As he continues head-coaching duties of a boys varsity high-school basketball team in Southern Maryland, Brad Leydig credits two people for influencing his career path.
Those impressions were made when Leydig was a student/athlete at Madison High School in Vienna, learning from the Warhawks’ late head football coach Lenny Schultz and current head boys hoops coach Kevin Roller.
The Madison Warhawks finished ranked second, seventh and ninth in three different final statewide high-school football polls for the 2024 season as compiled by MaxPreps.com.
In the public-school Class 6 (schools with the highest enrollment) poll, the Concorde District and 6D North Region champion Warhawks (14-1) were ranked second.
Players from multiple Fairfax County football teams, including the region-champion Lake Braddock Bruins and Madison Warhawks, recently were honored as Virginia High School League Class 6 first- or second-team all-state selections.
From Madison, senior slotback Dominic Knicely earned the biggest award as the Offensive Player of the Year.
Dominic Knicely has received the highest honor for his performance on the football field for the Madison Warhawks during the fall season.
The senior slot back and kick returner has been named the Virginia High School League Class 6 state Offensive Player of the Year.
The Madison Warhawks and Marshall Statesmen had opposite results in their final boys basketball games prior to participating in holiday tournaments later this week.
Madison (6-2) routed visiting Independence, 62-39, in a non-district high-school game for its fifth-straight win on Dec. 20, while host Marshall (6-3, 1-1) lost to the Yorktown Patriots (7-1), 59-57, in a seesaw Liberty District contest on the same night.
Anytime a high-school team accomplishes what the Madison Warhawks did in football this fall, the natural question is: What about next year?
So what about the 2025 season for the Warhawks? Will Madison have the potential to win a sixth straight 6D North Region championship and again challenge to capture its elusive first state title?
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.
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.
