August 23 - As part of the All-Time Northern Virginia Top 10 feature, the magazine will be releasing short recaps of the nominated teams, grouped by the decade they played in.
Teams that won state championships were automatically nominated, with current and former coaches from the area nominating non-state champions, bringing the list of total nominees to 60 teams.
Once recaps of each of the 60 teams have been posted this week, the nominees will be turned over to a selection committee of current and former coaches from the area, who will select and rank the All-Time Top 10. The rankings will be revealed beginning the first week in September, with one team featured each week.
Here are recaps for the the nominees from the 2000s:
2009 Paul VI Catholic (22-9) - The Panthers started the season by dropping seven of their first 12 games, but starting with a championship run over Spring Break at the Southeastern Baseball Classic in South Carolina, they won 17 of their last 19 games and became the first team to claim the Washington Catholic Athletic Conference (WCAC) title and a Virginia Independent Schools Athletic Association (VISAA) title in the same season, winning their third VISAA Division I crown in six years. Coach Billy Emerson’s team eclipsed 20 wins for the fifth consecutive season behind a core that included catcher Chad Morgan, who was a first-team All-Met selection by The Washington Post, as well as two-way standout Lansing Veeder and two left-handers - Tyler Costello and Torey Mancari.
2009 West Springfield (23-5) - The Spartans lost just one game in Virginia, in the 3A state semifinals, a one-run defeat at the hands of eventual state champion Menchville, which finished the season as the No. 1 ranked team in the country by USAToday. Coach John James’ team had 12 players who later played collegiately, including eight at the Division I level. They compiled a 17-game winning streak, scored in double-figures 14 times, won by the 10-run mercy rule on nine occasions, and won the first of what would be three Northern Region championships in four years. The team was led by center fielder Bryn Renner, currently a quarterback with the Pittsburgh Steelers who went 4-for-4 with three RBI in the loss to Menchville, as well as third baseman Charlie Morgan and ace Bobby Wahl. 2008 Paul VI Catholic (27-3) - The Panthers won their first 21 games - including a championship at the Southeastern Baseball Classic in South Carolina over Spring Break - and ascended to as high as sixth nationally by USAToday. Coach Billy Emerson’s team fell to Bishop Ireton in the Washington Catholic Athletic Association (WCAC) semifinals, but rebounded to avenge a loss in the previous year’s Virginia Independent Schools Athletic Association (VISAA) Tournament by defeating St. Christopher’s for the Division I state championship on a walk off double by Mike McMenamin. Eight players from the team would later play collegiately at the Division I level and two - Peter Verdin and Matt Murakami - were named as first-team All-Met selections by The Washington Post as Paul VI matched the previous year’s program record for victories.
2007 Notre Dame Academy (32-4) - The Dragons won their fourth consecutive Virginia Independent Schools Athletic Association (VISAA) championship - their first at the Division I level - behind a core that featured seven players who would play collegiately at the Division I level. In coach Mike Lockhart’s final season, the team claimed the Southeastern Baseball Classic in South Carolina over Spring Break, beat St. Christopher’s in the state final and finished ranked 46th nationally by Baseball America behind a nucleus that featured Gabe Ortiz, the VISAA D-I Player of the Year who hit .460 with 11 home runs and 53 RBI, and Ryan Crosby, a transfer from Broad Run who went 10-1 with a 0.61 ERA and hit .361 with 25 RBI. Left-hander Buddy Sosnoskie was 4-1 with three saves and a 1.89 ERA and hit .472 with six homers and 48 RBI. Lockhart’s six-year tenure ended with him averaging 32 wins per season over the final four years.
2007 Paul VI Catholic (27-4) - Perhaps the most-talented of the six Panthers teams that have been nominated, coach Billy Emerson’s group claimed the Washington Catholic Athletic Conference (WCAC) championship before falling to St. Christopher’s in the Virginia Independent Schools Athletic Association (VISAA) Division I state semifinals. The team featured 14 players who would later play collegiately at the Division I level, including Zach Costello, who hit a walk off home run in the WCAC semifinals against Gonzaga and homered twice in the conference final. Peter Verdin was named a first-team All-Met selection by The Washington Post after hitting .458 with 22 RBI and 20 stolen bases, and Emerson was named the All-Met Coach of the Year.
2004-06 Notre Dame Academy - Coach Mike Lockhart’s Dragons began their half-decade dynasty by claiming three consecutive Virginia Independent Schools Athletic Association (VISAA) Division II state championships. The Middleburg prep school went a combined 94-25 from 2004-06, winning a school-record 36 games and defeating Greenbriar Christian to begin the run in 2004, going 30-12 and winning a second title in 2005, and capping the run by going 28-5 and finishing ranked 50th nationally by Baseball America after completing the three-peat in 2006. Cameron Scott, Paul Heidler, Chris Forsten, Ryan Crosby, brothers Buddy and Anthony Sosnoskie and Gabe Ortiz formed the nucleus for the championship teams. Scott and Heidler anchored the lineup from 2004-05, with Scott hitting .468 with six homers and then .400 with five homers and Heidler hitting .400 and .375 over those two seasons, while Crosby went 9-0 and tossed three no-hitters to anchor the staff in 2005. In 2006, Ortiz hit .490 with seven home runs and 52 RBI while Anthony Sosnoskie hit .440 with five homers and 50 RBI and Buddy Sosnoskie hit .364 with four homers and 38 RBI and going 5-1 with a 2.02 ERA. Ortiz and the Sosnoskie brothers would team up again at Virginia Tech.
2004 Paul VI Catholic (17-12) - The Panthers struggled down the stretch, falling in the Washington Catholic Athletic Conference (WCAC) quarterfinals and barely squeaking into the eight-team Virginia Independent Schools Athletic Association (VISAA) Division I state tournament as the seven seed. Once the state tourney began, however, coach Billy Emerson’s team caught fire. Paul VI beat St. Stephen’s & St. Agnes and future Philadelphia Phillies pitcher Mike Schwimer in the semifinals behind a complete-game effort by JD Polcari. JT Richardson, who threw a complete game in the quarterfinals, came back four days later and pitched a shutout in the championship game against WCAC rival Bishop O’Connell. Alex Gregory and TJ Guinan spearheaded the Panthers’ offense throughout their state run.
2004 Westfield (20-7) - The Bulldogs featured three players that would eventually be drafted and two future big leaguers in Brandon Snyder, the 13th overall selection of the Baltimore Orioles the following spring, and current Miami Marlins first baseman Justin Bour. In just the program’s fourth season, Coach Chuck Welch’s group won its first Northern Region championship and advanced to the 3A state final before falling to Western Branch in the final, 3-2, when a throwing error allowed the winning run to score. Along the way, Westfield beat a Herndon team featuring another future big leaguer, Cleveland Indians outfielder Brandon Guyer, in the Concorde District final and in the state quarterfinals beat a Halifax County team featuring current Texas Rangers pitcher Jeremy Jeffress. In that game, Jason Bour - Justin’s older brother - drove in the game’s lone run. They would then overcome a 6-0 deficit to beat Mills Godwin in the semifinals. Snyder hit .456 with nine homers and 31 RBI in earning first-team All-Met honors by The Washington Post, while John Lloyd and Louis Ullrich anchored the pitching staff.
2003 Madison (23-4) - Behind catcher Matt Foley, who was The Washington Post’s All-Met Player of the Year after hitting .498 with seven home runs and 34 RBI, the Warhawks repeated as Northern Region champions before falling to eventual state champion Great Bridge, a team led by Detroit Tigers outfielder Justin Upton, in the 3A state semifinals. Foley drove in the go-ahead runs in an 8-5 win over Robinson in the region final, three-sport star Johnny Ayers proved to be one of the state’s most dynamic players and right-hander Josh Canova went 11-2 to anchor coach Mark ‘Pudge’ Gjormand’s pitching staff. Canova and Foley would later team up again at Virginia Tech, while Ayers played both baseball and football at Boston College.
2002 Madison (29-0) - The Warhawks set a Virginia public school record for victories in a season and eclipsed the 1993 First Colonial team’s 28-0 mark during perhaps the most-dominating season in state history. Coach Mark ‘Pudge’ Gjormand’s team posted 10 shutouts and allowed just one run in 10 games, outscoring its opponents, 249-39, for the season and finished ranked fourth nationally by USAToday after beating J.R. Tucker, 2-1, in the 3A state final. The team featured nine players who would play collegiately at the Division I level, including pitcher J.J. Hollenbeck, who was named the 3A State Player of the Year and the All-Met Player of the Year by The Washington Post after going 12-0 with a 0.76 ERA. Catcher Matt Foley was also a first-team All-Met selection after pacing the offense by hitting .540 with 38 RBI. Joe Lewin hit a walk off double in the state final, clinching the program’s third state title and first since 1971.
2000 Oakton (22-6) - The Cougars had a flair for the dramatic during their run to the first 3A state championship in program history, coming back from seventh-inning deficits in four of their nine postseason games, winning the first of back-to-back Northern Region championships with a 4-0 win over Lake Braddock - Oakton’s first region title since 1982 - and beating Patrick Henry, 1-0, on a walk off hit by Andrew Eisenhart in the state final. Coach Scott Rowland, in his first year with the program after coming over from South Lakes, led a team paced by two-way standout Stacen Gant, who won eight games on the mound and hit 10 home runs, and Matt Prendergast, who won 12 games. Kent Stokley and Scott Byers also played key roles, with Stokley hitting a walk off home run in a 4-3 win over Mills Godwin in the state quarterfinals and Byers combining with Prendergast for the shutout in the state final.
2000 Courtland (23-4) - The Cougars won their second 2A state championship in five years under longtime coach Rick Holcomb, who would win his 300th career game the following spring. A nucleus of Lee Meador, Jeff Petty, Brendan McGowan and Scott Snyder led a team that defeated William Byrd in the state final. Meador hit .574 with a program-record 40 runs and Petty drove in a program-record 34 runs to pace the offense, while Snyder’s walk off home run beat Chancellor in the Battlefield District championship game. The team is the last from Spotsylvania county to claim a state championship.
All-Time Northern Virginia Top 10 Nominees:
2010s (10) - 2016 Chantilly; 2015 Madison; 2015 Stone Bridge; 2014 Loudoun Valley; 2012 Lake Braddock; 2012 Paul VI Catholic; 2011 South County; 2010 West Springfield; 2010 Woodbridge; 2010 Potomac Falls
2000s (14) - 2009 Paul VI Catholic; 2009 West Springfield; 2008 Paul VI Catholic; 2007 Notre Dame Academy; 2007 Paul VI Catholic; 2006 Notre Dame Academy; 2005 Notre Dame Academy; 2004 Notre Dame Academy; 2004 Westfield; 2004 Paul VI Catholic; 2003 Madison; 2002 Madison; 2000 Oakton; 2000 Courtland
1990s (14) - 1998 West Springfield; 1998 Bishop O’Connell; 1997 St. Stephen’s & St. Agnes; 1996 Herndon; 1995 Courtland; 1995 Brentsville District; 1994 Paul VI Catholic; 1993 Lake Braddock; 1992 Gar-Field; 1992 West Springfield; 1991 West Springfield; 1991 Broad Run; 1991 Fairfax; 1990 W.T. Woodson
1980s (8) - 1989 W.T Woodson; 1988 Potomac; 1987 Marshall; 1984 Park View; 1983 Potomac; 1982 Bishop O’Connell; 1980 Robinson; 1980 George Mason
1970s (5) - 1978 Robinson; 1976 Mount Vernon; 1972 Loudoun Valley; 1972 Washington-Lee; 1971 Madison
1960s and earlier (9) - 1968 Madison; 1966 Washington-Lee; 1964 Bishop O’Connell; 1952 Mount Vernon; 1951 Washington-Lee; 1949 Washington-Lee; 1947 George Washington; 1939 Lee-Jackson; 1932 Alexandria
Clockwise from top left, Oakton celebrates Andrew Eisenhart's walk off hit in the 2000 3A state final, Madison's J.J. Hollenbeck, Notre Dame Academy coach Mike Lockhart, West Springfield's Bryn Renner, Westfield's Brandon Snyder and Paul VI Catholic's Peter Verdin.
