I went to see an outstanding athlete scrimmage tonight to open up the 2010-2011 high school football season! Wearing jersey number 9 is Alex Figueroa of Group AAA Brooke Point High School of Stafford, Virginia. He was taking part in his school’s 3-way scrimmage today. 
Figueroa is a 6-2 or 6-3, 210-pound eleventh-grader in the Class of 2012 at Brooke Point High School in Stafford, Virginia. Although he’s listed at 6-2, he’s one of the few high school athletes I’ve seen in recent years who looks taller than his listed height.
I left my home in Charlottesville, Virginia, home of the University of Virginia, at 3:21 P.M. on Friday, August 13, 2010. It was sunny, but overcast. The 3-way scrimmage was being held at Liberty High School in Bealeton, Virginia, located in northern Virginia. To get there, I’d have to travel up Route 29 North out of Charlottesville, Virginia.
It was 3:33 P.M. I turned on Charlottesville radio station AM 1400, which is a 24 hour-a-day all-sports station, FOX sports radio, WKAV. The host was a substitute host for former University of Virginia play-by-play man Mac McDonald, who has recently started his own daily sports show. The substitute host was a host named Tommy Lopez, who was interviewing a man from “bluedevilillustrated.com”
The man from “bluedevilillustrated.com” said: “Devil’s fans are ecstatic that (2nd-year Duke head football coach Tommy Cutcliffe) is there…there’s been a lot of money pumped in to the program…as long as he stays there, Duke fans are going to be happy.”
At 3:53 P.M. I was going up Route 29 North away from Charlottesville, VA when I saw dark storm clouds about 5 miles ahead! I was headed for an afternoon of light rain. At 4:00 P.M., it started to rain, and it would keep raining off and on for the rest of the next 6-7 hours! At 4:09 P.M. I passed by Group A Madison County High School on my right.
On FM station 88.1, a religious station, a man seemed to be speaking to an auditorium about calories and eating properly. He said: “I want to share with you the three steps to losing body fat.” One of his steps was to “throw away your scale.”
At 4:33 P.M. I passed Eastern View High School on my right on Route 29 north. By 5:00 P.M. I was at the corner of Virginia State Route 28 North and Route 17 South. It was light but raining. I stopped at a convenience store for a banana and a diet 7-Up. As a sportswriter, you can gain a LOT of weight if you eat the junk that high schools sell. And of course, high schools often have no running water or no soap in their restrooms. 
I got to Liberty-Bealeton High School at 5:02 P.M. (Remember, it’s Friday, 8-13-10.)
The game started at 7:16 P.M. It was obvious with one Alex Figueroa was. Although he had worn number 11 last year, he was wearing number 9 tonight. On the second play, he caught a short pass and broke a tackle. Brooke Point soon scored on the drive and led 7-0. However, in the Virginia High School League, no official score is kept in scrimmages, and the scoreboard did not register scores. Later, Brooke Point missed a field goal. A short, high pass was thrown to Alex Figueroa, and it went off of his hands. Figueroa caught a short pass later, and made another nice run.
On defense, Alex Figueroa tackled the quarterback behind the line of scrimmage. The 30-minute session between these two schools ended at 8:05 P.M. Next, Brooke Point High School was going to play Potomac High School. However, I didn’t realize at the time that Alex Figueroa was going to be held out for most of the Potomac High School part of the scrimmage. In fact, it appeared as if Brooke Point High School rested their entire starting lineup for most of the time against Potomac High School. Thus, Potomac High School dominated the scrimmage against Brooke Point High School. Potomac High School seemed to play their first string on both sides of the ball.
Alex Figueroa did play enough against Potomac High to catch a swing pass earlier on a play during which the ball was snapped and then the Brooke Point High School quarterback completely spun around and then threw him the ball. Alex Figueroa took the ball the entire way for a 48-yard touchdown reception! It was a tremendous play. But by my calculations, Brooke Point High “lost” this scrimmage 12-7.
If there was another player who caught my eye, it was number 72 for Brooke Point High School, a lineman who appeared to be about 6-4 240. I’ll have to find out more about him later. He broke threw while attempting to block a Potomac High School punt, and the Potomac High School player was called for holding in his attempt to keep #72 from blocking the kick. For some reason, instead of waiting for the play to end after the flag had been thrown, the official threw the flag, blew the whistle and immediately stopped the play while it was in progress. In Virginia High School League scrimmages, you are not allowed to block kids, so the official stops the play.
The long, long evening ended. I left. It was strange, watching high school football with no band, no cheerleaders, no loudspeakers, and no final score! I got back to Charlottesville around 10:25 P.M.
