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“I told them at dinner each night, this is the one they’re going to remember,” Gonzaga rowing coach Tom Daley said. “For whatever reason, Stotesbury is the one you always remember.”
Gonzaga, which tallied multiple first-place boats at the Washington Metropolitan Interscholastic Rowing Association championship regatta in early May, brought eight boats from Northwest Washington to the Schuylkill River on Friday and Saturday. The Eagles will return to D.C. with medals from four; the first and second varsity eight boats each earned silver medals, while the freshman and junior varsity eights earned bronze.
“So often the focus is just on the first and second varsity, but that’s not my job — my job is the whole program, and to see all the boys become the best version of themselves,” Daley said. “It’s a little overwhelming. But that’s the best part.”
Daley, who inherited the varsity program after years with the freshman team, viewed the performances as a credit to others, rather than his own vision. He lauded his assistant coaches. He said his tenure as a freshmen coach taught him to “teach before you coach.” And the athletes, he said, come in with a character that makes his stewardship serene.
“The foundation of the curriculum is to take a young boy and to build him into a man of service, a man for others,” Daley said, “My job is easy as a coach, because, between 8 a.m. to 3 p.m., all the teachers and staff are doing that mission.”
On the long list of prerequisites for any high-performing boat, the value of a coxswain can occasionally seem overlooked, particularly at the high school level. A capable communicator with a steadying presence and high understanding of the sport, in particular, becomes paramount at an event as large as the Stotesbury Cup.
“When you get off the bus, it’s just boats everywhere,” Jackson-Reed Coach Chris Rickard said. “It’s busy, chaotic, so you’re trying to keep everyone calm.”
Jackson-Reed, which on Saturday had its top first varsity eight earn bronze and second varsity eight take silver — the highest-placing finishes in the top two races among local competitors — never took the position lightly.
While many college programs employ an assistant coach to work exclusively with the coxswains, it’s considered a luxury at the high school level. This year, Katie Eidson, who in past years coached the team in person, saw such value in the experience that she decided to assist the coxswains, remotely, from Europe this year. Even if, she said, they accomplished plenty on their own.
“Their dedication to look within themselves is unlike anything I’ve seen in a group of high school athletes,” Eidson said. “And I think our desire to recognize the importance of the coxswain has really given us an edge.”
The Tigers, who have long been one of the top boats in D.C. and whose top varsity eight also placed second at Stotesbury last year, entered Saturday well aware that besting Mount Saint Joseph was a long shot. But the next five spots were anyone’s for the taking.
The Tigers hopped on that opportunity. Rickard said their performance may not have been possible if not for the stewardship of second varsity coxswain Charity Jones.
“She threaded the needle perfectly,” he said. “Like, ‘This is serious and important and we care about it deeply, but also let’s have fun; this is an exciting thing to be a part of no matter what happens.’ ”
Paul VI set a goal early in the season to play 24 games. Doing so would require it to advance to the championship games in the Washington Catholic Athletic Conference and Virginia Independent Schools Athletic Association.
The Panthers fulfilled that goal before Saturday’s VISAA title game against St. Anne’s-Belfield but remained titleless after losing to Good Counsel in the WCAC championship.
They didn’t stay that way, beating the Saints, 11-8, in Virginia Beach to secure the first state championship in program history. The win also avenged a loss in last year’s VISAA title game to the same opponent.
“What I’ll remember about this group of kids is that they never quit,” Coach Rich Hayden said. “ … They always fought. … We were not easy on them, we expect a lot of them but they deliver and they show up every day.”
Paul VI executed a new defensive plan developed after the VISAA semifinal game, Hayden said. It did so despite playing without senior defender Bailey Gurley, who suffered a season-ending injury in the WCAC semifinals.
With seconds remaining in Saturday’s game and a championship assured, Hayden sent Gurley out there to secure the title.
“She’s a huge contributor to our program and has been for the past four years,” Hayden said. “… Just was an emotional lift for the whole team to see her out there.”
Following the game, the Panthers got on the bus and headed to the Virginia Beach Boardwalk. They gathered with the state champions plaque on the beach in what Hayden said was “the perfect bookend to an amazing season.”
Before Paul VI’s 9-5 win over Episcopal in Saturday’s VISAA championship, Coach Steve Lee encouraged his players to send off their 17 seniors with a victory.
Some of the Panthers, who came up a goal shy against St. Stephen’s/St. Agnes in last year’s game, cried as they left the classroom and walked toward the field at the Chantilly private school, before cruising to a comfortable win to finish the year with an 18-5 record.
“We’ve talked about how we’re a very talented team, but not all talented teams win championships,” Lee said. “What is that unique, special thing that this team has? It was the senior leadership. It was the player-led culture we had that was the difference this year.”
Being primarily defended by junior Nate Murphy, Episcopal attackman Caulley Deringer, a Virginia commit, was held scoreless. Senior Grant Giunchi was dominant on faceoffs, winning 12 of the 16 draws.
Seniors Parker Love, a long-stick midfielder headed to Navy, and attackman Matt Han led the Panthers’ offense throughout the season. Junior goalie Matt DiNeen, a Utah commit, improved his save percentage from 59 percent in the regular season to nearly 70 percent in the postseason.
For 22 years, Michelle Lloyd has owned the Maryland state record for most stolen bases in a season. At the start of the 2023 season, speedy Northeast senior Caitlyn Cornwell eyed those 44 successful steals and considered what was possible.
“When we got the whole schedule, I did the math and saw I have to get like 2.5 [steals] a game,” Cornwell said.
With just a few games left in Northeast’s season, the senior University of Maryland commit doesn’t have to worry about her calculations any longer. She has already smashed the record — she’s up to 60 steals and counting — while being caught only twice.
Cornwell’s base-stealing process begins with help from her teammate behind her in the batting order. The Eagles’ hitters purposely don’t swing on the first pitch of the at-bat, allowing Cornwell to burst off the base.
That strategy, coupled with Cornwell’s blazing speed, made breaking the record seem simple.
“Just in our most recent playoff game, a kid threw the ball to second while she was rounding second and she literally [took] third while the kid was throwing the ball in from the outfield,” Northeast assistant coach Jesse Reiger said. “Her speed just allows her to take advantage of the game and play a level above everyone else.”
Cornwell remembers feeling butterflies in her stomach moments before breaking the record in the Eagles’ early-May game against Meade. She needed just two more steals and was walked with the bases empty.
“I’m like ‘Oh god, let me not get caught now,’ ” Cornwell said. “I just stole third and it was super cool, the team was super excited for me. … It was such a good feeling.”
Quince Orchard sophomore Sadie Carey wasn’t expecting to be tapped to represent her team in Maryland 4A regionals.
Only a month before, she had picked up a racket for the first time since a knee injury suffered during the basketball season kept her off the court for most of the spring. Then she lost her No. 2 doubles match during the county meet.
That didn’t stop her coach from pairing her with senior Patrick Young for her first ever mixed doubles match Wednesday.
“Just the stress of that match, I was never not shaking,” Carey said. “I was serving, and before match point I just dropped my racket and I was like, ‘I can’t stop shaking!’ There was really no way to get over what I was feeling in my head. It’s like, ‘I just got to keep going.’ ”
Carey pushed through the pressure and some added frustration from a particularly strong serving game from one of her Urbana opponents to win the match with Young, 6-4, 6-4.
With the victory pushing them into Friday’s state quarterfinals, Carey says she’s still working to get used to the different playstyles within mixed doubles.
“I was shocked at how much faster and harder mixed was,” Carey said. “The points are longer, so it’s definitely hard to adjust to that. … But going into states, I think we’re both just overwhelmed with excitement that we’re there.”
The secret to Sandy Spring Friends’ track and field success: a 70-person jumping-jack circle.
“At first, people thought it was kind of silly,” sophomore Jalynn Smith said, “but it’s been this fun thing that we do. After, we huddle up and get close with everybody on the team. It’s a great way to build camaraderie.”
After warmups, the captains lead the exercise, which sets the tone for competition.
On May 16, the Wildebeests won their second consecutive Potomac Valley Athletic Conference track and field titles on the boys’ and girls’ sides by 79 and 61 points, respectively. The team’s philosophy is one of cohesion.
“At the championships,” said Smith, who won the long jump (17 feet) and triple jump (33 feet 9 inches), “we didn’t just want the girls’ team to win, and we didn’t want the boys’ team just to win. We had to do it together.”
“They just came together as one group,” Coach Ed Graves said. “It was awesome to witness that.”
Following their first boys’ and girls’ titles last year since the school was founded in 1961, the Wildebeests continued to assert their dominance over the league.
“We’re on the rise,” said senior Evan Thomas, who set a personal and school record in the discus (119 feet 5.25 inches). “[Coach Graves] is building a program that is special and definitely will be breaking more records — a team to look out for in the future.”
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