Top 100: Damone Boone, West Springfield, Football, 1996
The Spartan rushed to many records.
"He is as good as they come." -- Lake Braddock Coach Francis Dall.
Top 100: Gerry Bertier, T.C. Williams, Football, 1972
Gerry Bertier was one of the best players and leaders on a team known as perhaps the best in the history of Virginia high school football — the 1971 T.C. Williams Titans.
Top 100: Brandon Royster, Fairfax, Football, 2000
The first play that the Fairfax Rebels ran against Paul VI during Brandon Royster’s senior season was a trick play. Quarterback Ian McAlpine tossed a pass near the sideline to wide receiver Mike Daniels, who before getting hit, tossed the ball backwards to Brandon Royster.
Top 100: Eugene Chung, Oakton, Football, 1987
Chung led Oakton football's defense and helped turn a winless Cougar program into a 9-1 regional powerhouse.
Eugene Chung was just a kid lost among the big names at Oakton High School in the late 1980's. Chung, who suffered through one of the worst losing streaks of that decade while the Cougars failed to win a game in the 1985 and 1986 football seasons, was a quiet lineman who drew no joy from grabbing headlines or even talking amongst his teammates.
Top 100: Joey Beard, South Lakes, 1993
Over the Hill: Beard, the two-time AAA state POY, is the all-time leading scorer at South Lakes.
It would come as a surprise to many that Grant Hill, a 2-time NCAA basketball champion, a 7-time NBA all-star and former Olympic basketball player, is not the all-time leading scorer in South Lakes High School's boys basketball history. That honor belongs to a 6-foot 10-inch former McDonald's All-American (1993) named Joey Beard, who recorded 2,138 points in his career — exactly 110 points more than Hill.
Top 100: Earl Lloyd, Parker Gray, Basketball, 1946
Alexandria's Lloyd is the `Jackie Robinson' of the National Basketball Association.
Many people probably do not even recognize the name Earl Lloyd. But unlike the well-recognized Jackie Robinson, who broke baseball's color barrier with the Brooklyn Dodgers, Lloyd never became a household name.
Top 100: Billy Pulsipher, Fairfax, Baseball, 1991
Despite major setbacks, the phenom pitcher found his way back to the Major Leagues.
The promising baseball career of a 1991 Fairfax graduate almost ended just as it started. Billy Pulsipher took the mound for the New York Mets in 1995, riding a wave of confidence, but injuries and depression would take a toll on his career soon after.
Top 100: Ratcliff Thomas, T.C. Williams Football, 1992
Ratcliff Thomas was a standout player on the University of Maryland football team and spent several years in the NFL for the Indianapolis Colts.
Top 100: Keith Lyle, Marshall Football, 1990
Keith Lyle spent nine years in the National Football League, most of them for the St. Louis Rams during the late 90's, as a free safety. But Lyle, remembered in the Northern Region by those that coached against him as incredibly fast, was an impressive high school quarterback before heading to the University of Virginia.
Top 100: Christy Winters, South Lakes, Basketball, 1986
Christy Winters was recently inducted into the South Lakes High School Hall of Fame as a part of the school's first Hall of Fame Class.
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.