High school notes

Statewide award goes to Bates

Thomas Dale midfielder/forward Will Bates has missed a couple of high school games this season while playing for the U.S. U-18 National team that won a gold medal at the Australian Youth Olympic Festival in January.

Still, he has scored 19 goals and delivered 13 assists for the top-ranked Knights entering this week's district tournament.

A long list of senior-year honors starts with his selection as the Gatorade Virginia boys soccer player of the year. Bates is the second Knight (Roger Bothe, 2006) to receive the designation.

Bates, 6-0, 185 pounds, was a first-team all-state and All-Metro selection last year when the Knights won the Central Region championship.

Patriots' Stanley has high homer total

Patrick Henry baseball coach Sam Hart isn't sure what the school record is for career home runs. But in his 20 years with the Patriots, he's sure no one has hit more than senior first baseman Kyle Stanley.

Stanley had 29 homers and 83 RBI going into last night's Colonial District tournament semifinals. He has nine homers and 31 RBI - and a .488 average - this season.

Stanley and two other four-year starters, pitcher-outfielder Derrick Brewer and pitcher-third baseman Taylor Seay, have helped the Patriots win 58 games during their careers.

"They've probably won more than any kids we've had in the program," Hart said.

Patrick Henry's fence measurements are short, but Hart said the 6-3, 195-pound Stanley has "hit just as many [homers] away from home as he's hit at home."

"He's strong, and he has a lot of leverage," Hart said. "Since Day One, when I saw him as a freshman, he's put up the numbers I thought he'd put up."

Eagles post milestone victory

Mills Godwin High has produced plenty of good baseball players and teams since opening in 1981.

This year's group of Eagles, ranked No.5 in The Times-Dispatch Top 10, produced school victory No.500 when it beat Patrick Henry May 12.

Coach John Marano noted that current Eagles basketball coach Hunter Thomas was the winning pitcher in the first game. The overall record in 28 years is 502-126, a winning percentage of .762 and an average of 17.8 victories per year.

Cougars win relay race by a nose

St. Christopher's won the VISAA track and field championship Saturday, but an event the Saints lost by .08 provided one of the meet's most exciting moments.

Collegiate runners Graham Glass, Robert Mertens, David Allen and Alieu Sillah won the 3,200 relay in a school-record time (by eight seconds) of 8:08.66. In the stride for stride race, St. Christopher's finished in 8:08.74.

The Cougars' combo had not run the relay together before. Allen, a junior who has been hampered by leg injuries and did most of his training in a swimming pool, ran a 2:01.7 split that was 4 seconds better than his previous best. Sillah is a sprinter and two-time state 400 champion who had run just three 800's in his life.

Collegiate was seeded third for the race. St. Christopher's was seeded No. 1 by nearly 25 seconds over the Cougars.

Weisbrod finishes fast to take 800 title

Jay Weisbrod of St. Christopher's successfully defended his 800 title in the VISAA meet. He finished in 1:59.79, which was .45 ahead of Fork Union's Caleb Haney.

Weisbrod, who is headed to Virginia Tech, has set school records in the 800 and 1,000 and helped set a record in the 3,200 relay. He came to St. Christopher's from Taiwan. In the fall of his freshman year, he was on the Saints' soccer team that won the state championship. The victory in the 800 concluded a 12-letter and all-state career.

Short takes

• The week before the VIS meet, the League of Independent Schools held their championships. Collegiate's Dominique Meeks won the shot with a toss of 38-4. That obliterated the oldest standing LIS meet mark, a 35-11 set in 1985. Meeks' toss is the best in Central Virginia this spring.

• Former Varina football standout and assistant coach Brad Lutz has been named head coach at Broadway High north of Harrisonburg. Lutz has been an assistant at Broadway the past two seasons. When he left Varina, his activities director was Chris Robinson. Lutz's AD at Broadway is another Chris Robinson.

Hermitage High will hold its spring Athletic Hall of Fame ceremony June 4 at 7:30 p.m. in the school auditorium. The only inductee is retiring activities director Bruce Bowen. He graduated from Hermitage, coached there (state cross country title in 1977) and has been the AD for 22 years. He was inducted into the VHSL Hall of Fame in 2007. - Arthur Utley and Tim Pearrell