Raider 'Family' on Quest for District Crown

By Kevin Myrick

Thursday, February 21, 2008

• Related story: With District Crown, Heritage Eyes Tourney Title
• Related story: Breakdown: Thursday's Dulles District Matchups

On a Wednesday afternoon in late January, Loudoun County boys' basketball coach Brian Blubaugh is crouched at half-court on the sidelines shouting instructions to his players. The Raiders are practicing for their next game against Park View, and are running a scoring drill.

The team has two minutes to score more than 100 points with the entire team split into two and hitting both baskets on the court. Shot after shot is landed as balls fall through the hoop at the same time, often coming in twos and threes.

Everyone gets a chance to make shots on the basket, and assistant coaches call out the number of shots made at any given time as Blubaugh adds them to the scoreboard. By the time the buzzer sounds, the team has more than 130 on the board.

Basketball shoes squeak on the hardwoods of the gym as Blubaugh calls the team together for a huddle after the drill. After some words of encouragement, they put their hands together in a circle and yell "family" before the team heads to the locker room.

Family is the most important part of the program that Blubaugh and assistant coach Mark Alexander have been building for the past three years. Blubaugh, who grew up around sports as a kid, brought that one element to the team when he started at Loudoun County.

"The team that you were on just felt like a family," Blubaugh said. "It was always a family. Whether the coach got on you or not, it just felt like a family."

The Raiders this year started out as friends and teammates but have grown into a cohesive unit that throughout the season has accomplished the goals that Blubaugh set for his team. They brought back a sense of pride in the Raiders basketball program.

County's Family of Five

Brett Tagg has been playing basketball for as long as he can remember. Tagg is a 5-foot-10 junior with short, cropped hair. If you ask him nicely, he might show you the tooth that was knocked out earlier in the season by his best friend, Tim McLister, who admits it was an accident.

McLister and Tagg have something in common: they both grew up around basketball, and the two are Loudoun County's shooters from behind the arc.

Tagg has hit 48 three-pointers this season and McLister has hit 22 (behind Joe Bushrod's 24). The two have been shooting for a long time. Especially Tagg.

"I've always been a shooter," Tagg said. "I've got a big family and we used to play in the backyard."

Tagg has played organized ball since he was in the third grade, but his story of shooting goes back much further than that. When Tagg was growing up, his father had a summertime basketball regimen for him, one that Tagg said is a reason he shoots so well.

"Each summer my dad would make me go outside and I would have to make 300 shots before I could come in, so I'd do that in the early morning," Tagg said.

Out of all the players in Loudoun County's starting lineup, Tagg has played with the most injuries this season. Besides having a tooth knocked out, Tagg has also suffered from a rolled ankle and a broken finger.

Tagg said his swollen finger has affected his shot, but he plays on.

Other players have also suffered this season in the tough Dulles district. In a game against Sherando, Donne Lucas cut his finger on the rim. In the same game, McLister rolled his ankle and was out during the second quarter and came back into the game after halftime.

When Lucas saw that McLister was warming up in the hallway outside, the senior kept playing and led the Raiders in scoring with 30 points to a 71-56 win over the Warriors early in the season.

Lucas, the team's senior leader playing in the low post, loves to dunk. During a practice earlier in January, Tagg set up a dunk by bouncing it off of the backboard and letting Lucas leapfrog over him. While he can sometimes be a showman on the court by dunking and blocking shots on the defense, Blubaugh said that he is quiet off the court.

"You know, Donne is a team leader on the court and when he speaks, people listen," Blubaugh said.

Lucas is the team's top scorer this year, putting up an average of 19 points per game during the regular season for the Raiders.

Blubaugh said his leading scorer for the season plays tough on the court, something the reticent Lucas readily admits is a trademark of his play in the low post.

"I just want to be physical and move people around in there," Lucas said.

Lucas is supported by Rick Cottom and Bushrod, who round out the Raiders' starting lineup.

Cottom, like Lucas, looks for rebounds in the low post on both offense and defense, and many of his points for Loudoun County this season have come off second-chance rebounds.

"I just want to get the most rebounds that I can, any second-chance opportunities I can get," Cottom said.

Bushrod played quarterback for the Raiders in a few games, but he said that basketball is his favorite sport, by far. The quarterback-turned-guard brings some of his moves from the football field to the court, especially quick passing.

"If a kid that comes off the bench who hasn't been playing with me all the time, they don't know that I can pass anytime," Bushrod said.

Bushrod added that his teammates are quick to learn that passing is part of his game, and they have learned to keep up with him.

Hard Work Makes a Team

The team's chemistry doesn't necessarily come from strong leadership from Bushrod or Lucas, but from the team's on- and off-court relationship.

"We hang out on the court and off the court," Lucas said. "We just have that chemistry."

This chemistry began two years prior when Blubaugh was hired as coach, with Alexander as his assistant. Blubaugh had previously worked under Coach Jeff Hawes at Potomac Falls for eight years, and before that at Park View.

Blubaugh and Alexander started out with a simple goal: gain some respect in the district. While the Raiders were 8-16 overall, they were 6-8 in district play during the 2005-06 season.

"That first year really helped a lot because we really had a rag-tag bunch of players," Blubaugh said. "They all played so hard. I wish that year could have gone on longer because from where we started to where we ended I was never more proud of a team than that year."

The next step for the Raiders was simple: learn how to win again. During the 2006-07 season, Loudoun County improved slightly, finishing 10-13 overall and 6-8 in the district.

This season, Blubaugh has plenty to be proud of. The Raiders started off 7-0 and finished fourth in the district with an 8-6 record. They opened district tournament play with a 77-69 victory over Dominion on Tuesday and will face top-seeded rival Heritage on Thursday in a semifinal game.

The Raiders also completed their goal of gaining eight wins at home for the season, with two big wins over their cross-town rival.

"We've hit a lot of goals already [this year]," Blubaugh said. "We wanted to finally beat some bigger teams."

Blubaugh attributes the team's success this year to learning how to win again.

"We didn't know how to win, and getting off to a 7-0 start helped us out a lot," Blubaugh said. "If we had started out 4-3 or a little under .500, we wouldn't be where we are today."

The Raiders have traveled down a rough path and for the past two years they've struggled to accomplish their goals. But for Blubaugh, it all comes down to the hard work his players did this season in order to come away with a winning record.

"We've worked hard; we've taken them to camps and we've had our own Raider basketball camp," Blubaugh said. "We've instilled some hard working ethics in the kids."

Blubaugh emphasized that the whole point of having a winning season is the hard work, and ultimately the district title.

"We've always talked about a district title and fighting for a district title," Blubaugh said. "We've always talked about that. Because there's no point in suiting up if you don't talk about it."

As Loudoun County suits up for its third match against Heritage, Blubaugh will surely have one thing to say to his team, like a father would tell his children. He will most likely tell them to play hard, because if they lose there are no second chances.

He found his team earlier in the season with frowns on their faces after picking up their first loss against Park View in December before the Christmas break.

"The only time there should be a frown on your face is when you can't play anymore," Blubaugh told his team after that loss to Park View. "You keep playing and don't worry about your past games."

And the family will play on, coming out of the huddle with the word "family" until they can play no longer, and then they'll worry about the only thing that Blubaugh believes matters for his team.

Tagged: basketball, high school sports, Loudoun County High School

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