Golf Preview 2008

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By Dan Sousa
LoudounPrepSports.com Senior Content Editor

(Aug. 12, 2008) – The two Loudoun teams that advanced to the state tournament in 2007, Briar Woods in AA and Loudoun Valley in AAA, have enough talent returning in 2008 that you can almost book their tee times for the postseason.

If it wasn’t bad enough news to the Dulles District competition that Briar Woods had its entire starting line-up back, including defending district champion Michael Birmingham, try this on for size: Birmingham may not be the best player on his team some rounds this season.

“He has two or three guys chasing him on a regular basis,” said BW coach Bob Vitti.

Freshman Adam Ochs is a newcomer that is a force to be reckoned with in the district as he shot a 69 in qualifying. Briar Woods had one of the area’s lowest qualifying cuts in 2007 in the low 90s and this year the Falcons had an amazingly low cut mark of 84 to make the team.

All of the “****** B’s” return that helped Briar Woods capture the regular-season championship and the Region II title including Birmingham, Carl Brendes, Spencer Burcak and T.J. Bailey. Robbie Mitchell and Ethan Ochs are solid bets to be in a line-up that features seven seniors and four juniors.

BW surprised some teams in 2006 with a victory in the district tournament and in 2007 they were the frontrunner all year, faltering only when they got to states. The talented team would like a return engagement.

“It was invaluable for them to find out what the next level of competition is all about,” said Vitti.

Birmingham, for his part, welcomes the challenges, even when they come in the form of a ninth grader.

“Adam should help us on the march to go to states,” said Birmingham.

Briar Woods found out, however, that to rule Loudoun, you also have to tangle with the AAA teams and Loudoun Valley in the first week of the season picked right up where they left off in 2007 when they introduced themselves to the Northwest Region by taking the title on the road to earn a trip to states.

In 2007 it was Battlefield standing in the way of the Vikes in the Cedar Run District and Valley has the upperhand already in 2008 after taking the district’s first preseason tournament.

“This is a huge win,” said long-time LV coach Gary McKay after the Vikes shot 304 to best Battlefield by two strokes.

It was especially sweet for LV since last year the two schools went to sudden death in a dual match that the Bobcats won.

“They have some great players … it’s good to beat them,” said sophomore Scott Davidson.

Unlike the senior laden BW team, the Vikes have a corp group of sophomores and juniors in the line-up which could spell the start of a nice run for McKay’s team.

Valley was actually a bit down with the score after posting 291 and 296 to start the season, the first a Curly Licklider Memorial Tournament record and the second a Valley school record, 8-over par at Raspberry Falls.

Dulles District Preview

Broad Run: Don’t count the Spartans out. Broad Run has been knocking on the door for several years but hasn’t been able to climb over Potomac Falls, Briar Woods and Loudoun County. The Spartans return a potent 1-2 combo in Kevin Yerks and Tyler Campos. It should be BR, LC and BW fighting it out come district tournament time.

Chip Shot: The Spartans lay claim to the top practice facility in the county as they have the run of Lansdowne.

Dominion: The Titans look to be much improved in coach Anne Gasser’s second season as all but two players return including senior Michael Biller. The Titans will often two girls in their line-up with senior Keri Muse and sophomore Shelby Shote.

Chip Shot: Like BR coach John Costello, Dominion’s Gasser is a hoops coach as she is in charge of the Titans girls program. There is a tradition in the county of basketball coaches doing well in golf with PF boys coach Jeff Hawes winning a state title with the Panthers.

Freedom: Don’t overlook the Eagles as they are building into a team that could defeat anybody with record setting tournament and dual meet scores already to start the 2008 season, including a 329 at South Riding in a win over Dominion. Juniors Tyler Blake and Alex Choi give Freedom a 1-2 punch and sophomore newcomer Chris Kennedy is a promising addition.

Chip Shot: The Eagles may be a year away from a district title challenge as they only have one senior on the roster with four juniors and three sophomores. Freedom golf coach Ryan Price is also Heritage’s varsity baseball coach.

Heritage: The Pride lost some senior leadership, especially in the form of Christian Darden, one of the top players in the district the past two years. In fact, Heritage has seven freshman or sophomores on the roster but the kids may be all right as freshman John Conley shot a 75 at the Curly Licklider to lead the team.

Chip Shot: The Pride have more girls on their roster than any other team in the county with four making the squad. Coach John Dugger said he actually would have kept five but one athlete, who would have made the cut, opted to go out for volleyball instead.

Loudoun County: This may the season to get ther Raiders because coach John Laycock may be building towards something big in 2009. The Raiders have a strong group of sophomores, led by Andrew Brenneman, Kevin Cook, Sam Early, Brantley Kushner and Matt Tomasonne — all in the starting line-up at Licklider and LC finished within shouting distance of BW. The Raiders were nipped by BW in 2006 and missed the regional playoffs. LC would love to return the favor.

Chip Shot: LC only lost three players to graduation but one of them was standout Tommy Medaglia.

Park View: Larry Hinders returns for this second season as coach of the Park View program. The Patriots do not have a strong tradition in golf like they do in football but the same was true of girls tennis and last spring the Pats took the Dulles District title. Still, there is a lot of work to be done. Since some of the PV players don’t play as much in the offseason as players from other programs, expect PV, like last year, to improve as the season goes along. PV has almost its entire line-up back as the Pats didn’t have any seniors in 2007. Look for Steven Balik, Trevor Scales and Jake Wilton to take turns leading PV with others to emerge.

Chip Shot: Hinders won a state title as the coach of the girls track and field team in 2006. The Pats repeated in 2007 but Hinders did not coach the team.

Potomac Falls: The Panthers may be in a bit of a rebuilding year after making regional runs the past couple of seasons. PF has lost some of the top players in the district to graduation in Nick Vico (2006), Wyatt Endres (2007) and Chris Abt (2007). That is a lot of talent to replace. Look for senior Michael Tondi to provide the leadership for PF and Brett Johnson had a good freshman season and should be a player to keep an eye on.

Chip Shot: PF’s new coach Jason Leuck not only coached the Panthers boys lacrosse team last spring but Leuck lays claim to being a sponsored snowboarder and physics teacher. He is paid by his sponsor to do photo shoots and competitions out west. A bad spill several years ago, in which Leuck flew 100 feet in the air and split his head open and had to be airlifted off a mountain, left him with six months of rehab. Leuck took up snowboard when he was 15 and has been sponsored since 2001. The VCU grad has a golf connection as his brother Curtis is a semi-pro player.

AAA

Stone Bridge: The Bulldogs have been a bit of a mystery … a school that draws a good bit of attendance from not one, but two, golf communities (Belmont Country Club and Lansdowne) doesn’t grab a lot of titles in golf but the Bulldogs football program plays like a blue-collar school located in a depressed PA steele town. SB did have one of the top players in the Northern Region last year in Josh Apple but he is one and done after the transfer student graduated. Eddie Cutler, Erik DeLong and Russell Moore lead a team that will face some good competition from other communities with proud golf traditions such as Langley, McLean and Vienna.

Chip Shot: Apple is planning on playing at George Mason University this coming season.

19th Hole

Mini tournaments and why the have Max value: So you see … mini tournaments aren’t really mini. They are quite valuable as teams can earn key points towards their district titles. In the Dulles District, the first mini tournament on Aug. 13 at Raspberry Falls counts towards one-third of the district title and next Monday’s second mini at Algonkian make it two-thirds towards the title. The dual meet season then counts for the final third. Here is how Dulles team did in 2007 (tournament marks are shown as records with first place receiving a 7-0 mark and last place 0-7).

Briar Woods 13-1 tournaments 7-0 duals 20-1 total
Potomac Falls 13-1, 1-5-1, 14-6-1 total
Loudoun County 9-5, 4-2-1, 13-7-1 total
Broad Run 8-6, 5-2, 13-8 total
Heritage 7-7, 3-4, 10-11 total
Freedom 4-10, 4-3, 8-13 total
Dominion 2-12, 2-5, 4-17 total
Park View 0-14, 1-6, 1-20 total

You can see that Broad Run, despite going 5-2 in the dual meet portion, didn’t have a title shot after a 8-6 start in the two tournaments. Basically, no team will wrap up the title tomorrow at Raspberry Falls, but some teams may play their way into holes too big to climb out of.

In the AAA Cedar Run District, Loudoun Valley already owns a 7-0 record with a first in the mini tournament Monday. That win is even more important than the Dulles District tournaments as the Cedar Run title is figured with a 40-40-20 formula … basically you get full points for defeating teams in the two tournaments but only half points in the dual and trimeets.

The Liberty District doesn’t hold mini tournaments.

Dulles District 2007 Mini #1 @ Raspberry Falls
1, Potomac Falls 312
2, Briar Woods 320
3, Broad Run 328
4, Loudoun County 329
5, Heritage 335
6, Freedom 344
7, Dominion 359
8, Park View 393

Low medalist: Abt (PF) 72

Dulles District 2007 Mini #2 @ Algonkian
1, Briar Woods 316
2, Potomac Falls 323
3, Loudoun County 327
4, Heritage 329
5, Broad Run 330
6, Freedom 344
7, Dominion 363
8, Park View 367

Low medalist: Darden (H) 72

Dulles 3-Year History Snapshot
2005: Heritage (reuglar season champ), Loudoun County (tournament champ)
2006: Potomac Falls (regular), Briar Woods (tournament)
2007: Briar Woods (regular), Briar Woods (tournametn)