Eli Harold plays for Group AAA-power Ocean Lakes High School in Virginia Beach, Virginia. He’s a 6-4 215 wide receiver who also plays some defensive end. Another major prospect I went to see was freshman Jamil Kamara of Princess Anne High School (the opponent for Ocean Lakes High School tonight). Jamil Kamara is 6-0 185 and a wide receiver in the Class of 2014. He was wearing jersey number 15 for the Cavaliers. Jamil Kamara got fame this summer, among other things, for appearing at the New Jersey-based National Underclassman Combine. DeMetri McGill, a 6-2 305 sophomore defensive tackle for Ocean Lakes High School who would be wearing number 56 in the game, was the third “major prospect” I went to watch. MaxPreps.com ranks  DeMetri McGill as one of 100 players nationally in the Class of 2013 to watch!

Finally, a major college football prospect for the future to watch was Kamara’s teammate, sophomore Shyheim Stallworth, a wide receiver-outside linebacker who was wearing number 2 and who was listed at 6-3 185. The head coach of Princess Anne High, Ray Gatlin, had informed me before the game that so far, Stallworth was more advanced than Kamara. However, Jamil Kamara was nationally-publicized because of his age. Junior lineman Tyler Compton has some college potential  for Princess Anne High also. But the first three players I mentioned are on a seperate level.

I left my house in Charlottesville, Virginia at 12:15 P.M. and headed for Princess Anne High School in Virginia Beach, Virginia! I listened to the radio: “Charlottesville’s only full-time sports station, Sports Radio 1400-WKAV!” I stopped at the “Fifth Street Market” before leaving town. It was 12:44 when I got done buying gas and a chicken-cheese sandwich on wheat bread. As usual, I listened to the “Jim Rome Show.” “Live from Los Angeles, it’s the Jim Rome show, hosted by Jason and Randy Sklar,” the radio spoke. These two substitute hosts, brothers, were “chirpy,” and boring. They were not funny.

They were talking about Tiger Woods. About the only thing they said that seemed amusing to me was, “(Tiger Woods) is free to go after women (now that he’s divorced) who are ten times less hot than his wife than before.” Jason and Randy Sklar talked about the same sports news that any fans could get off of the wire services. Didn’t these guys do any investigative reporting on their own, for the money they were being paid? They talked about the same stuff that anyone could get off of the wire services: an Oregon State football player who was arrested drunk and naked, and then instead of surrendering to police, attacked them; a professional golfer who was fined for sleeping late. Hey, sports fans know how to read off of the interent also, guys! It was now 1:23 P.M. on Friday afternoon.

The first of many police cars with flashing lights would be seen on this trip. This one seemed to be going as fast as 110-miles-an-hour! It raced past without it’s siren on for some reason, at the 158 mile-marker. Soon, the band “Three Dog Night” sung the lyrics “On the road to Shamballa” on the Richmond, Virginia-area FM rock station 107.2 station. At 1:27 P.M., the Richmond, Virginia-area FM rock station 102.1, spoke: “the X, Richmond’s rock station!…..it’s Casey (the name of the disc jockey)” The disc jockey spoke so fast, it was literally like listening to an auctioneer. This was a heavy metal station that played one SPEED rock song after another without giving the names of the bands or the songs at times. The only band name I could decipher was by a band named “Stained.”

I got to Richmond, Virginia’s state capitol, at 1:40 P.M. At 1:50, still two more flashing police cars were stopped on the right side of the road beside a car. FM radio station 102.1 played a tune by the band “The Smashing Pumpkins.” Near the “Richmond International Airport,” the speed limit changed to 55 miles-per-hour, but no one seemed to notice. I drive 64 miles-an-hour in a world where 99% of the traffic drives well over 65. Haha! At 2:04 on this Friday, August 20, 2010, the band “Judas Priest” played the song, “You’ve Got Another Thing Coming” on 102.1. A sign read that it was now 101 miles to Virginia Beach. Virginia Beach is Virginia’s largest city, and America’s 40th-largest city.

At 2:14 P.M., the band “Hoobastank” played a song, and a disc jockey said, “My name is crash…..Stone Temple Pilots next.” I took Exit 205 and stopped at a familiar place, the “Fas Mart Fuel.” Soon I was back in the car, listening to the “Scott Van Pelt Show” on 950-AM radio at 2:47 P.M. The guest host was talking to ESPN reporter George Smith, who was talking about Tiger Woods. Why have I never considered golfers athletes? Soon, a voice on ESPN Radio 950AM was announcing, “The Nationals will most likely be without (pitcher) Stephen Strasburg all of this season and all of next season. he will have Tommy John surgery.” Didn’t the baseball world know he had arm trouble in college? Why was he drafted so high then? How come so little in baseball makes sense? It’s no wonder that I don’t consider baseball players athletes either.

Continuing eastward in the state of Virginia, by 3:05 P.M. I was passing through Williamsburg, Virginia. There were now 40 miles to Norfolk, Virginia.  It appears that All-sports ESPN FM radio station 94.1 is the home of what was used to be known as ESPN all-sports radio 1310. It’s THE sports radio station in the Tidewater area if you’re a sports fan! So I now tuned in to 94.1 FM on my trip. Soon, I had only 26 miles to go to Virginia Beach: I was now in Hampton, Virginia. On ESPN radio 94.1 FM, the popular sports host Tony Mercurio was asking the audience, “What burns you up (as a sports fan)?” The answers were typical: one caller said it was people who criticized Brett Favre. Another said it was people who criticized Joe Paterno. Then, one caller said it was the fact that quarterbacks seemed to disappear once they were drafted by the Denver Broncos.

At 4:32 P.M., still another police car appeared on my trip to Virginia Beach. This police car was pulled over to the side of the road, it’s lights flashing. ESPN radio 94.1 FM sports host Tony Mecurio shouted that “the TV people around here shove the Redskins down everyone’s throat.” At 4:39 P.M. I was AT Princess Anne High School in Virginia Beach Virginia. It’s located on a busy, swanky-looking street, but the high school is run-down, due to it’s age and the burden of constant use. The football facilities are terrible. But then, the varsity football team is 1-39 over the last 4 years, and as a result, it must be hard to drum up much interest or money for football!

I went to eat at a Panera Bread that was almost next-door to the high school. At 5:29 I was done, got back to my car, turned on the radio, and Tony Mercurio was saying, “Here are the lines for the NFL…..let’s see…..the Redskins are (playing Dallas in their regular season opening game in September)…..Dallas is still favored by three-and-a-half (points)”

The game started at around 7 P.M. Finally! Eli Harold, the blue-chipper I had come to see, looked great! Harold made a tackle on the first offensive play of the game, holding Princess Anne High to a 2-yard gain. Harold’s team, Ocean Lakes High School, got the ball back. On the Dolphin’s first play, they threw it deep, and amazingly, Harold snagged it for a 58-yard touchdown! The game was at the 9:40 mark of the first quarter.

Another player I was here to see was sophomore Shyheim Stallworth of Princess Anne High School. He caught a pass at the 6:05 mark of the first half on third down. But Ocean Lakes High scored again on a 30-yard run at the 3:47 mark and it was soon 14-0. This game got totally out-of-hand quickly. However, Jamil Kamara played well. He had a great night, if there is such a thing when your team is getting totally outclassed! He would have 8 catches for 71 yards in the opening varsity game of his freshman year.

At the 3:25 mark of the first quarter, Jamil Kamara caught a pass for a first down. But Eli Herold caught his second touchdown pass at the :52 mark of the first quarter, from the 9-yard line, in the corner of the end zone, and it was now 21-0, Ocean Lakes High. Ocean Lakes High School quickly scored again at the 8:32 mark of the second quarter, and it was 28-0. It was 34-0 at the 1:23 point of the first half after they scored on a 16-yard touchdown. Ocean Lakes got a 30-yard field goal at the buzzer, to make it 37-0 at the half.

The Virginia High School League put in a rule (designed to benefit who? Did the players have any say in this?!) that automatically causes the clock to KEEP RUNNING when one team is up 35-0, so in the second half, it was harder for substitutes to get playing time. Boo! Ocean Lakes High kept scoring anyway: the Dolphins scored on a 22-yard touchdown, and then a 59-yard score. They soon led 51-0. That’s how the game ended. The contest finished at almost exactly 9:00 P.M.

Driving back from high school games, I’m not in much of a mood to report what I hear on the radio or see: I’m just in a mood to get home! Haha! At 10:21 P.M. on this Friday (August 27, 2010), I noticed another police car with it’s lights flashing as I passed westward through the state of Virginia, in Hampton, Virginia. I was back in Charlottesville over 4 hours after the game ended around 1:15 A.M. on Saturday morning, August 28. It was now the start of college football season! Yahoo!

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So I decided to go see him play early in his career! His King’s Fork High Bulldogs were scrimmaging today, August 20, 2010, on the road against another Group AAA (Virginia’s largest high schools) school. They were scrimmaging at Heritage High School in Newport News, Virginia, behind the high school, on the Hurricane’s practice field. Under “Virginia High School League Rules,” no official scorekeeping is allowed, and there was no scoreboard there for this scrimmage.

I left my house in Charlottesville at 12:12 P.M on this Friday. At 12:19 P.M. I was listening to Radio Station AM 1400, and the host, Jim Rome, was talking to pro football player Jerod Mayo. Mayo played for Kecoughtan High in Hampton, Virginia, and then the University of Tennessee. Jim Rome asked him, “When (ex-University of Tennessee head football coach) Lane Kiffin left (the University of Tennessee to take the head job at the University of Southern California), what did you think about his departure?” This was followed by this ad a minute later: “Virginia Tech and Boise State, in one of the premier college football games of the year!”

At 12:51 P.M., FM rock radio station 105.5 (also called “Sam FM” or “WOJL-Louisa/Orange” ) played a song by the band called Muse, that included the lyrics, “fat cat had a heart attack.” Soon, the “Pet Shop Boys” were singing their song called “West End Girls.” They then played “Breakdown” by Tom Petty. By the time I got to the Virginia Route 64-East 164-mile marker, the station was playing Alanis Morissette, who was singing the lyrics, “I’m a bitch.”

I pulled off at exit 167 at Goochland, Virginia, and stopped at Bullett’s at 1:07 P.M. I stop here often. It’s not great, but it’s worth stopping at if you’re driving by. There are almost no places to stop on the 70 mile drive between Richmond, Virginia and Charlottesville, Virginia! I had a pre-packaged lettuce/ham/cheese/white bread sandwich, and got rid of the high-calorie cheese and white bread! I was back on the road soon, and at 1:30, I passed a sign that said there were 23 miles to go until I’d get to Richmond, VA, the state capitol of Virginia. I listened to AM radio station 950 and the “Scott Van Pelt Show” on ESPN radio. Scott Van Pelt was not on that day, however, and someone else was hosting: a man named Ryen Russillo. His voice was a little overbearing, in my opinion!

The radio droned on. “We’re your home for major league baseball!…..The Washington Nationals!…..Sportscenter every 20 minutes!…..” Ryen Russillo was interviewing an ESPN sportswriter named Pat Forde, who was the only ESPN sportswriter who was rating Boise State’s college football team number one in the pre-season rankings. At 2:07 P.M., I passed a road sign that said there were now 41 miles to Newport News, Virginia, where the scrimmage would be held. Ryen Russillo went on: “The fact that (pro football quarterback Kyle) Orton signed an extension is surprising…..5.5 million dollars guaranteed for next year.” At 2:23 P.M. there was an ad for one of those worthless 5-hour energy drinks. At 2:45 I got to Newport News, Virginia!

Hanover, Virginia AM radio station 1700 is a traveler’s station. It said the temperature in Newport News, Virginia was 89 degrees. I turned on AM station 1110, and a voice was talking about a boxing match on August 28 between Dorin Spivey and Antwain Britt. The announcer spoke about the “War At The Shore….at the Virginia Beach Convention Center at 19th Street and Atlantic.” At 3:37 P.M. I got to Heritage High School at 5800 Marshall Avenue! The weather was beautiful: it couldn’t have been better. The sky was blue, and it was sunny.

The scrimmage started at 5:30 P.M. behind Heritage High School. Newport News has some new part, and some old parts, and this is an old part: not a nice area. Charles Clark soon made a nice bearhug-type tackle in the open field from his defensive back position on number 44 of the opposing team on a pass at the line of scrimmage, limiting the play to about a one-yard gain. Soon, King’s Fork High scored on a pass from around mid-field to number 23. Then, King’s Fork scored again. Without a scoreboard or a press box, it was impossible to figure out who was scoring and at what part of the scrimmage scoring was being done!

Charles Clark DID score, however! He caught a short flare pass around the 15 yard-line, and slowly made his way through traffic on a great play as he moved in for a touchdown. The scrimmage ended at 7:11 P.M.
According to the quarterback for King’s Fork High, King’s Fork won this scrimmage 21-0. Charles Clark seems to have a lot of college potential. Still, it’s too early to predict college greatness. He IS just a tenth-grader. But I can see the potential that others see. He plays with a lot of confidence!

Scrimmages are frustrating to figure out. You can ask person after person on the sideline, “What’s the score?” and no one seems to know! Check this article and the one on last week’s scrimmage in later days, as I will come back and adjust both articles for corrected names and statistics as I find out more from people involved in these two scrimmages!

I headed back home to Charlottesville, Virginia. It was a 159-mile drive! At 7:43 P.M I stopped at a convenience store called a “Pit Stop.” At 8:42 P.M., there were 13 more miles ’till Richmond. At 9:09 P.M., I turned on FM radio station 107.3, which called itself “Big Oldies, Richmond’s Greatest Hits!” They played “Band On The Run” by Wings. I got back to Charlottesville, finally, around 10:30 P.M.!

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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.

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(This page from the Jan. 15, 2010, Steward School (Richmond, Virginia)-Richmond Christian School (Richmond, Virginia) boy’s junior varsity and varsity basketball games held in Richmond, Virginia!)

I went to see two players: Class of 2011 Adjehi Baru and Class of 2014 Joe Branin ,(he appears in the top two photos). The “hoopscooponline.com” rates Joe Branin among the top 75 players in the nation for the Class of 2014 Joe Branin is wearing jersey number 12 in both of the top two photos below!

Usually I only scout 10th-12th graders. However, as time goes on, college coaches are being paid higher and higher salaries, so they are scouting players at younger and younger ages. And also AAU basketball is becoming more and more popular with players, and at younger and younger ages. So scouting players at younger and younger ages has become more and more important in the world of college basketball recruiting.

The second player I came to scout today, Adjehi Baru, is shown in the rest of the photos on this page! He’s 6-9 and in the 11th grade: in other words, he’s a member of the high school Class of 2011. He transferred to Steward from Archbishop Carroll High in the Washington, D.C. area. As for Joe Branin, although he’s listed at 5-7, he appears to be headed to at least the 6-0 range. His older brother, who plays on the Steward varsity, is a 5-11 junior.

I left my house at 1:48 P.M. that Friday afternoon. On the radio, I listened to Charlottesville, Virginia’s radin station 1260AM, where a caller was calling in to the host on a political talk show. “I think you’re a good American and doing a very good job,” the caller told the host. Sure….okay!

At 1:58 P.M., I arrived at the 5th Street Market and got gas. On FoxSportsRadio (1400AM here in Charlottesville), Shaquille O’Neal was advertising a product and spoke: “No pain, no mess.” I listened to the North Carolina-Georgia Tech men’s basketball game on the radio on radio station WKAV 1400AM. The announcer yelled: “Virginia Tech takes the three-to-nothing lead!”

The junior varsity game started at 5:12 P.M. Joe Branin started off slowly, but you could tell in pre-game warmups that he was a polished player! Richmond Christian led 12-9 at the half. High school junior varsity basketball can be low-scoring! At the end of three quarters, Richmond Christian led 17-13 over Steward. Steward lost 27-22. I counted that Joe Branin had 7 points.

The varsity game started at 6:58 P.M. Adjehi Baru is a big-time prospect! This guy is an athlete, not just a 6-9 basketball player! He is co-ordinated, strong, and can jump! He’s a jumping-jack. He scored his first basket at the 5:56 mark of the first quarter, and it tied the game at 2-2. He had 4 points in the first quarter. Steward led 15-12 at the end of the first. Steward led 33-21 at the half. They won 61-41 and Adjehi Baru finished with 15 points and 14 rebounds. I drove home. I turned on the radio. The University of Virginia was playing the University of Miami, and winning 12-1!. At 8:39 I had stopped at a BP gas station. At 5:51 P.M. Virginia was ahead 23-12!

After the game, I headed out of Richmond. On the radio, the University of Virginia was beating the University of Miami in men’s basketball, 12-1. I stopped at a BP gas station and UVa was winning 23-12 at the 5:51 mark!

I left the house at 2:35 P.M. that afternoon. At 2:51 P.M. I was headed on Route 64 East, listening to car’s FM radio, and the band “U2″ was playing: the lyrics “with or without you” could be heard from radio station “94.3 FM.”

By 2:52 P.M., on FM radio station 94.1, a caller named Donna was saying, “Look at the people we have in charge right now….” to conservative talk show host Mark Stein, a man with a British accent.

At 3:16 P.M., I was still on Route 64 East, and I passed a sign that said it was 31 miles to Richmond, Virginia. At 3:35 P.M., I arrived at a gas station called “Bulletts.” I got to Richmond at 3:50 P.M.! Finally, at 4:10 P.M., I got to the school. But the game wasn’t due to start until 5:45, so I sat in the car, reading newspapers and listening to the radio. It was cold outside! At 4:55 P.M., I went in and watched some of the junior varsity game.

The varsity game started, and I kept track of each shot Kevin Huang took, as well as each rebound he grabbed, and each shot he blocked. He didn’t score until the 3:32 mark of the first quarter. (High school basketball games are comprised of four 8-minute quarters). His team trailed 10-2 at the end of the first quarter. Hampton Roads Academy had poor team ballhandling. Finally, he scored at the 6:21 mark of the second quarter! But his team trailed 24-14 at the half. It was 6:13 P.M.

In the second half, Kevin Huang came alive, mostly because his team stopped turning the ball over, and decided to look for him on offense. He began shooting the ball. He finished the game with 12 points, hitting on 6 out of 9 shots for the contest. But he had little help around him. His team lost 42-31. The game ended at 6:47 P.M.

Kevin Huang has a thin uppper body, but hey: he’s just a high school FRESHMAN! I talked to the man whose family he is staying with. Kevin Huang is an exchange student from China. Kevin Huang’s parents were basketball players back in China. He has Division 1 potential, but then: there are 347 Division 1 schools in the USA. He could still be growing. He has a soft touch. He’s a prospect to keep an eye on. He plays smart and does not commit fouls! At 7:06 P.M., I left Richmond. By 7:36 P.M., I was 30 miles from Charlottesville. By 8:10 P.M., I was back in Charlottesville!

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Princess Anne had gone 31-1 last season, losing only to an out-of-state team! They had won the large-school, Group AAA championship! In her freshman season, they had gone 29-2, losing in the state semi-finals. Elizabeth Williams was playing tonight in the “Ronald Curry & Boo Williams Christmas Classic,” [Charlottesville to Richmond!] at the “Boo William’s Sportsplex,” in Hampton, Virginia. [Williams during warm-ups]

I left for the game at 1:38 P.M. on Tuesday. Charlottesville had a lot of snow due to the fact it has showed 19-24 inches starting the previous Friday! It was 42 degrees. I listed to AM radio “1610,” a public radio station in Goochland, Virginia at 2:26 P.M., which said that there were “no hazardous weather is expected at this time.”

I also listened to AM radio station 910 where famous [Williams before 12-22-09 game] radio host Jim Rome at 2:29 P.M. was talking about “the piece that launched a thousands sound bites,” by correspondant Delonte I. (sp?). He then played an audio clip where ex-NBA superstar Isiah Thomas is being introduced as the head men’s basketball coach at Florida International University as “Isiah Thompson” by the president of the school.

I listened to AM radio ESPN 950 at 2:34 P.M. and Justin Gates of the Tennessee Titans was saying that “We’ve known we had a good team.” I arrived in Richmond, Virginia at 2:44 P.M. [Coach Dozier] [Williams palms the ball!]

I listened to rock station 102.1 and Marilyn Manson’s “The Beautiful People” at 3:00 P.M. I had figured it wasn’t important to get directions because I had already been to the ” Boo William’s Sportsplex” before. I then realized that I should have! I called information and got the number to the “Boo William’s Sportsplex,” then got directions.

I got to Williamsburg, VA at 3:41. By 3:54 I was in Newport News, VA. At 4:06 I was in Hampton, VA. The game was supposed to begin at 7, but due to a change in schedule, it had been moved to 8:30. Haha! [Williams listens to the coach] The game began! [Williams, #52] At the end of the first quarter, Princess Anne led 16-13. They extended their lead to 32-28 at the half. But after three quarters, the lead was 42-40. It was a close game! Elizabeth Williams made a great left-handed hook shot to tie the game at 42-42 at the start of the fourth quarter. She had little help from her teammates. Princess Anne didn’t seem to have the kind of talent surrounding her that they did last season. The final score was 72-60.

The game ended at 10:10 P.M. I stopped at a gas station/convenience store called “Miller’s” at 10:35. On radio station 102.1, “The X,” I listened to “Fire Woman,” by “The Cult” at 11:24 P.M. I got to the Richmond, Virginia area at 11:31 P.M. Then, on 95.3, a country station, I listened to a song that included the words “I have loved Jim Beam.” At 11:44 P.M. I passed Exit 79 to the University of Richmond. I was on the way home and got home at around 1:15 A.M. Whew!

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I left for the 4:07 P.M. state championship game on a COLD Saturday afternoon at 2:10 P.M. By 2:58 I had walked the mile-and-a-half and I had arrived at the University of Virginia’s Scott Stadium. At 4:08 P.M. the game started. Demetrick Jackson ran for 13 yards on his first carry! At 8:41 of the first quarter, Thomas Dale scored from the 2-yard line and led 6-0. Demetrick Jackson is not a large running back, but he has very quick feet, quick reactions, always keeps his head down, and runs straight ahead.

A player who caught my eye in warm-ups was junior linebacker Emmanuel Adetunji, who made the 2009-2010 first-team All-District squad this year. He’s 6-2 205, and is shown wearing jersey number 1 in the photo at left. Another photo of Mike Nebrich (wearing jersey number 12) appears at right, after he’s handed the ball off. Lake Braddock High was held to a three-plays-and-out on their first series, and had to punt. Demetrick Jackson had two yards on his second carry. The first carry ended with the score 6-0, the Thomas Dale Knights ahead. At the 8:53 mark of the second quarter, Demetrick Jackson scored from the 1-yard line and his team led 14-0.

But from the 2-yard line, Mike Nebrich scored at the 1:33 mark of the second quarter, and the lead was down to 14-7, Lake Braddock High trailing. At left is a photo I took from the end zone seats of Scott Stadium: it shows the Lake Braddock High fans. People were still arriving to fill the stands! At the 5:05 mark of the third quarter, Thomas Dale High scored again from the 1-yard line, and now they led 21-7. Thomas Dale High’s lead expanded to 28-7 when they returned an interception 31 yards for a touchdown at the 4:38 point of the third quarter.

But Mike Nebrich threw an 18-yard touchdown pass with just 29 seconds left in the third period, and now Lake Braddock just trailed 28-14. Demetrick Jackson was almost unstoppable in this game, and had 147 yards rushing on 21 carries by the end of the third quarter. The Thomas Dale High Knights offensive line dominated their opponents in the state semi-final and final games that I saw. One player stood out was number 71 (he appears in the photo at left), junior lineman Sam Hartman. Although he’s listed at just 6-2 240, I think he has ACC potential! But Lake Braddock refused to give up, and mounted a furious attempt to pull the game out! Although Thomas Dale seemed to put the game away at the 4:42 mark of the last quarter with a 5-yard touchdown pass, extending their lead to 35-14, the game was far from over.

Mike Nebrich threw a 17-yard touchdown pass at the 3:00 mark of the 4th quarter, and it was 35-21. He never quit competing! Mike Nebrich is shown in the photo at right, running behind his line. In the final minutes, Lake Braddock was still fighting before throwing an incompletion on a 4th down play, and then it was over for the Bruins. Thomas Dale ran the clock out, and their fans went crazy! Demetrick Jackson finished with 168 yards on 30 carries! But Mike Nebrich was held to 206 yards and three interceptions passing, completing 19 out of 38 passes in what was a poor game for him. Still, he had a sensational year!

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Although the weather was horrible (temperature in the 30′s, constant rain mixed with snow and wind) I went to see a high school running back for Chesapeake, Virginia’s Oscar Smith High School. He’s 5-7 180 speedster J. C. Coleman, a tenth-grader who has been nationally-ranked for several years in the 400-meters in track and field. He’s a slippery runner who uses his small size and zip to squeeze through small holes and then just burn past defenders. He appears in the top two photos on the left and the right, wearing number 4 in the white jersey, and also in the second photo from the top on the left side of this page.

I was going to see a state semi-final football game that would prove to be one of the best high school football games I’ve ever seen! It involved two Division 6 teams. In the state of Virginia there are 6 Divisions, and Division 6 is for the high schools with the largest classifications. Oscar Smith High of Chesapeake, VA had won 28 straight games, and was rated by two services as among the nation’s top 7 high school football teams! They were playing the home team, Thomas Dale High of Chester, Virginia. Thomas Dale High’s junior running back, Demetrik Jackson, a 5-11 180 junior who wore jersey number 12, was another possible Division 1-A prospect to watch. Thomas Dale High wasn’t rated anything, actually.

Oscar Smith had one of the nation’s best senior quarterbacks in 6-2 210 Phillip Sims, who has verbally committed to the University of Alabama. He appears wearing jersey number 14 in the photo at right. J. C. Coleman appears again in the photo at left. I’m not sure why Oscar Smith, the number one-ranked team in Virginia, had to play on the road, but here they were, playing over 100 miles from home in a quagmire that figured to make their tremendous passing game difficult to employ. Writing down notes about this game was almost impossible: the rain made everything drenched! Haha. Once I got out of the car, my notes dwindled down to only what I could write and then turn to the inside of my notebook. The stands were just 1/4 full when the 2:30 P.M. game started.

Thomas Dale High took a shocking 6-0 lead at the 10:26 mark of the first quarter on a run by Demetrick Jackson. And then, Oscar Smith fumbled the ball after a short pass on their next posession! Demetrick Jackson scored a second time at the 3:04 mark and the score was 14-0! Demetrick Jackson appears in the photo below left, wearing jersey number 12. I was sitting on the Oscar Smith High side, and there was silence, except for a few fans laughing in shock. But I could sense that they were confident that Oscar Smith would come back and win. And why not? They had won 28 straight! However, this game seemed different to me than other Oscar Smith games of the past few years. For one thing, the quagmire of mud was making it imposslbe for Oscar Smith High’s Phillip Sims to pass the ball. He also did the punting for Oscar Smith High, and is shown punting in the photo below right. I could see that the Thomas Dale offensive line was dominating the Oscar Smith defensive line. Thomas Dale’s offensive lineman were more athletic-looking.

At this point, my notes are soaked with water from the game, and getting even more-difficult to read! At the 2:41 mark of the 3rd period, J. C. Coleman, scored from the 6-yard line, and it was now 14-7, Thomas Dale High. Demetrikus Jackson is at least a Division 1-AA prospect, maybe better. (Division 1-A is now known as the “Football Bowl Subdivision” and is composed of big-time schools such as those in the Big Ten, ACC, Pac 10, etc. It is abbreviated “FBS.” Division 1-AA is the old name for what is now called the “Football Championship Subdivision” and is composed of schools like Richmond, Appalachian State, James Madison and William and Mary. It is abbreviated “FCS.”)

The two schools went in to overtime at 14-14. Oscar Smith pulled ahead 17-14. Demetrick Jackson ran around the end for the winning score and pandimonium broke out. This was as good a high school football game as I’ve ever seen. The mud and the home field advantage might have been the difference, but so what? That’s high school football! Demetrick Jackson finished the game with 23 carries for 179 yards. With one game left in his junior season, he now has 179 carries for 1,189 yards and 8 touchdowns this year! His fellow Division 1-A prospect, sophomore J. C. Coleman, ran for 194 yards on 30 carries. He finishes his spectacular sophomore season with 1,225 yards rushing on 203 carries, good for 16 TD’s! Look for him to at least make 2nd-team All-State as a mere sophomore! Next week I’m going to see Thomas Dale play Lake Braddock High in the Division 6 championship game in Charlottesville, Virginia in Scott Stadium!

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[I did this game report once on November 29, then accidentally erased it! So I've had to completely redo it! Haha!]………. I left home at 5 A.M. (Yep.) to go from Charlottesville, Virginia to Vienna, Virginia, which is near Washington, D.C. Oakton High School of Vienna was hosting Oscar Smith High of Chesapeake in the Virginia High School League state semi-finals in Division 6 of Group AAA. In the state of Virginia, there are six divisions, and Division 6 is comprised of the largest schools. Included here is a  photo of the game ticket I purchased.

I basically only scout high school freshmen, sophomores, and juniors. Why? Because everyone else scouts seniors, so I have to give people a reason to read my website. I don’t like scouting basically seniors, who may committ to a university days later: who wants to read about a player who’s already committed to another school? This way, I’m scouting and reporting on a player who still may have 1-2 years left of high school football/basketball left. Your favorite school may be recruiting him, and who knows what may happen in the future? There’s always hope, and that’s what makes recruiting interesting! The main player I was at this game to watch was Oakton High School’s 6-6 250 junior (meaning that he’s a member of the high school Class of 2010) offensive lineman Nick Koutris, an offensive lineman who is shown wearing jersey number 77 in two photos here.

I also wanted to see Oscar Smith’s hard-hitting sophomore defensive back Raysean Richardson, a member of the Class of 2011. He wears jersey number 24 in the photos here.

The weather was sunny and nice. I had expected it to be like the north pole: it was in the mid-40′s but there was no wind. The crowd was late to arrive. Didn’t the students care that their team was playing for the right to play for the state championship? Whatever. The public address system played deafening hip-hop and rock music. This was the loudest pre-game music I’ve ever heard from such a small sound system that was so low to the ground. It was hilarious and must have prompted many complaints. Haha!

During the first period, there was a sickening, crunching tackle of the Oakton High quarterback Chris Coyer after he decided to run. He had carried the ball for 10 yards and didn’t lower his head enough before he was hit. The game was delayed almost an hour before it resumed. He was taken away by ambulance and it was later reported that he had a “minor” bone broken in his neck that should actually heal quickly! Anyway, from the beginning of the game, it was obvious that Oakton High was going to give Oscar Smith all that they could handle. The first quarter ended deadlocked at 0-0. In the second quarter, Oakton worked their way down the field and connected on a touchdown pass to 6-4 178 senior flanker Jay Young to make the score 7-0. Why no Division 1-A schools are offering scholarships to Jay Young is a mystery to me! He looks like a Division 1-A (Football Bowl Subdivision) prospect to me! I listened to the entire University of Virginia-Virginia Tech football game on my radio during this Oscar Smith-Oakton High playoff game here in Vienna, Virginia. With 6:30 left in the UVa-VA Tech game, the score was Tech 17, and UVa 14. Here in Vienna, VA, it was 2nd down and 8 yards-to-go from the Oakton 40 yard-line for Oscar Smith High with 18 seconds left until halftime. But the score remained 7-0 at the half.

Midway through the third quarter, Oscar Smith’s blue-chip quarterback, Class of 2010 college prospect Phillip Sims, a 6-2 200 gunslinger, hit 6-0 190 Class of 2009 college prospect Tim Smith with a bomb down near the Oakton goal line. Tim Smith has already verbally committed to the University of Virginia, and will be headed there next season. Phillip Sims soon hit Tim Smith with a short pass in the end zone corner that tied the contest at 7-7 at the 4:37 mark of the third quarter. With 2:26 left in the game, Phillip Sims and Tim Smith again connected, this time on the play of the game, and so far, on the play of the season for Oscar Smith High.

Phillip Simms rolled out towards his right and threw an off-balance pass toward Tim Smith that he managed to rise and catch between two defenders at the 5-yard line. Then came the winning field goal. To make a long story short, Oscar Smith won this game 10-7 with a late field goal. USAtoday.com rated Oscar Smith High as the nation’s number 7 high school football team! They didn’t look like it today. Despite being loaded with Division 1-A prospects (“Division 1-A” is actually the old term for what is now known as the “Football Bowl Subdivision,” the largest football schools in college football) Oscar Smith High’s offensive line was completely stopped in this game by the lighter Oakton High School defenders. The field goal kick by 6-6 190 junior Ryan Trotman was the winning margin in the final minutes. 6-7 230 senior tight end Wade Reynolds of Oakton High School was a prospect that stood out, although I don’t really scout seniors. He showed good hands in this game and has good athleticism.

One of the players I had seen before but saw again in this game Raysean Richardson of Oscar Smith High, is a 6-2 200 defensive back. He had a nice tackle on first down in the first period, and then had a great quarterback sack at the 2:22 mark of the third quarter. Another player who impressed me in this game was 5-9 180 wide receiver Brandon Davis of Oscar Smith High. Wearing number 7, he made one of the best catches I’ve seen by a high school player this year, grabbing a long pass while jumping with both hands stretched out in front of him. The pass came from directly behind his head. Great catch! I’m not sure if he’s really 5-9, but he’s still a player to keep an eye on in the Class of 2010.

The game ended. The weather had gotten 10 degrees colder. For a school that is in poor shape and looks to be in need of being rebuilt, Oakton High sure does an amazing job of getting a huge amount of players to come out for the football team each season! They seem to really have an outstanding program, not just a team, going.

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