guys on offense, to help them all get better,” Etheridge said. “It was important that our play didn’t let off when I was out so I wanted to help. It was great to get in there that way.”

With Stone being his biggest competition down the stretch, Etheridge grew fond of the way such a talented athlete could be so down to earth.

— ETHERIDGE

11 :: @scrimmageplay

“He’s a great kid and he’s so humble,” Etheridge said. “It’s great to have someone behind you that is as good or better and so it was amazing for us to be able to push each other to try benefit this program as a whole.”

As for fighting for the starting gig or snaps, it was a non-issue.

“Hunter and I have become really good friends and we both just like seeing the other succeed,” Stone said. “But Hunter’s our starting quarterback. He’s worked so hard for everything and he’s earned that seniority, earned that respect. In practice he’s been teaching me so much, a lot about the little things. I mean I try and help him out where I can, but he’s mostly been teaching me. It’s been a huge help.”

Still, from a game planning perspective, opposing defensive coordinators have to plan to see both. St. Christopher’s found out first that it didn’t matter much though. While Etheridge went 7 for 10 for 52 yards and two TD passes and 46 yards and another TD in the rushing department, Stone killed the Saints on the deep ball, going 6 for 6 for 120 yards and two touchdown bombs. The 45-7 win is a statement.

After the defense ran away with the show the following week against Fork Union to officially wrap up the Prep League title, there’s only one thing left for Woodberry. As they always have, the Tigers opted out of the VISAA Division 1 playoffs (where they

would have been the top overall seed this year, mind you) and play archrival Episcopal. The game matters to both alumni bases as much or more than it does to the players on the field. A win over the Maroon would be the perfect bow for the 2013 season.

In his final game at Woodberry, Etheridge delivered it on a platter. By going 7 for 7 for 162 yard and two touchdowns in the air and adding 21 yards and touchdown on the ground, the game was more than over by halftime. As is tradition, the day belongs to the seniors, but both Stone and Zaytoun got their chances to play. Next year they’ll expand their role and thrive. The fact that this seems more a certainty than just a possibility is a testament to the way in which Woodberry conducts its business.

Every football team talks about the next man up, the Tigers truly believe in the model and execute it, this season being a prime example at the position that many think is the hardest in all of sports. And when it comes to running a platoon system, it’s never too early to think about what’s ahead.

“We’re already working on our depth chart for next year,” Alexander said. “The last few weeks, that’s why we worked so many of the young guys.”

So the cycle continues, but in terms of quarterback play, it’s hard to imagine a story like this one coming along again and playing out so perfectly. ✖ www.scrimmageplay.com :: 12

nd rou

Turn

Story by Bart Isley Photos by Ashley Thornton

Al l a

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t i g n i

I

IT WASN’T ONE MOMENT. IT WAS A SERIES OF MOMENTS. TO

BORROW FROM HEMINGWAY, SLOWLY, AND THEN ALL AT ONCE, ST. ANNE’S-BELFIELD FOOTBALL REDISCOVERED ITS IDENTITY. “I’ve coached a lot of teams even before I came to St. Anne’s and I’ve

never been with a team that’s made bigger strides than this one,” said STAB coach John Blake. “Every coach remembers when the light goes on for certain kids. It’s rare when you watch the lights come on in 10 or 15 of them at one time.”

After a playoff appearance and a 5-5 overall record, it’s easy to forget how

dark things got for the Saints and that they entered the season with one of the area’s youngest rosters once again. It’s easy to forget how frustrated the coaching staff and players were in the midst of a 14-game losing streak or how the injuries piled up during the 0-10 campaign in 2012. www.scrimmageplay.com :: 14

I think our kids really caught on to that. It was us trying to fit our system to our kids.

— John Blake

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And that is exactly what Blake had in mind.

“I got rid of everything we did new last year,” Blake said. “I talked to the coaches and I told them anything we did this year that we didn’t do in years before is gone.”

And that started at the top of the players’ heads. Gone was the brand new maroon paint job on the helmets that sported a white “S” on the right side and the player’s number on the left. Back in was STAB’s traditional white hats with a maroon S and stripes.

But beyond the superstition-oriented moves came wholesale scheme changes, an effort to freshen things up and take advantage of the Saints’ current strengths.

On defense, in particular, a newly adopted philosophy helped the Saints capitalize on a resource STAB usually has in abundance ­— small, fast linebacker-type football players who are fundamentally sound and versatile. The Saints started the year with a nose and a pair of standup defensive ends, and while that changed a little as the year went on with the Saints putting two linemen with their hands down, the initial overhaul did wonders for a defense that was shredded the year before.

“We started off thinking we were small but quick and we were going to have to move people around to do things,” Blake said. “I think our kids really caught on to that that. It was us trying to fit our system to our kids.”

The approach worked well, as the Saints’ defense kept STAB in some of the early games during their 0-4 start.

That defense, led by players like junior captain Minor Smith, became the squad’s engine and reflective of the squad’s toughness and determination.

“The whole team plays with a lot of heart,” Smith said.

“We’re a faster team too. We go into it with the mentality that we can line up with these guys. just because they’re bigger doesn’t mean they’re better.”

With the right system in place, that approach actually became true. It became part of the Saints identity.

But not everything went so smoothly. On offense, the Saints tried to air it out and whip the ball around, with newlyminted quarterback Lee Parkhill taking the reins. Parkhill attempted 50 passes in the Saints’ week two loss to Bishop Sullivan and STAB quickly realized that a pistol style spread attack probably wasn’t going to get the job done. Without a credible threat on the ground, the Saints realized they were probably not going to snap the losing skid.

So STAB went back to the program’s bread and butter.

Actually bread and butter might not be all encompasing enough. STAB went back to an approach that has been the Saints’ bread, butter, jam, jelly and peanut butter for years ­— off tackle power.

Anyone who’s watched STAB play over the last decade for any extended period of time knows that the Saints’ offense

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has been constructed around off tackle power. They simply couldn’t run it last year, not just because they’d struggled to find a consistent running back, but also because they didn’t have a tight end. Over the years, Brian Linthicum, Kyle Long and Alex Asher among a slew of others had made the off tackle run go from the tight end spot. Without a capable blocking tight end, running off tackle power is a fool’s errand. Still missing the obvious option at tight end going into the year was part of what prompted the Saints to give the pistol a try.

But as that approach struggled to find its legs, Campbell Miller emerged.

Miller was an undersized sophomore who was playing receiver early in the year when it dawned on Blake that he might be the right guy to help STAB get back to the power run. Along with Brodie Phillips settling in at tailback in the second half of the year and some changes along the line with fewer players going both ways, STAB suddenly had a recipe for success on the ground.

“Campbell Miller really came on for us,” Blake said. “He blocks everyone we ask him to and he makes big plays.”

As the run game got going, it opened up Parkhill’s ability to spread the ball to Kareem Johnson and Jalen Harrison on the boundaries off play action passes. Teams suddenly had to decide between loading up against the run, trying to pressure Parkhill or guarding Johnson or Harrison. Quite simply, they couldn’t do all of those because few high school defenses can. STAB snapped the losing streak with a win over

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That, to me, was ‘now they’re figuring it out. We haven’t been that focused in 3-4 years.

— John Blake

“

North Cross 22-20, then beat Isle of Wight and Covenant in succession before beating Christchurch on the road.

The Saints were 4-4 and had put themselves in position for a winner-take-all showdown with Blue Ridge on the road. A rivalry that’s been one of Central Virginia’s best at various times had serious stakes on the line again. That clicked with the young Saints right away.

“Coming into that week, everyone knew how important that game was,” Smith said. “After an 0-4 start we could still make the playoffs.

We just went out and executed.”

Blake saw yet another significant step in the growth process for

the Saints that week.

“What we got good at in the last week was focus,” said St. Anne’s-Belfield coach John Blake. “The kids understood what it meant. That, to me, was ‘now they’re figuring it out.’ We haven’t been that focused in 3-4 years. I thought they were back, the intensity was there. You could tell on the bus ride we were going to play, you could feel it.”

The Barons did just that, smashing Blue Ridge 42-7 to secure a playoff spot, with Parkhill playing a near flawless game, going 13 for 16 for 315 yards and four touchdowns, three of them to Johnson. The next week, the Saints lost to Bishop Sullivan in the state semifinals, a rematch of an early season loss for STAB but the Saints actually had the Crusaders on the ropes in the contest, with the game tied at the half. That strong first half and a huge three-touchdown, three-interception game from Harrison and three catches from fellow sophomore Miller gave the Saints every reason to believe that things can be even better next year “I’m loving it,” Blake said. “I’m looking at two sophomores at

receiver and my tight end is a sophomore. The issue is who are you going to take away? They’re the three-headed monster people are going to have to deal with next year.”

It wasn’t some big moment where everything clicked into gear.

Programs don’t return to glory that way, not with just a fistful of seniors like STAB had this year. Instead, slowly but surely, a puzzle piece here or there falls into place. A tight end emerged from an unlikely place. Linebackers found a home in a system built around their skill set. An honest discussion led to renewed confidence and enthusiasm.

Little by little, STAB’s confidence returned and the Saints got back on track.

With a lot of pieces slated to return next year, including Parkhill, Miller, Johnson and Harrison, suddenly expectations should be high for STAB in 2014. That group would be wise to remember the clear lesson about taking care of the little things they learned this year.

Programs aren’t built overnight.

And clearly they can’t be destroyed that quickly either. ✖

www.scrimmageplay.com :: 18

Game Time Covenant 1, Carlisle 0 Eagles post a shutout for first state championship

By Bart Isley

Girma Fekadu-Baker celebrates after the Eagles win the VISAA D2 title. (Bart Isley)

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Covenant senior forward Girma Fekadu gets pushed, pulled, shoved and knocked down from nearly the opening whistle in every game as opposing defenders try and combat his creative style and electric speed with brute force.

But Fekadu just doesn’t get rattled. He doesn’t lose his cool and demand a call from the referee on every knockdown. He’ll let the official know once that he’s trying to play his game, and then for the most part he moves on and starts grinding because he knows an opportunity is going to come.

Friday night in Richmond against Carlisle in the VISAA Division II title game, one of the finest opportunities of his Covenant career arose.

Covenant drew a foul outside the box and Fekadu stepped in to take the ensuing kick.

He saw an opening and struck.

“I knew the middle guy (in the Carlisle wall) was going to jump so I was going to let (Brandon De Jong) take it and he was like ‘Girma it’s all you’,” Fekadu said. “I couldn’t let him down because he trusted in me.”

Fekadu buried a low slider in the back of the net and immediately raced to the Covenant fan section in the bleachers to celebrate, with the entire team joining him in his mad dash across the field.

Fekadu’s goal with 15 minutes left in the match stood up, with Covenant’s defense and keeper Jonathan Whyte making enough plays down the stretch to life the Eagles to a 1-0 victory and a state championship. Whyte earned man of the match honors, a well deserved nod after allowing just two goals in the entire Division II championship bracket.

He also had a tremendous, leaping one-fist

punch save near the end of the first half that helped preserve a 0-0 tie.

“He’s just such a great guy and we just love hanging out with him,” said senior captain and standout midfielder Win Marks.

“He adds to the team chemistry, we love Johnny.”

Marks and the rest of the Covenant midfield managed to overcome an big Carlisle side that presented some unique physical challenges for the Eagles. But with Fekadu’s speed up top stretching the field, Covenant managed to create some excellent opportunities and keep the pressure on Carlisle.

“He makes everyone around him better,” Marks said. “You just can’t go wrong, he plays everyone really well and he makes me look good.”

That pressure eventually resulted in Fekadu’s chance, which he made good on and lifted the Eagles to the school’s first ever boys soccer state title. With much of the cast slated to come back too, including Whyte, Brandon and Alec De Jong who scored the Eagles’ two goals in the semifinal and key defender Michael Colberg, it may not be their last.

“Two years ago when we went to the state final four it was ridiculous,” Marks said. “We thought about (winning a title) but we never thought it was actually going to happen. This is just surreal. The alumni have really been behind us—we had a guy watching from Spain yesterday.”

So somewhere in Spain, another cheer went out Friday that joined the throng of Covenant supporters in Richmond. All had one message — the Eagles are champions. ✖

ACADEMIC EDGE SPONSORED

BY

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MADISON COUNTY’S SHERIDAN SANTINGA

On a pretty regular basis, Madison County volleyball’s junior middle Sheridan Santinga owns the net. She hits a heavy ball and brings an authoritative block to the Mountaineers who rolled unbeaten to through the Bull Run District. In the process, Santinga earned All-Bull Run District honors.

She brings the same level of excellence to her other pursuits at Madison too. A three-sport athlete, Santinga has also managed to squeeze in duties as the sophomore class president and membership in the Beta Honor society while being enrolled in the Blue Ridge Virtual Governor’s School. She sports a 4.38 GPA and is ranked in the top three of her class and has also shown talent in art, earning a first place award in a regional competition.

Santinga is a multi-talented threat in the middle for the Mountaineers during volleyball season, but it’s apparent that excelling at a variety of disciplines is par for the course for Santinga.

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Success stories begin here.

Success Story: Antonio Allen At his size, Antonio Allen could and did play just about everyone on the field. Sometimes athletes like Allen can get lumped into the dreaded ‘tweener’ category where coaches at the next level can’t quite decide where they’d like you, and in the end, never do and move on. By the time that he finished up at Fork Union, South Carolina wasn’t entirely certain what do with Allen, but they knew that they’d find a way to make it work.

Allen came to FUMA by way of Trinity Catholic High in Florida to play for John Shuman’s celebrated post graduate football team. He left a more polished athlete and a stronger student. That allowed Allen to head to South Carolina in the spring semester of 2008 and participate in spring drills.

As a freshman, Allen found himself playing “SAM” linebacker. The next

year as a sophomore and junior, he slid over to the Gamecocks’ “spur” position. As a senior in 2011, Allen hauled in three interceptions and took one of them back for a touchdown.

He had a pair of fumble returns. He finished with 88 tackles, 55 of them on his own and 9.5 for a loss.

In the spring of 2012, Allen had his name called at Radio City Music Hall as the New York Jets’ seventh round selection in the NFL Draft. Now in his second year, the former Gamecock and Blue Devil is seeing an increase in playing time and making the most of it. His 49 tackles through the first nine weeks stand out, but not quite as much as his interception return for a 23-yard touchdown in the Jets week seven win over New England.

In just six years, Allen’s gone from the recruiting gauntlet to the combine to playing on Sundays. He kickstarted that process at FUMA.

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Overtime

Fish out of water

An athlete takes the road never chosen, at least not here

Y

ou’ve got to give her an enormous amount of credit, because odds are, it wasn’t intentional. Western Albemarle’s Sarah Grupp probably couldn’t have put together a more diverse high school athletic career, much less find a way to parlay it into playing at the collegiate level.

There are only a handful of athletes that have come through this area that have even a remote shot at playing collegiate ice hockey, and that’s talking since there’s been a rink in this town, one that first opened up in 1996. Of the few that have tried to climb the unlikely mountain that is to grow up in this area and play hockey at the next level, and trust me, there are only a small number of them, not one has been able to land a gig at the next level and also still have a chance at being a multi sport athlete. Grupp, ever determined, is that rare athlete. Most know her as an exceptional cross-country runner and an outstanding defender in soccer. That’s all good and well as far as she’s concerned. But hockey, that’s always been the path for her, and despite facing impressive odds against her, Grupp has found a way to make it work as she will head to Oswego State in New York to play both hockey and soccer.

“It was something I was looking at, both ice hockey and soccer,” Grupp said. “I’ve been playing multiple sports my whole life. It just would seem weird if I only picked one.”

It is weird, and it’s weird on two levels, one of them wrong, the other incredibly impressive.

Let’s start with the over specialization issue. Any athlete that wants to play collegiately, whether its big time Divison I stuff or Division III ask any coach that’s in the know at the collegiate level and they’ll tell you that you are doing yourself a disservice by focusing on one sport year round. That applies for boys and girls. I’ve yet to talk with one college coach or scout that’s said otherwise. We beat a dead horse here at Scrimmage Play sometimes when it comes to that issue, but what we’re seeing on a regular basis are athletes giving up opportunities to find out that they can excel at a sport they didn’t know, or quite often, that not diversifying their skills gets them to the dreaded plateau sooner rather than later.

But the real story here is what Grupp’s gone through to be able to play hockey. Coming from a southern state like Virginia, and in hockey, Virginia might as well be near the equator, hockey coaches simply don’t trust that a great athlete like Grupp is as good as advertised because of her competition. To boost her profile, Grupp played for a travel team much in the way seen at the club soccer level. She played for a team in Maryland to help both boost her profile and elevate the competition she was up against. Grupp was trying to infiltrate a collegiate game that’s dominated by Canadians and also the states famous for harboring hockey talent — Canadian border states like Minnesota, Michigan, New York, etc.

For the sake of analogy, it’d be like her trying to make a name for herself in beach volleyball if she lived in Alaska. That she’s gotten this far, much less in hockey and then in soccer on top of that, speaks such incredible volumes.

“I definitely feel like a big weight is off of me now that I’ve committed,” Grupp said.

Listen, as Scrimmage Play’s resident Canadian, I understand where Grupp is coming from, and what she’s headed for. The further north you head, the more important and prominent

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“It would seem weird if I only picked one.” hockey becomes. It’s a beautiful thing. That she’s done as well as she as from this environment, which minus a few hubs in the Baltimore/ DC area, is mostly devoid of interest in hockey in general, is only going to make her better.

She’s headed to New York and there she’ll be in the kind of hockey environment that is the equivalent of the football, basketball or lacrosse environment here. It makes a big difference.

“They have fans coming out to every game and that just sounds amazing,” Grupp said.

“It’s going to be a big change coming from here. I mean even starting with the winters.”

It sounds like a big change for Grupp, but it’s not going to be hard. What Grupp’s tapped into will only make her better. She’s finally going to be able to showcase her abilities on the ice against bonafide talent, or at least what the hockey community takes seriously. She’s going to flourish in that environment. And oh yeah, she’ll play soccer too.

It’s almost silly the hoops she’s had to jump through so far, but now that she has, you can’t help but be interested in what Grupp will do these next few years. ✖

Ryan Yemen,

CRE ATIVE EDITOR

back talk »

What’s harder than making it in hockey in CVa? Contact Ryan at: ryan@scrimmageplay.com

COVENANT SOCCER VISAA DIVISION II CHAMPIONS

THE NEXT STEP Covenant has a strong history of state championship teams in a variety of sports: on the diamond in baseball in 2010 and by the girls lacrosse squad this past spring. The boys tennis team has six consecutive state championships to its name, including last year. You can add one more. The boys soccer team entered the 2013 season with the initial goal of making the VISAA Division 2 final four, something that’s been done only once before in school history. Coach Bryan Verbrugge led the team to that goal in early November with a homefield win over Eastern Mennonite in the state quarterfinals. In Richmond for the semifinals, the Eagles took one step further by topping North Cross. The next day in the finals, the Eagles took the next step defeating Carlisle and securing the state championship trophy, the first in Covenant’s 28-year history. Best of all, these student athletes displayed not only athleticism but also the high level of sportsmanship that Covenant fosters.

THE COVENANT LOWER SCHOOL | Pre-K through Grade 6 THE COVENANT UPPER SCHOOL | Grades 7 through 12 175 Hickory Street Charlottesville, Virginia 22902 434-220-7330 1000 Birdwood Road Charlottesville, Virginia 22903 434-220-8125

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TEAM SPOTLIGHT ALBEMARLE VOLLEYBALL October is Breast Cancer Awareness month and Albemarle’s volleyball, a program that swept the regular season last year and won the Conference 16 tournament this year, did its part to raise awareness for the deadly disease with spirit. The Patriots wore pink and played as they always do, en route to a perfect slate through the Jefferson District. Congratulations Albemarle on your season, and keep up the great work!

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