Top 100: Eddie Royal, Football, 2003
Westfield was trailing early in the 2003 Group AAA Division 6 state championship game. It was a position that the Bulldogs had not been in very often that season.
Top 100: Felton Brothers, Basketball Hayfield 1994 and 1998
Two brothers, seven years, one program, numerous accolades and immeasurable impact.
The writing above the number 33 jersey on Hayfield Secondary's Basketball Hall of Fame wall says the number was retired in 1997. A deeper gaze into the number reveals a story of family, winning and losing, record breaking, team leadership and passion for the sport.
Top 100: Brandon Corso, Football, Woodson 1992
In September of 1991 the Connection came out with its Northern Virginia Football Preview for that year. The caption under the photo on page 3 read, "Woodson flies Air Corso again in 1991."
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Column: A Life Worth Living, Still
It might be my age (as in getting older), or it might be the fact that I have cancer (you think?), but my brain and the related physical and mental tasks it coordinates are not exactly working at peak efficiency.
Top 100: Kendyl Baugh, South Lakes, Track, 1989
Lessons from track helped six-time AAA state champion Baugh persevere through personal tragedy.
Kendyl Baugh regained that familiar sense of security as she walked her son around the track at South Lakes High School last year. The 35-year-old Baugh traveled back to Reston with her son Kellen — the lone survivor of what would have been four-year-old triplet sons.
Top 100: Katie Beal, West Potomac, Soccer, 2001
Wolverine girls soccer star continued to shine as defensive stalwart for Florida State Seminoles.
Sitting on a bookcase in West Potomac High Athletic Director Jeff Dietze's office is a framed autograph picture of one of the greatest athletes the Alexandria-based public school has ever known. The picture is of Katie Beal — a 2001 West Potomac graduate and Wolverine soccer great — during game action when she was a member of the Florida State University women's team.
Derek Lee, South Lakes Baseball, 1983
South Lakes slugger was drafted five times before playing for Minnesota Twins.
Derek Lee is remembered at South Lakes high school, and by those that watched him play baseball, for his ability to do one thing — swing the bat.
Taline Tahmassian, Langley Soccer, 2001
Langley star recorded 96 goals and before winning NCAA title at Santa Clara.
How good Taline Tahmassian was on the soccer field can be measured by the pages of old newspapers. Tahmassian and the Saxons could be seen celebrating in photographs while snappy headlines chronicled their victories in a week-by-week scrapbook of archived clippings.
Top 100: Jon Carman, Herndon, Football, 1994
Herndon's gentle giant went from the band to the football field and into the NFL.
The legend of Jon Carman has outgrown the "gentle giant's" 6-foot 7-inch, 350-pound body frame. Any coach or neighborhood kid from back in Carman's day remembers his own story about the giant with the big hands whose mother, Betty, said he drank two gallons of milk a day.
Nate Friends, McLean Soccer, Basketball, 1991
Friends dominated the basketball court and soccer field to help McLean to several regional tournament appearances.
Chantilly coach Jim Smith was a relative unknown when he took over the reeling McLean High School boys basketball team back in 1989.
Top 100: Randy Dodson, Brandon Richardson, Herndon Basketball, 1994
Dodson and Richardson built the groundwork for modern-day Herndon hoops teams.
With 17 years worth of tournaments, clinics, bounce-passes, pick-and-rolls, dog-fights, over-time thrillers and thousands of other memories to sift through, Herndon head coach Gary Hall goes back to his first year as head coach when asked about the most influential basketball players in Herndon High School's history.
Top 100: Lori Grimm, Washington-Lee, Softball, 1976
In Arlington sports lore, Grimm has excelled as female athlete and coach.
When being a female sports standout was not the norm back in the mid 1970's, Arlington's Lori Grimm excelled on the softball diamond, the soccer field, and the basketball court.
Top 100: Morgan Marr, Madison Softball, 1999
Free-spirited Marr pitched her way to success, four all-state selections, two region titles, and SEC pitching.
What made 1999 Madison graduate and four-time all-state softball selection Morgan Marr so special was that she had "the gracefulness and competitiveness all in one," said her mother Barbara, who used to drive her ballerina daughter between softball games, dance classes and beauty pageants.
Top 100: Norris Davis, South Lakes, 1984
Seahawk wide receiver, defensive back and track star went on to UNC and was drafted by the Kansas City Chiefs.
There is no telling how much damage Norris Davis could have done on the high school football field if given the opportunity to play the position that his talent eventually led him to while at the University of North Carolina.
Top 100: John Crone, Yorktown, Football, 2004
Team leader dominated on the gridiron and at the plate for the Patriots.
Few Arlington-area prep school athletic stars have been the overpowering Northern Region forces in two sports that recent Yorktown High graduate John Crone (Class of 2004) was.
Top 100: Jasmine Thomas, Oakton, Basketball, 2007
Only a senior in high school, Thomas is already one of the Northern Region's greatest.
Jasmine Thomas is only a rising senior in high school. The career statistics for Thomas, arguably one of the greatest — if not the greatest — Northern Region girls basketball player, have not been finalized.
Top 100: Lindsey Ertter, Langley, Swim, 2001
Ertter won six state titles and swam in two Olympic trials
Lindsey Ertter is retired now, but not really. The 2001 Langley High School graduate and breaststroker said that she is still coming to grips with missing out on the Olympic swimming goal she dreamed up while watching Janet Evans cruise to gold in the 1988 Seoul Olympics.
Editorial: Separate and Unequal?
If we don't believe that poor students are less innately talented, then the disparities in Northern Virginia are truly unfair.
The numbers are eye-popping. Latino students are 22 percent of Fairfax County Public Schools students, but 2.7 percent of the incoming Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology freshman class, the class of 2016. Of the 480 students, seven are black. That's 1.4 percent, while black students are 10 percent of the county school system.
Top 100: Clay Kirby, Washington-Lee Baseball, 1966
Former Generals ace pitched for `Big Red Machine' in the 70s.
Whether his teams were winning big or losing big, former major league pitcher Clay Kirby could always be counted on to take the mound and give his team some quality innings.