With the remarkable state tournament runs by Freedom and Loudoun County extending the winter sports season well past its regular endpoint in Loudoun, it's easy to forget that spring sports are getting underway this week.

The defending state champion Broad Run Spartans girls' soccer team kicked off their season with a 2-1 victory over Battlefield on Wednesday night. For those of you counting at home, that leaves 23 wins between the Spartans and back-to-back undefeated state title campaigns. (They're all about counting down, in case you've forgotten.)

And tonight the Spartans baseball team throws out the first pitch of the 2009 Loudoun baseball season. Last season's Dulles District regular season and tournament champs host George Mason at 6 p.m. They're the only team in action tonight, but the other nine Loudoun schools join the party in the coming days as Heritage visits Lee for a Saturday double-header and 13 games are on the docket for next week.

Here's a quick refresher on what went down on the diamond last spring and what you can look forward to in 2009.

Broad Run (21-5) and Potomac Falls (16-8) were again the top dogs in the Dulles District, battling it out in two hotly contested regular season meetings - which resulted in a split - and meeting for a third time in the tournament final. Behind strong pitching from lefty ace Cole Shain and timely hitting, the Spartans took the second regular season meeting to clinch the district title and then routed the Panthers in the championship game. Both teams qualified for regional play and advanced past the opening round. Potomac Falls lost in an 8-inning heart-breaker at Brentsville with a spot in the state tournament on the line while Broad Run reached the Region II finals and lost 5-4 to the same Tigers team on another walk-off hit. With the loss, the Spartans were forced to travel to Powhatan where they fell behind early and eventually ended their season with a 12-6 loss in a lightning-shortened game.

Elsewhere in the district, the young Dominion Titans (13-9) surprised some teams with a strong start to league play and ended up finishing fourth in the regular season. They advanced to the semifinals of the district tournament before falling to hosts Broad Run. Park View had another strong season behind Region II Player of the Year Dylan Smith. The Patriots finished third in the regular season and lost 4-2 to the Panthers in a water-logged tournament semifinal game. Briar Woods (7-14) took strides while Heritage (8-13), Loudoun County (4-17) and Freedom (3-18) all scored big upsets during the district regular season.

In the AAA Liberty District, the Stone Bridge Bulldogs (20-4) were the cream of the crop. With arguably the best one-two punch on the mound in the entire Northern Region in seniors Tyler Basso and Ty Weaver, the Bulldogs claimed their first Liberty District regular season and tournament titles and entered the regional tournament as one of the favorites to reach states. After knocking off T.C. Williams in the first round of regionals, Stone Bridge couldn't find a way past Bart Reese and a game Oakton team.

Over in the AAA Cedar Run District, a young but talented Loudoun Valley completed a 9-12 campaign with a first-round loss to Osbourn in the district tournament.

Which brings us to this season. Fresh faces will be on the mound, at the plate and in the field and the Dulles District race has the potential to be as wide open as ever with the graduation of numerous players from last season's top teams. There's a lot to be decided once district regular season play starts next weekend, but here are a few teams, players and storylines worth keeping an eye on as the season gets underway.

-- Could this be the year youth is served? Many of the Dulles District's younger programs showed flashes of promise a year ago without the benefit of an experienced roster. Several of those teams - Briar Woods, Dominion and Freedom - return nearly all of their starting lineups and should be greatly improved with another year under their belts. The Titans are loaded with nine seniors (a formula that seemed to work well for the basketball team) while the Eagles return eight of their top nine including four 4-year starters. Loudoun County also returns several starters from a year ago and should be greatly improved from last seasons four-win squad.

-- Rebuilding at the top: The defending district champs, Broad Run, lost the core of last year's roster and must replace the bulk of their pitching staff. They bring back two All-District selections but must get immediate production from several of last year's bench players and find some pitching in the younger ranks. Park View and Heritage also lost some key pieces from their teams but return talented groups who could lead them as they look to challenge for a district crown. In Sterling, Potomac Falls benefits from last year's junior-filled squad. They lost only three players and should return most of the 11 juniors that formed the meat of their lineup and pitching staff a year ago. Look for the Panthers to be near the top of the table again in 2009.

-- Can the Bulldogs repeat? Like Broad Run, Stone Bridge lost a lot of it's district title team from 2008 including nearly all of it's top tier pitching staff. The Bulldogs still have the best player in the Liberty District in senior Johnny Bladel and he'll be counted on to produce big numbers yet again in the heart of the order. They key to their success will be filling in hitters around him and returning starters Patrick Thompson (1B), Michael Prince (OF) and Pat Piccolo (SS) and getting consistent innings from a relatively inexperienced pitching staff.

-- Will youth be served at Valley? Like several of their Dulles District neighbors, the Vikings lost very little from last year's team and now features a lineup and pitching staff with another year of experience in a competitive league. They'll look to All-District selections Alex Owens (1B) and Wes Walker (C) to keep swinging hot bats and hope for consistency from Adam Reed, Kevin Rinek, Daniel Burke and T.J. Daeschner. The Vikes struggled to score runs at times last year and should be better at the plate in 2009. But as is usually the case, the performance of their pitching staff will likely determine how far they go this season.

Keep an Eye On These Guys...


Pitchers
Jake Kline, Sr., Potomac Falls - 2nd team All-Region as a junior and one of the true aces in the Dulles District
Chris Taylor, Sr., Dominion - One of the top pitchers, infielders and hitters in the league, 5-3 with 64 K's
Ian Hickman, Sr., Briar Woods - Had some really strong outings last year and will lead the Falcons' rotation
Andy Zarobila, Jr., Heritage - 4-2 with a 2.33 ERA and 35 K's last year
Johnny Mason, Sr., Park View - First team All-Region outfielder a year ago, he's shown great ability on the mound and at the plate
Anthony Perez, Jr., Freedom - 3.08 ERA, 2nd team All-District
Nick Fialdini, Sr., Stone Bridge - 15 K's in 14 2/3 innings a year ago and working with a great pitching staff

Infielders
C Wes Walker, Sr., Loudoun Valley - Hit .351, 2nd team All-District
1B Alex Owens, Jr., Loudoun Valley - Hit .433 with 19 RBIs
1B Kyle Severns, Sr., Freedom - Hit .466 as a 2nd team All-District first baseman
1B Patrick Thompson, Sr., Stone Bridge - Hit .359 with 4 HRs and 24 RBI
3B Rob Malan, Sr., Potomac Falls - Hit .424, 1st team All-Region
3B Chris Taylor, Sr., Dominion - Hit .469 with 4 HRs and 21 RBI
SS Chris Jessop, Sr., Broad Run - 2nd team All-Region
SS Brenton Peters, Sr., Heritage - Hit .381 with 2 HRs, 2nd team All-District

Outfielders
Johnny Bladel, Sr., Stone Bridge - Liberty District Player of the Year, hit .471 with 27 RBIs, will see time on the mound this year as well
Johnny Mason, Sr., Park View - Hit .460, 1st team All-Region
Nick Clayton, Jr., Heritage - Hit .316, 2nd team All-District
Jeremy Rilko, Sr., Freedom - 52 consecutive successful stolen base attempts, .357 average
Matt Sherrill, Sr., Dominion - Hit .369, 11 steals, 1st team All-District
Patrick Murphy, Sr., Broad Run - Hit .309, 2nd team All-District
Gavin Scherer, Jr., Briar Woods - Hit .419, 15 steals, 2nd team All-District

I know I've left plenty of great players off this cursory list, but we'll keep tabs on them as they start to shine this season. Here's a look at the upcoming schedule of games.

Friday, March 13
George Mason at Broad Run, 6

Saturday, March 14
Heritage at Lee, 12
Heritage at Lee, 3

Monday, March 16
Dematha at Stone Bridge, 6
James Wood at Loudoun County, 6
Park View at O'Connell, 4:15

Tuesday, March 17
Briar Woods at Fairfax, 6
Broad Run at Park View, 6
George Mason at Loudoun County, 6

Wednesday, March 18
Heritage at Millbrook, 7
Washington-Lee at Broad Run, 6

Friday, March 20
Briar Woods at Broad Run, 6
Freedom at Dominion, 6
Park View at Loudoun County, 6
Potomac Falls at Heritage, 6
McLean at Stone Bridge, 6:30