However, in a very strange twist to this column, nobody at Gameday had any issues with Broad Run being named the best again in 2009. The reason is simple–they dominated the headlines in every season, and in nearly every sport.
The Broad Run football team got the 2008/2009 school year started with a magical run to the Group AA state championship. They finished 14-0 and beat two time defending champion Amherst 13-0 in December. The Spartans entered the year with high expectations, but few would have expected such a dramatic rise to glory in just three short years under head coach Michael Burnett.
The momentum created by the football state championship carried over into the winter season for the Spartans, with boys swimming claiming a district championship in the ultra competitive Dulles District. The Spartans also won the Dulles District Boys Basketball tournament championship against Dominion, and advanced to the regional playoffs with the victory.
In his first year, head basketball coach John Costello elevated the Spartan program to new levels, and the future looks even brighter with several returning starters back next year.
While the fall and winter sports are usually good to Broad Run, the Spartans are definitely the most dominant program in the state in the spring time. Broad Run won nearly every district championship this past spring, claiming six out of ten. The Spartans were the Dulles District’s best in boys’ soccer, boys and girls’ lacrosse, boys’ tennis, and softball, and girls’ soccer.
Dave Forman took over the Spartan Lacrosse program and in his first year, guided his young men to greater heights. Broad Run claimed a regional title and fell just shy of eventual champion Langley in the state semifinals.
Head Coach Claire Collins led her Lady Spartan soccer program to yet another undefeated season, finishing on top as Group AA state champions for the second consecutive year. Broad Run defeated Hidden Valley 3-0 to cap off one of the great runs in recent history in girls soccer.
Not to be outdone, the Broad Run Lady Spartan softball program finished the spring as the best in the state for the third straight year. That unprecedented feat was accomplished in part because of the heroics of Jenn Soroka, who provided clutch hits in both the semifinals and the title game to help Broad Run make history.
Ed Steele’s program was fresh off of a national championship last year, and few expected them to be able to keep the rings coming, but they weren’t to be denied. The game was an 11-inning thriller with senior Judy Betz and Tunstall’s Brittany Arn providing most of the headlines with stellar performances on the mound. Betz finished with 13 strikeouts, and Soroka drove in Maggie Betz in the bottom of the 11th to lock up the state championship.
“This core of seniors has been starting since their freshman seasons, and I’m just really proud of them, they really deserve it,” Steele said. “I’m sure winning three straight state championships in Group AA state softball has never been done before.”
In total, the Spartans won eight district championships, and saw five of those teams go on to win regional titles and advance to the state semifinals. When the dust settled, Broad Run had claimed three state championships in the 2008/2009 school year.
Any time your program can win a state championship–much less three in one year–you have to feel pretty good about it. Broad Run’s Jack Kirby continues to hire good coaches and good people around him, and after three straight years of dominance, I would venture to say that the Spartans are the state of Virginia’s most complete athletic program.
If anyone has proof of another program being as good, I’d like to see it.
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