Edison Sports

From Pearl Watts, ('71)
Hugh "Pearl" Watts ('71) emails occasional EHS sports updates to various friends and alumni. Some of those below:

October 23, 2008
Subject: With Coach Carson

Was at the district cross country championships yesterday at Burke Lake Park. Two of the four districts yesterday.
The other two today, including Edison boys at 3:15 and the Edison girls at 3:45 for the National District Championships. The boys team is a heavy favorite and the girls should also win as well.
Anyways, I like to just watch the meets and cheer everyone on, but kind of hung around the meet management area prior to the proceedings, in case they needed any extra help.
I ended up being assigned as the head timer for the computer generated scoring. The backup, manual timing and recording had Coach Carson in charge, as he has been for about as long as I can remember.
Therefore, I was at the finish line area for all four races and basically spent 15-20 minutes total clicking the watch as the runners came across the finish line and the rest of the time got to enjoy a two hour chit chat with Coach Carson.
I guessed correctly that "Big Bob" turned 75 this past October 1st. Even though he retired as A.D. at Lake Braddock twenty years ago, his heart still seems to have that fondness for the Big E.
It's amazing how many names can be thrown at him from so many years ago that he not only still remembers, but then he will tell you what they are doing now !
I had not seen him since the Northern Region cross country championships last year so I had not gotten any feedback on Coach Hensley's condition since he almost choked to death after eating some cheese last year.
He said Coach Hensley is doing just fine and if you saw him now, you would not know that he had been hospitalized in fairly grave condition last year.
Coach Hensley is now 79 years old and according to the doctors, they don't know how he made such an amazing recovery, considering the circumstances.
Similar to something that happened to Coach Carson four or five years ago. He took it upon himself to do some tree trimming in his back yard where he lives in Springfield.
He was about 40 feet up in one tree and fell out of it. Said they landed an emergency helicopter on Backlick Road to medivac him out.
They got him to the hospital and ran all the X-rays and couldn't find one broken bone in his body. A couple of stitches here and there was all he needed.
As he used to say, when the going gets tough, the tough get going.
Have the same "job" today at the meet as yesterday, as will Coach Carson. More fun and games going down memory lane.

October 6, 2008
Subject: If one beer equaled one victory

Then the Edison football team would have a six pack buzz. The Eagles upped their record to 6-0 with a 38-0 pasting of Yorktown on Friday night.
Edison surged to a 21-0 lead at the end of the first quarter and the final score of 38-0 was achieved by halftime. And this was with the thinking that Yorktown would possibly be their toughest National District test this season.
With Falls Church, Stuart and Wash.-Lee as the next three opponents, it will be extremely hard for the Franconia Road footballers not to be 9-0 in eighteen days.
That ninth victory would be on October 24th, which is the homecoming game. My plan appears to be the recent usual for that game.
Should be up at the Glory Days Grill in Burke for the 5th or 6th ?annual codger talkfest at about 5:00 p.m.
Some people may prefer to go to the game, but my guess is that I will have sipped too many sodas and will instead prefer to read the results of the victory in the paper the following day.
Even though the 24th is still a week before Halloween, I will be up there disguised as some really old guy who must have graduated from high school way back in 1971.

Sep 13, 2008:

Edison with its third victory in a row this season as they dispatched South County 22-3. Eagles recover three fumbles in the first half enroute to a 22-0 lead at the end of the second quarter.
The win marked the 100th career victory at Edison for head coach Vaughn Lewis (Herndon '67) and a Glory Days Grill - Burke regular.
Lewis was a very competent pole vaulter who held the Virginia High School 1-AA record at 14-0, landing in sawdust back in the day, and went on to Auburn University where he attained a personal best height of 15-9.

Sep. 9, 2008:

Edison High School, the National District champions six out of the last eight years, looks primed for another serious run at a district title after moving out to a 2-0 record at this early juncture in the season.
The Eagles opened the season with a non-district win at home on August 28 over fellow Franconia Road rival R.E. Lee by 35-14.
   Edison jumped out to an early lead and according to the box score, the game appeared to actually not even be as close as the somewhat lopsided score indicated.
Edison notched their second win on September 4 with an exciting victory over West Springfield by 35-34. The Eagles scored a touchdown with just 50 seconds remaining in the game to knot the score and then received the winning extra point by their 5-11 260 lb. placekicker Mehdi Sharfi.
The Eagles were victimized by West Springfield quarterback Bryn Renner for over 400 yards through the air, but offset Renner's exploits with plenty of speed, especially in the special teams area, with touchdowns on a kickoff return of 98 yards and a punt return of 65 yards in addition to a 67 yard run for a touchdown; each by three different players.
   Edison concludes their string of facing three consecutive Patriot District opponents with a home game this Friday, September 12 against South County at 7:30 p.m.
The Eagles will then embark on their National District schedule of six games, beginning with an improved Mount Vernon team on September 19 and finishing up their district schedule against Washington-Lee in their homecoming game on October 24, before completing the regular season against Chantilly of the Concorde District on October 31.
I was not able to get to Edison through the vhsl.org   related links website but was able to access the Eagles through www.edisonfootball.com
The site includes, among other things; results, roster with pictures of the players, video highlights from the West Springfield game, etc. and also had pictures of the coaching staff with Wayne Clark of Huntington (Edison '74, I believe) on the coaching staff once again.
In news from the bygone days, former Edison track and field / cross country coach John Cook continues his success after UNC grad Shalane Flanagan captured the bronze medal in the 5,000 meter run at the Beijing Olympics under his tutelage, as former Duke University star Shannon Rowbury became the second fastest American woman ever in the mile run with her time of 4:20.35 this past weekend in Rieti, Italy.
Rowbury now trails only the venerable Mary Decker Slaney (4:16.71) on the all time U.S. women's list.

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EHS football at http://www.edisonfootball.com
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Some things never change. John Cook is still making news as a track coach, only now at the Olympics.
From Pearl Watts ('71), Aug 14, 2008:

Olympic news relating to Edison:
Women's 10,000 meter run for track and field scheduled for 10:45 a.m. Friday for the Eastern time zone. The U.S. Olympic Trials winner was Shalane Flanagan, who has somewhat of a chance for a possible medal although she was dealt something of a setback earlier in the week from what looks like possible food poisoning.
Flanagan is the U.S. record holder in the event and is coached by 67 year old John Cook, the former German I and freshman history teacher at Edison, among other things.
Herr Cook is also the coach of two of the U.S. women in the 1,500 meters, Shannon Rowbury and Erin Donahue.
Olympic Trials men's 3,000 meter steeplechase winner Anthony Famiglietti, who is scheduled to race his first round in Beijing on Saturday, coached by former Edison runner and current Tennessee Vols cross country and track distance coach George Watts.

More about the famous Herr Hans at http://runningtimes.com/Article.aspx?ArticleID=13402

Late add: Flanagan took the bronze medal!

Winter Track State Meet '08

Big thrilling win in the 4x800 meter relay last night for the Edison boys. With 100 meters to go, it looked like the anchor for perennial power Midlothian (Richmond area) was going to overtake Tihut Degfae but the Eagles anchor held on for the win. Time was 8:00.12 as they improved on their school record and also improved on their position as fastest time in Virginia this year.

Picture of the race about 10 meters from the finish line is posted on www.milestat.com on the front page.

Only the third victory at the indoor state meet for Edison in the last 30 years and the first ever by an Eagles relay squad.

Edison boys now with 15 wins at the state meet indoors, overall. Among the names, George Watts and Chuck Wimberly twice apiece in the two mile; George Watts in the mile (1975); Page Thompson in the 60 yard low hurdles and Pete Merritt in the two mile in 1971; Curtis Stanfield in the long jump in 1976 (Doug Stanfield's brother) and big old Drexell George in the shot put in 1973.

Drexell still working at the state meet at the finish line as the fully automatic timing device operator (basically the guy taking care of the official times and places off the monitor he is using). With P. Watts still also doing the announcing chores, the codgers still maintaining an Edison flavor at the meet.

Football '07:

Email on the last game of the season, titled "Two Days Late," Nov. 26:

And about two touchdowns short for the Eagles last Friday as they fall to Stone Bridge by 27-14 in the Division 5 Northern Region Championship.

Edison with a bad start to the game as they bobbled the opening kickoff and had their first possession from the 10 yard line.

They were able to record a couple of first downs but then star quarterback Ben Barber fumbled at about the Eagles 40 yard line as he carried the football like the proverbial loaf of bread.

Stone Bridge capitalized on that turnover and eventually connected on a 15 yard touchdown pass at the corner of the goal line to the smallest of their wide receivers.

Near the end of the first quarter, Edison then put together a nice drive but eventually had to punt and pinned Stone Bridge down inside their 10 yard line.

The Eagles defense created a turnover, resulting in a fumble return of 20 yards for a touchdown and with the extra point good, it was 7-7 going into the second quarter.

The second quarter was pretty much all Stone Bridge as they were able to stymie Barber. The National District offensive player of the year had another fumble, which seemed to cause the Edison coaching staff to abandon his running of the ball and the Stone Bridge defense was good enough to negate any big pass plays.

Stone Bridge was able to take advantage of turnovers and also got into their own rhythm of offense with another 15 yard touchdown pass to Irwin and two short field goals by Shaban.

Shaban also had some booming kickoffs and although Edison has a good placekicker and punter in Paul Bergstrom, they did not have the advantage in the kicking game that they usually do because of Shaban's ability.

Edison was down by 20-7 at halftime, but not out. They came back to life early in the third quarter and after an apparent 25 yard touchdown pass was nullified by a holding penalty, came back to still score on a 16 yard pass three plays later to make it 20-14.

Even though the Eagles were still behind, they had seized the momentum from Stone Bridge and with the home team's spectators virtually silent and the Edison crowd making plenty of noise, it certainly seemed that the tide had turned.

Then, late in the third quarter, three plays in a row seem to determine the game to me. Their coach, known through the years for gambling at any time, elected to go for it on fourth and two from inside his own forty yard line instead of punting.

That confidence in his offense helped to give them a short run for a first down. They connected on the next play for about a 20 yard pass on the Edison sideline and then one of the Eagles defenders dealt a late hit out of bounds to tack on additional yardage as a result of the personal foul.

The next play was a pass to the other side of the field and the Stone Bridge receiver made an exceptional leaping catch in the end zone with the Eagles defensive back right there with him.

That 36 yard pass play and ensuing extra point made the score 27-14 and Stone Bridge held Edison in check the rest of the way, resulting in that final score of 27-14.

Edison showed plenty of quickness on offense and defense and what seemed to be an excellent game from linebacker Stephon Robertson.

Although not mentioned in the Washington Post writeup, the difference maker in the game may have been Jerod Gouveia of Stone Bridge.

He seemed to be the best athlete on the field with some timely runs from his running back position and some lethal hits from his linebacking spot by the son of former Redskin Kurt Gouveia.

Nov 17, 2007

The Eagles make the Division 5 regional finals for the third year in a row after dismantling Madison last night by 45-26 to run their season record to 10-2.

According to the writeup this morning in the Washington Post, Edison with a 14-6 lead at halftime before senior quarterback Ben Barber goes 64 yards in the first minute of the second half to build a somewhat comfortable cushion of 21-6.

Madison closes it to 31-20 early in the fourth quarter before Barber seals the deal with another rushing touchdown from 15 yards out.

Ben finishes with 110 yards on the ground in eight carries and completes 8 of 16 passes for 152 yards and one interception.

Barber also had one touchdown pass, a 51 yard completion to junior Corey Washington in the first quarter. Washington was the defensive star of the game with four interceptions, which is one more than Digging Doug Dugan had in a single game back in 1971.

Kicking game also went well with Paul Bergstrom giving his shades of Tom Shank routine in making all six of his extra points, in addition to converting on a 28 yard field goal.

I am set to see my first Edison football game of the year when the Eagles travel to Stone Bridge (Loudoun County, fairly close to Redskins Park) as they battle for the Div. 5 title for the third year in a row.

Stone Bridge was the winner in 2005 while Edison beat them last year. Stone Bridge also easily rolls into the title game with their 49-29 win over George C. Marshall.

The schedule has not been posted, but more than likely, the Edison at Stone Bridge game will be at 1:30 p.m. on Friday with the Div. 6 regional title game on Saturday and pitting West Springfield (one of two teams to beat Edison this year) against Westfield.

In cross country news from last week, I was able to see the Edison dynamic duo of Le Degfae and Ti Degfae run very well this past Saturday at the AAA state championship meet that was held at Great Meadow in The Plains (site of the Virginia Gold Cup every year; very scenic spot for XC races).

Leoule earns the first all state honors for the boys race since Eric Kweder in 1995 with his 10th place finish and Tihut just misses out on reaching the top 15 podium presentation with his 18th place run.

The Northern Region does not dominate distance running as much as it has in years' past although Thomas Jefferson Science and Tech outsmarts the opposition in the boys race to win the team title.

Midlothian High from the Richmond area the dominant team with a second place on the boys side, winning the team championship by a comfortable margin on the girls side and with the individual champion for both genders.

Nov. 9

[Score was Edison 48, Yorktown 18; also two weeks earlier the cross country team won district taking 5 of the first 7 places]

Eagles at home tonight at 7:30 p.m. in a Division 5 regional quarterfinal matchup against Yorktown, a team they beat five weeks ago by 36-0.

Edison finished the regular season at 8-2 overall after losing their final game of the season 21-14 to one of the best teams in Division 6 in Chantilly.

The Eagles were National District champions after sweeping through the district at 6-0. A huge number of players earned all district accolades, led by quarterback Ben Barber, who was named the district's offensive player of the year and linebacker Stephon Robertson, the district defensive player of the year.

If form holds, Edison will make it two in a row this season against Yorktown and move on to the semifinals next week against Madison, which has the home field advantage due to power points.

State cross country championships tomorrow about 25 miles from home in The Plains. Edison qualified two individuals in junior twins Leoule Degfae and Tihut Degfae.

It's an all grass course that will probably be a little tougher than usual with on and off light rain expected for the next 24 hours, about an 10 mile an hour wind and temperatures not getting out of the 40's. The chances for them to finish among the top 15 and earn all state honors are probably less than 50-50 but actually better than slim; they are capable.

Let's just hope they both finish better than the 32nd place recorded by a barefoot running senior a mere 37 years ago. That was two spots behind a name from the past, Pete McDorman, who saved his best race of the season for the last meet. Also running the best race of his high school career up until then was junior Piston Pete Merritt, who finished sixth overall; a sign of things to come.

Oct 19:

An email from the Sports Editor of the 1970-71 Edison Current, Hugh (Pearl) Watts, Class of '71, to certain EHS alums provides the mid-season fall '07 sports summary, and a wrapup of the gathering of codgers the night of (scheduled) homecoming, Oct 19: