Top 100: Brandon Snyder, Baseball
As kids his age are enjoying the summer after their first year of college, Brandon Snyder is sitting on a bus preparing to play the Batavia Muckdogs, a single-A affiliate of the Philadelphia Phillies.
Top 100: Keith Moody, Herndon, Football, 1986
Moody's passion for both football and basketball took him through three colleges.
Keith Moody's talent put him in a situation that almost destroyed his athletic future and nearly kept him from becoming the first college graduate from his family.
Top 100: Michelle Griglione, T.C. Williams Swimming, 1986
World class swimmer Griglione fondly recalls her one season swimming as a Titan.
Swimmer Michelle Griglione — a perennial national team member from 1984 through '96, four-time Olympic trials competitor and a former NCAA champion — had so many wonderful accomplishments and moments throughout her illustrious swimming career.
Top 100: Ashley McCulloch, Woodson LAX, 2005
With 37 seconds left to go in the 2002 lacrosse state final, Woodson was losing by a goal to Rockbridge County. The Cavaliers would equal the score, and go on to win the state championship in overtime, thanks to a champion effort on the part of Ashley McCulloch, a freshman.
Top 100: Scott Secules, Football
Scott Secules grew up around football. He would go and watch practice while his father, Tom, was an assistant coach at Annandale High School. He would throw the ball around with the players and coaches.
Top 100: Tiombe' Hurd, West Potomac, Track, 1992
Former Wolverine star made U.S. Olympic squad on third try in 2004.
West Potomac High track and field star Tiombe' Hurd had to be talked into trying out for the Wolverines' squad as a sophomore. "She did not come out as a freshmen," said former West Potomac High head track coach Don Beeby, in a 2004 story on the former Olympian.
Top 100: Michael Jackson, South Lakes, Basketball, 1982
Twenty-four years removed and he remembers like it was yesterday. "I fouled out early," said Otto Jett, recalling his senior year playing basketball for South Lakes in 1982. "So I was sitting on the bench."
Top 100 Val Brown, Lee, Basketball, 1999
The scoring machine from R.E. Lee barely missed out on becoming the first freshman to lead the nation in scoring in NCAA Division I play.
The coaches who remember the high school basketball player with an unusual name say he was impossible to mark. Living up to his name, SirValiant Brown broke down all kinds of defenses.
Top 100: Mike Wallace, Madison, Baseball
Wallace carried Madison to Virginia's first official baseball championship before playing 117 games in the majors.
Mike Wallace won't give himself the credit he deserves. Like most professional baseball players, Wallace believes in a lot of luck and fortune. He believes that luck carried him and the Warhawks to the first Virginia High School League sponsored state championship in 1968 and luck helped Woodrow Wilson rip the title from him in 1969.
Top 100: Willie Pile, West Potomac, Football, 1998
Willie Pile, second year member of the Dallas Cowboys, can only marvel at how far the game of football has taken him in such a short time. He only first began playing as a high school freshman back in 1994 at West Potomac High School in Alexandria.
Top 100: Joe Koshansky, Baseball
Joe Koshansky was able to sum up his career as a baseball player at Chantilly High School in just one sentence: "I pitched pretty well and I hit a few home runs." Koshansky, who graduated in 2000, did much more for his team than pitch a few scoreless innings and hit a few over the fence.
Top 100: Alex Irmer, Wakefield Basketball, 2005
Wakefield High boys basketball coach Tony Bentley always understood that versatile 6-foot 7-inch Alex Irmer was much more than just another good ball player.
Top 100: Mary Yarrison, Diving, Lee 2003
The four-time high school state champion returned from injuries to continue a stellar diving career collegiately, nationally and internationally.
When she won her third diving state championship in 2002, Mary Yarrison walked away from the meet with a hint of anger. She may have won three state championships in three years, she was only a junior, but she didn't have the record yet.
Top 100: Cathron Birge, Track, Lake Braddock 1986
Teammate in an individual sport.
When the Lake Braddock girls track team won the Northern Region Championship in 1986, the lone senior was out with a mono diagnosis. Many wondered if Cathron Birge would be able to run in the following week's state championship.
Top 100: Bryant Johnson, Herndon Football, 1986
Barry Johnson, arguably Herndon High School's greatest athlete, remembers a newspaper article that tore him up inside. He doesn't remember the specifics, but he remembers reading the words as something to the effect of "There is only one Johnson at Herndon High School."
Top 100: Bob DeProspero, Robinson Wrestling, 1981
After not making the varsity wrestling team his freshman year of high school, Bob DeProspero, a 1981 Robinson graduate, went on to win all but one match in the remaining three years of his high school career.
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Cancer-Free Randolph Returns to Titans
Coach missed final six games of 2011 season.
T.C. Williams head football coach Dennis Randolph was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2011, causing him to miss the final six games of the season. One year later, he's cancer-free and back coaching the Titans.
Column: Choosing My Words, Respectively
It has been brought to my attention by some regular Kenny-column readers – who are friends, too, and whose opinions I value, that my most recent batch of “cancer columns” (as I call them) were not funny; in fact, they were more depressing and negative than anything, and not nearly as uplifting and hopeful as many of my previous columns have been.
Top 100: Larry Fones, Fairfax Football, Baseball and Basketball, 1948
Larry Fones is from a different time. Fones is from a time when football players wore leather helmets and guns marked the end of the games' quarters.