A look back at what we’ll remember most from the 2023-24 year in high school sports:
State champs!
Twenty-four teams from Hampton Roads won VHSL state championships in 2023-24, but that was a marked decline. In 2022-23, the area won a whopping 35 team titles.
Among the milestones this time around:
- Princess Anne took home a girls basketball state championship for the 10th time in 11 seasons, and coach Darnell Dozier added his 14th overall VHSL trophy to the case.
- Woodside went back-to-back in boys basketball and gave coach Stefan Welsh a rare distinction: Welsh is the only basketball player from Hampton Roads to win back-to-back titles in high school and then win two straight as a coach. Welsh starred for the Wolverines.
- Phoebus has plenty of state championship moments in football during the past two decades, but one scintillating play (more on that later) might be the most memorable among the storied program’s 10 state championships over the past 22 years.
- Kellam outlasted First Colonial in the first matchup between Beach District schools in a girls soccer state championship game.
Power shift
A field hockey team from South Hampton Roads had brought home a VHSL state championship trophy every year from 2014-22, but that streak ended when First Colonial fell 1-0 to Independence in the Class 5 championship game. Tabb kept the 757 from being shut out completely in the VHSL by winning its fourth straight field hockey crown, and Norfolk Academy took the VISAA Division I championship.
Play of the Year: The Phoebus Fling
Phoebus’ game-winning 86-yard touchdown won pass per NFHS Network feed. Phantoms won 21-14 over Salem in Class 3 state championship game. pic.twitter.com/kmz6buYQVW
— 757Teamz (@757teamz) December 9, 2023
Phoebus’ chances of a third consecutive football state title looked bleak when senior starting quarterback Adonis Stowers was injured in a Class 4 Region A semifinal win over rival Hampton. Instead, freshman Maurikus “Rik” Banks emerged as a star of the future, and present, by guiding the Phantoms to three consecutive victories. He capped his run by throwing an 86-yard touchdown pass to senior Keyontae Gray with one second left in the Class 4 state championship game, giving the 15-0 Phantoms a 21-14 win over the Salem Spartans and a third consecutive state title.
Wrestling domination in Class 5
Not only did Cox win the Class 5 wrestling state championship, but Hampton Roads grapplers earned 12 of 14 individual titles. The winners: Cox’s Seth Pringle (106 pounds), Caleb Rafal (126) and Rudy Wagner (190); Great Bridge’s Myrin Nixon (138), Beau Lewis (144) and Caleb Neal (157); First Colonial’s Thomas Stofka (150), Leonard Ashley (165) and Schey Huff (215); Tallwood’s Josiah Irizarry (113); Kellam’s Brodie Altman (132); and Deep Creek’s Samuel Diggs (175). Diggs celebrated the Hornets’ first wrestling title in more than 30 years.
‘Racism, hate speech, and harassment’
Those haunting words came from Kempsville High principal Melissa George in a note to parents in announcing that the Chiefs’ baseball season was halted after an investigation.
“After our lengthy investigation after we received allegations of racism on the baseball team earlier in April, we have found that racism, hate speech, and harassment have been an ongoing issue for multiple years,” George wrote.
The Kempsville baseball season was canceled after the team went 5-11 in its first 16 games.
“We should be so far from this, but we’re not,” said Green Run coach Myron Campbell. “We’re still how it was before Jackie (Robinson), man. It’s 2024 and still feels like it’s 1944.”
NIL comes to the VHSL
The 2023-24 school year was the first in which the VHSL permitted athletes to profit from their Name, Image and Likeness.
The VHSL’s adoption in May 2023 of NIL legislation followed a similar ruling by the NCAA for college athletes and added Virginia to a growing list of states that allow high school athletes to profit from NIL deals.
NIL deals for high school athletes are rare, but Indian River High sprinter Brianna Selby became the first track athlete in Virginia to ink one when she signed with New Balance.
“When I first started running, they sent me a new pair of shoes,” said Selby, who signed to run track for Southern California. “But I’m very proud. I didn’t know how far I could go with this. This came really fast.”
Anything but lax
Kellam’s boys lacrosse team won 16 consecutive games late in the season on its way to becoming the first from Hampton Roads to advance to a VHSL state championship game.
Kellam topped Patrick Henry of Roanoke 9-4 in the Class 5 semifinals with two goals and three assists from Evan Djunaedi and three goals each from Colt Goodwin and Jacob Leonard. The Knights fell to perennial power Riverside in the title game.
Lacrosse moved from a club sport to VHSL-sanctioned varsity sport before the 2022-23 school year.
Phoebus football team scores 104 points
The Phantoms’ 104-0 win over Jamestown in the Class 4 Region A football playoffs garnered national attention, while generating numerous questions about blame for the debacle. Why was a No. 1 vs. No. 8 seed game played in a region with only nine teams in the first place? Why didn’t Jamestown coaches and administrators listen to those team parents who reportedly felt the Eagles should forfeit rather than play? Why wasn’t the game ended when it was 84-0 at halftime? Why did Phoebus throw a long pass on the final play to surpass 100 points?
In memoriam
Lefty Driesell, who guided Newport News High to an unbeaten season and Group 1-A boys basketball title in 1958 — then became a Hall of Fame coach in college with Maryland and three other schools — died in March.
Willard Hunt, Tabb’s longest-serving athletic director, died in May. He was the coach of the Tigers’ 1977 wrestling state champs and the offensive coordinator on three Tabb football state champions.
Churchland two-sport athlete Aveyon Jordan was shot and killed in March. He was second-team all-state, all-region and All-Eastern District in basketball. He also played wide receiver and defensive back in football.
Norm Snead, a former Warwick High quarterback who played 16 seasons at that position in the NFL and made four Pro Bowls, died in January.
Parker Topping, an inspiration for braving more than 150 chemotherapy treatments while serving as an assistant basketball coach at Poquoson and Grafton, died in March.
— Staff writers Marty O’Brien, Larry Rubama, Michael Sauls and Sonny Dearth contributed to this story.
Jami Frankenberry is the sports editor of The Virginian-Pilot and Daily Press. Reach him at jami.frankenberry@pilotonline.com
