The McLean Highlanders certainly have played a difficult basketball schedule so far this season, and the experienced girls team has a 4-2 overall record to show for its efforts.
Among the high-school squad’s victories, the Highlanders have defeated defending Virginia High School League Class 4 state champion Woodgrove along with recent four-time defending Class 6 state champion Madison, as well as defeating perennially strong West Springfield.
The annual Cassel’s Holiday Classic at Oakton High School is scheduled for Dec. 27, 28 and 30, with six girls basketball games each day.
The Oakton Cougars (8-0) are the host team. Games begin at 11 a.m. and end with a 7:45 p.m. contest, which will always include Oakton.
It’s no surprise that the Oakton Cougars girls basketball team is off to a strong start this season.
With three returning starters from last winter’s Concorde District champion and 6D North Region tournament runner-up squad, the high-school unit (22-7 last fall) is expected to be a contender for those titles again this year.
With the perennial success the teams have enjoyed for decades, the Concorde District is often referenced as the mighty SEC of high school football in Northern Virginia.
SEC stands for the Southeastern Conference, which arguably is the best league in college football.
It was as if a switch turned on at halftime for the Oakton Cougars.
In the second half, the boys basketball team seemed to play harder and with more purpose, rallying to score a victory.
This year’s boys basketball Lake Braddock Holiday Tournament will include eight public high-school varsity teams.
The competition is set to run Dec. 26-28 at Lake Braddock Secondary School in Burke. There are four games each day, at 2:15 p.m., 4 p.m., 5:45 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. All teams will play three games, one per day.
The annual girls and boys neighborhood varsity basketball doubleheader between the Madison Warhawks and Marshall Statesmen didn’t provide much suspense this year.
The host Warhawks swept the high-school games by comfortable margins the night of Dec. 13. In front of a large crowd, including loud-cheering student sections, the Madison girls won the opener in Vienna, 45-29, and the boys took the nightcap 55-43.
The Madison Warhawks’ football season unfolded pretty much as the squad’s head coach had envisioned back when practice for the 2024 high-school campaign began in August.
Back then, coach Justin Counts said the team’s defense, with more experienced players, would have to carry the Madison load and lead the way during the early going while a less-experienced offense developed.
The finish came down to a couple of Hail Mary passes at the end, one a big success and the other so close to working, as the Madison Warhawks fell a point short of winning their first state football championship.
The undefeated Oscar Smith Tigers of Chesapeake (15-0) nipped Madison, 21-20, in a seesaw Dec. 14 championship game of the Virginia High School League’s Class 6 state final at James Madison University in Harrisonburg.
Three players from the Flint Hill Huskies and one from the Potomac School Panthers were chosen to the 2024 Division I all-state private high-school football teams for their performances during the 2024 high-school season.
From Flint Hill, senior quarterback Caleb West was chosen to the first team on offense while his teammate, senior wide receiver Victor McNeal, made second team.
