June 15 - Battlefield’s Jake Agnos has been named the Player of the Year, and Chantilly’s Kevin Ford the Coach of the Year, to lead our second annual NOVA Nine Team, which is sponsored this year by Rip City Fit.
Agnos, a repeat member of the NOVA Nine, went 11-0 with a 0.54 earned run average this season, striking out 136 to just 24 walks in 65 innings. The East Carolina University signee also hit .348 with eight doubles, 16 RBI and 14 stolen bases to lead a Bobcats team that went 23-5, won the 6A Conference 8 title and advanced to the North Region and state championship games.
He was joined on the team by two other repeat NOVA Nine Team members, Oakton’s Joe Rizzo and Paul VI Catholic’s Jack Cunningham. Others chosen to the team by the magazine’s selection committee were Chantilly’s Jared DiCesare, Flint Hill’s Khalil Lee, C.D. Hylton’s Fox Semones, Kettle Run’s Brenton Doyle, Marshall’s Steven Johel, and Mountain View’s Alex Smith.
The NOVA Nine was chosen from 25 finalists which were identified last week from a watchlist of 243 players that were nominated from the 80 schools in the magazine’s coverage area, which includes the counties of Arlington, Fairfax, Fauquier, Loudoun, Prince William, Spotsylvania and Stafford.
Ford, in his 11th season at Chantilly, led the Chargers to the program’s first state championship, defeating Battlefield for the 6A title this past weekend. Chantilly went 25-2, winning its second straight 6A Conference 5 championship and claiming its second North Region title in three years, finishing the season on a 19-game winning streak.
Each of the NOVA Nine members will play at Division I programs next season - Rizzo at the University of South Carolina, Cunningham at Boston College, DiCesare at George Mason University, Lee at Liberty University, Semones at James Madison University, Doyle at the Virginia Military Institute, Johel at Coastal Carolina University, and Smith at the Naval Academy.
To view this year’s NOVA Nine Team, click here.
Photos of Jake Agnos by Fred Ingham and of of Kevin Ford by Phil Dolinger
