September 19 - Undefeated 2002 Madison was the overwhelming pick by our selection committee as the No. 1 team in our All-Time Northern Virginia Top 10, which is sponsored by Athlete’s Addiction.
The ‘02 Warhawks, which went 29-0 and set a state public school record for victories in a season and won the program’s third Group AAA state championship, received nine of 18 first-place votes and 150 points from our committee of current and former area coaches.
Madison had three teams among the Top 10, as the ‘71 Warhawks (20-3) finished No. 6 with two first-place votes and 49 points, and the ‘68 Warhawks (19-2) finished No. 9 with one first-place vote and 39 points. Both teams won Group AAA state titles and were coached by the late Tom Christie.
The No. 2 team was 1989 W.T. Woodson (23-1), which was skippered by the late Lee Knupp and won the first of back-to-back Group AAA crowns. That spring's Cavaliers nipped 1998 Springfield (23-3) and 1983 Potomac (21-0-1) despite not receiving any first-place votes, receiving 106 total points from the committee.
The ‘98 Spartans tied the ‘83 Panthers in overall points - with both Group AAA state champions receiving 103 - but West Springfield was awarded the No. 3 ranking based on having two first-place votes to Potomac’s one. The ‘98 Spartans were led by future big league pitcher Joe Saunders and coached by Ron Tugwell, who led the program to two state titles in during the decade, while coach Jerry Gardziel’s ‘83 Panthers boasted a record-breaking lineup that produced a state title before the school had even graduated its first senior class.
At No. 5 was 1978 Robinson (24-1), which carried an unbeaten mark into that year’s Group AAA state final before falling to J.R. Tucker, 2-1. The ‘78 Rams, skippered by the late Bob Menefee, got one first-place vote and 66 total points.
The only other unbeaten team among the 60 nominees, 1964 Bishop O’Connell (17-0), finished No. 7 with one first-place vote and 42 total points. Coached by the late Al Burch, the ‘64 Knights were in the midst of a 42-game winning streak when they won the second of three straight Washington Catholic League titles that spring.
Prince William County’s second team to crack the rankings, 1992 Gar-Field (24-2), finished No. 8 with 41 points. The Indians, skippered by Tony Labozzetta, knocked off defending state champion West Springfield that spring before winning Group AAA state title behind future big league pitcher Brian McNichol.
Rounding out the rankings was 1987 Marshall (21-2), which finished No. 10 with 30 points. The ‘87 Statesmen were led by another future big league pitcher in Pete Schourek, one of the top two-way players to come through the area. Coach Dean Sissler’s team advanced to the Group AAA state title that spring before falling to Mills Godwin. The Statesmen edged 2016 Chantilly (25-2) and 1991 West Springfield (25-3), two Group AAA state champions that finished with 27 and 26 points, respectively.
A total of 32 teams received votes, including 2011 South County (28-1), which carried an unbeaten record into the Group AAA state final that spring before falling to Great Bridge. The ‘11 Stallions received the remaining first-place vote and finished tied with another state runner-up - 1993 Lake Braddock (22-4) - with the 13th-most points with 20.
The selection committee that chose the All-Time Northern Virginia Top 10 included current coaches Mike Covington (Potomac), Billy Emerson (Paul VI Catholic), Kevin Ford (Chantilly), Mark ‘Pudge’ Gjormand (Madison), Doug Grove (Washington-Lee), John James (Robinson), Sam Plank (Riverside) and Wayne Todd (Loudoun Valley), and former coaches Bill Evers (Robinson), Dan Griel (Lake Braddock), Tom Hall (Oakton), Tony Labozzetta (Gar-Field), Jimmy Linza (Mount Vernon, Hayfield), Tom Peterson (Robinson), Scott Rowland (Flint Hill, South Lakes, Oakton), Ron Simms (Hayfield), Ron Tugwell (West Springfield) and Chuck Welch (Langley, Westfield).
All-Time Northern Virginia Top 10 Rankings:
#1 2002 Madison Warhawks
Voting: 150 points, 9 first-place votes
Record: 29-0
Head Coach: Mark ‘Pudge’ Gjormand
Best Player: J.J. Hollenbeck
Season in Review: 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.
#2 1989 W.T. Woodson Cavaliers
Voting: 106 points
Record: 23-1
Head Coach: Lee Knupp
Best Player: Doug Newstrom
Season in Review: After dropping their second game of the season, the Cavaliers reeled off 22 consecutive wins, culminating with a 9-2 win over Cave Spring before a reported crowd of 2,379 in the Group AAA state final. Not bad for a program that had gone 7-13 the previous season and made one state tournament appearance in the previous 23 years. Coach Lee Knupp’s team broke through behind the likes of pitchers Mark Bouck, who went 10-0 with a 1.25 ERA, and two-way standout Doug Newstrom, who went 7-1 with a 1.66 ERA and hit .367 with seven homers and 41 RBI. Jason Cook hit .429 with 29 RBI and also recorded a 1.06 ERA and eight saves, while Charlie Kim hit .333 with 38 runs and T.J. Jones hit .338 with five homers and 32 RBI. During their winning streak, the Cavaliers handed rival West Springfield their only three losses that spring, including a 7-4 setback in the Northern Region championship game. West Springfield had handed W.T. Woodson its lone loss in that second regular season game.
#3 1998 West Springfield Spartans
Voting: 103 points, 2 first-place votes
Record: 23-3
Head Coach: Ron Tugwell
Best Player: Joe Saunders
Season in Review: The Spartans beat three state champions during their regular season, Maryland’s Arundel in a local matchup and the champions from South Carolina and Georgia while winning the Southeastern Baseball Classic over Spring Break in South Carolina. Then they blitzed Centreville, 13-0, to win the Northern Region en route to the Group AAA state final, where they slipped past George Washington-Danville, 6-5. Coach Ron Tugwell’s team finished the season ranked 13th nationally by USAToday behind a core led by future big league pitcher Joe Saunders and Mike Crisci, who was the state’s player of the year. The tandem combined to go 19-0, and Crisci also hit .378 with five homers and 26 RBI. Marc Tugwell, John Schneider and Jason Lee played key roles for a deep lineup. Saunders, Crisci and Tugwell would later team up again at Virginia Tech.
#4 1983 Potomac Panthers
Voting: 103 points, 1 first-place vote
Record: 21-0-1
Head Coach: Jerry Gardziel
Best Player: Tim Raley
Season in Review: The Panthers became the second team in state history to go undefeated en route to a state championship - Kempsville was the first in 1975 - claiming the Commonwealth District and Northwest Region championships before beating Warwick, 9-2, in the Group AAA state final. A dominating offensive team led by the Raley brothers, Dan and Tim, coach Jerry Gardziel’s team averaged 12.7 runs during 18 regular season games, when they eclipsed 10 runs on 10 occasions, and scored 19 or more runs five times. Their tie came in mid-April against Gar-Field in a game called due to darkness. Tim Raley hit .534 with nine homers and 42 RBI en route to All-Met Player of the Year honors by The Washington Post, and Dan Raley hit .565 and went 6-0 on the mound. John Oravec chipped in by hitting .349 with five homers and 25 RBI and had the game-winning hit to beat West Springfield in the state semifinals, while Bobby Patenaude helped Dan Raley anchor the staff, tossing a 2-hitter in the region semifinals against Pulaski. Doug Johnson and Bryan Luedtke each chipped in five homers for a team that would send nine players on to play collegiately at the Division I level. The Raleys would later team up again at Wichita State, with Tim earning first-team All-American honors in 1987.
#5 1978 Robinson Rams
Voting: 66 points, 1 first-place vote
Record: 24-1
Head Coach: Bob Menefee
Best Player: Brian Rupe
Season in Review: The Rams were the first area team to go undefeated during the regular season, winning all 20 games and then sweeping to the Northern Region championship and Group AAA state final before falling to J.R. Tucker, 2-1. Coach Bob Menefee’s team featured three-sport standouts Mark Krynitsky, Winston Streeter and Todd Kirtley, who helped lead the school’s football, basketball and football teams to region titles before falling in the state tournament. Brian Rupe hit .465 to pace the offense, and pitchers Danny Cox and Mark DiGiovanni - who posted a 0.57 ERA - also played key roles for the Rams and Menefee, who skippered the program from 1972-89. Kirtley later pitched and also started at quarterback at Virginia, Rupe played at Virginia Tech and in the Minnesota Twins’ system, Krynitsky played at Virginia Tech and the Kansas City Royals’ system, DiGiovanni played at South Florida, Greg Schuler played at North Carolina and the Baltimore Orioles’ system and George Priftis played at Virginia and in the Seattle Mariners’ system. J.R. Tucker would go on to win four of the next five and six of the next nine state titles.
#6 1971 Madison Warhawks
Voting: 49 points, 2 first-place votes
Record: 20-3
Head Coach: Tom Christie
Best Player: Jay Franklin
Season in Review: The Warhawks were in the midst of a run in which the program won six straight district titles and three region titles in four years when they won their second state title in four seasons, beating George Wythe, 4-1, in the Group AAA final. Coach Tom Christie’s team was led by Jay Franklin, who would become the second overall pick of the Major League Baseball Draft that June by the San Diego Padres and made his big league debut that September. Franklin pitched all 14 innings in a 1-0 win over Jefferson in the region final in one of the area’s most-memorable games, allowing one hit and striking out a state record 29 batters in the game. The Warhawks scored their lone run on a sequence that included a single, wild pitch, sacrifice bunt and a squeeze bunt. The Colonials’ lone hit was a leadoff double in the first inning. Franklin, who finished his career 28-1 and with 363 strikeouts, was also on the mound for the win in the state final. The Warhawks were also led by a veteran infield that included Tom Embrey, Kenny Malone, Robbie Carter, Ronnie Riley and Tom Determan, and pitcher Roger Neighborgall, who would later play quarterback at Duke.
#7 1964 Bishop O’Connell Knights
Voting: 42 points, 1 first-place vote
Record: 17-0
Head Coach: Al Burch
Best Player: Charlie Boone
Season in Review: The Knights were in the midst of a 42-game winning streak and three consecutive Washington Catholic League championships when they ran the table that spring. Coach Al Burch’s team outscored their opponents 157-32 for the season, with the runs-allowed number becoming even more impressive when considering over a third of the runs were scored by Yorktown in a 15-11 win. A pitching staff led by left-hander Charlie Boone, who went 9-0 that season and a perfect 18-0 in his career, also included Pat Laing, Tom Conaty and Bill Rubel and combined to post shutouts in their first five games. Dave Kirchgessner hit .425 to pace the offense, which was also led by Joe Kirchner, Chuck Hines, Charles Jackson, John Hickey and Greg Gibadlo. A plaque honoring the program’s winning streak hangs in Cooperstown, N.Y., at the Baseball Hall of Fame. Burch would coach the Knights from 1963-77, compiling a 262-69 record before becoming the school’s longtime principal.
#8 1992 Gar-Field Indians
Voting: 41 points
Record: 24-2
Head Coach: Tony Labozzetta
Best Player: Brian McNichol
Season in Review: The Indians won their final 15 games, avenging a loss in the previous year’s state final by handing West Springfield its first loss of the season in the state semifinals. Coach Tony Labozzetta’s team finished ranked No. 11 nationally by USAToday, getting a game-winning RBI single in the sixth inning by the school’s current football coach, Chris Williams, en route to a 4-3 win over Kecoughtan in the championship game. This after Rhett Pfitzner’s game-winning hit to knock off defending state champion West Springfield in the semifinals. Gar-Field’s pitching staff was anchored by future big leaguer Brian McNichol, who went 10-2 with a 1.43 ERA, and Brian Helmerson, who went 10-0 with a 1.22 ERA and would later pitch at Radford. The Indians’ offense was paced by shortstop Ron Pannell, who hit .453 with seven homers and 33 RBI and would play at George Mason, as well as Brian Jersey (.444, 28 RBI) and Kelvin Parker (.376, 26 RBI). Eight players moved on to play collegiate, seven at the Division I level.
#9 1968 Madison Warhawks
Voting: 39 points, 1 first-place vote
Record: 19-2
Head Coach: Tom Christie
Best Player: Mike Wallace
Season in Review: The Warhawks won the first-ever Northern Region championship and claimed the first state tournament to be held since 1954, thus becoming the state’s first team to win a district, region and state title in the same season. Coach Tom Christie’s team was led by future big league pitcher Mike Wallace, a left-hander who went 12-0 and pitched a complete game in a 4-3 win over Highland Springs in the state final. One of the team’s top offensive threats, two-way standout Ronnie Slingerman, hit a two-run home run to provide the winning margin in the final and later played at High Point and in the Chicago White Sox’ organization. Wallace would lead the Warhawks back to the state final the following spring and finished with 26 career victories before being drafted in the fourth round by the Philadelphia Phillies. He would pitch in 117 games over five years with four clubs before retiring in 1977.
#10 1987 Marshall Statesmen
Voting: 30 points
Record: 21-2
Head Coach: Dean Sissler
Best Player: Pete Schourek
Season in Review: Behind Schourek, perhaps the most-dominant two-way standout the area has seen, the Statesmen rolled to a second consecutive Northern Region championship before falling in the Group AAA state final for the second straight season. Coach Dean Sissler’s team got 15 strikeouts from Schourek in that game but dropped a 4-2 decision to Mills Godwin, which finished its season 24-0. Lonnie Goldberg, who would later star at George Mason University and play professionally for five seasons, drove in the game’s lone run in a 1-0 win over E.C. Glass in the state semifinals after Schourek pitched a shutout in a 5-0 win over West Springfield in the region final. Steve Makranczy finished 8-1, earning the win in the state semifinals. Schourek posted back-to-back no-hitters to begin the season and won 24 straight decisions before taking the loss in the state final, finishing his season with 13 wins while hitting 11 home runs to pace the team’s offense. He struck out 314 batters and hit 21 homers over his final two prep seasons, was a second round pick of the New York Mets that June and pitched in the big leagues for 11 seasons, finishing second to Greg Maddux in the 1995 National League Cy Young Award voting.
Others Receiving Votes: 2016 Chantilly (27), 1991 West Springfield (26), 2011 South County (20), 1993 Lake Braddock (20), 1966 Washington-Lee (19), 1991 Broad Run (18), 2012 Lake Braddock (14), 2008 Paul VI Catholic (13), 2010 West Springfield (13), 2007 Paul VI Catholic (12), 2009 West Springfield (11), 2007 Notre Dame Academy (11), 2000 Oakton (11), 2010 Woodbridge (9), 1980 George Mason (8), 1990 W.T. Woodson (7), 1952 Mount Vernon (6), 2015 Stone Bridge (5), 2014 Loudoun Valley (4), 1992 West Springfield (4), 1982 Bishop O’Connell (2), 1949 Washington-Lee (1)
Photo of J.J. Hollenbeck courtesy of The Washington Post
