Loudoun Baseball's Fresh Faces

Dominion, Freedom, Briar Woods Look to Move Up

By Matt Brooks (Contact)

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Potomac Falls and Broad Run are expected to contend for the Virginia AA Dulles District baseball title again, but this season they might have serious competition from some up-and-coming teams who started from scratch.

When Jay Raines took the job as Dominion's baseball coach six years ago, he said, he wasn't quite sure what to expect. His roster consisted entirely of freshmen and sophomores.

Four years ago, Chris Bourassa faced a similar predicament at Freedom. As the man charged with building a baseball program at a new school, he toughed it out through frustrating seasons as the school grew up. Josh Mosser experienced the same struggles at Briar Woods.

"It wasn't going to happen overnight," Bourassa said of building a program at Freedom. "Especially when during our first season, we only had 13 players in the program, almost all of which were freshmen and sophomores, and only half had played baseball growing up."

Building up their programs has been an uphill battle for all three coaches, but the payoff appears closer than ever.

Last season, Dominion finished tied for third and advanced to the Virginia AA Dulles District tournament semifinals. Briar Woods jumped to sixth after a winless 2007 campaign. Now, three teams that have rarely enjoyed the benefits of experience possess the key ingredients necessary for breaking through in a district dominated by Broad Run and Potomac Falls.

Losses piled up in the early years at each school, forcing coaches to concentrate on other areas where their players could see progress.

"When you are outmanned as we were in the first couple years of the program, you focus on the things you can control," Bourassa said. "We spent a lot of time emphasizing the idea of winning at-bats and winning innings. There were many games in the last couple of years where we have won more innings than the opponent but lost the game because one or two really bad innings."

Last year, Briar Woods claimed several firsts, knocking off Freedom, Loudoun County, Park View and Potomac Falls. With seven returning starters from last year's team providing more depth than ever and two reliable senior pitchers in Ian Hickman and Clayton Sylvester anchoring their rotation, the Falcons expect to be in the mix this season.

The Freedom Eagles, too, have a strong returning core, including second-team All-District seniors Jeremy Rilko (CF) and Kyle Severns (1B) and junior pitcher Anthony Perez. They've shown improvement after a 3-18 finish last season, scoring 51 runs through three games and losing a 5-4, 11-inning marathon to Dominion on Friday.

The Dominion Titans might be the furthest along after last season's successes and with the return of eight seniors, including first-team All-District outfielder Matt Sherrill and second-team All-Region pitcher/infielder Chris Taylor.

The success of the boys' basketball team at Dominion and the Freedom girls' basketball state title run this winter has helped change the athletic culture at both schools.

"The success of Coach [Jason] Eldredge and the girls' basketball team has given every team at Freedom the ultimate, tangible example of what we are capable of doing," Bourassa said.

As they take the field this spring, the young programs around Loudoun will look to continue their progress toward challenging for a district crown. And although reaching that level might be the immediate goal, the greater challenge will be staying on top.

"My overall goal has always been to run a program, not just a team," Raines said. "Meaning I wanted to make strides every year, not be a roller coaster. You know, you win one year and then disappear. Some teams say we want to win districts, etc. I say we want to be competitive game in and game out and give ourselves opportunities to win games. I feel in the end we will win out and reap more rewards."

Extra Points

By Paul Tenorio and Matt Brooks