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Now that 2008 has officially come and gone, we here at The Gazette's Montgomery County sports desk have a daunting task: summing up everything that's happened since Dick Clark last rocked our Eve.
In situations like these, we try to be profound. And what better source for deep thoughts than www.wikipedia.com?
It seems like a year with historic presidential elections, a record-setting Summer Olympics and unprecedented technology should be defined by something more than a tuber. But hey, no use crying over spilt starches, with all that 2008 offered. It was, in many ways, a transcendent 12 months in the Montgomery County sports world, for instance.
Bringing it all to a fitting conclusion, we present to you our first — and possibly last — Gazette Sports awards, with a little help from the year's defining events in pop culture. After all, potatoes can only describe so much.
It started as an internet sensation: 1980's pop "star" Rick Astley and his shockingly baritone voice linking to hundreds of unrelated websites, which, when clicked, would "Rick Roll" readers into his hit music video from yesteryear. It really hit big when he personally Rick Rolled millions of Americans during the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.
Our other awards have multiple contenders, but not this one.
Fast-forward 21 years, three high schools, a college and a short-lived retirement, and Thomas was at his all-time best in 2008, his 25th fall as a head coach. He took the Warriors — an afterthought entering the season, in comparison to some of its prospect-laden rivals — to an undefeated, 14-0 campaign. On Dec. 4, the Sandy Spring school brushed aside Frederick County's Linganore 21-3 in the Class 4A state championship game, giving Thomas his record-tying eighth state title.
The Gas Price award
One of the most significant and irritating trends of 2008 was the alarming expense of gasoline, which jumped to well over $4 per gallon at one point. Yet late in the summer, when recession became evident, drivers all over the country were thrown a bone: on Dec. 25, the cost of gas had plummeted to a national average of $1.65 a gallon, according to cnn.com.
There were redemptive stories galore in sports. The Magruder boys soccer team was the county's only squad to reach the state playoffs, despite losing a slew of Division I college talent off their 2007 state-championship squad and scoring 61 fewer goals.
Sherwood's softball team showed similar perseverance in the spring, reaching its first-ever state championship game despite the loss of '07 Gazette Player of the Year Dana Ward.
Churchill's golf team earned the ultimate salvation. After failing to win a state title for the first time in six years in '07 and seeing its run of regular-season dominance end at the hands of rival Wootton, the team shot an overall round of 662 to win its record 11th state championship.
But the winner of our Gas Price Redemption Award goes to the second-annual AT&T National, better known as Tiger Woods' tournament. Despite the disappointing absence of Woods himself, over 100,000 spectators trekked to Congressional Country Club in Bethesda in large part because of two captivating figures.
The crowd favorite was U.S. Open runner-up Rocco Mediate, the 45-year old underdog who lost an 18-hole playoff to Woods in one of the most thrilling major tournaments in golf history. But the story of the July 4 weekend was 23-year old Anthony Kim, who shot a 12-under par round of 268 to win the trophy.
It wasn't so much his victory that attracted fans as his loud wardrobe, complete with pink shirt, white pants and shoes, and a brash diamond-encrusted belt, with crystals forming his initials. As we described it six months ago: "If Woods is golf's Michael Jordan, Kim may become the sport's Kanye West: talent, style and swagger personified."
The "Dark Knight" award
This one goes to the male athlete whose dominant performance best resembled the title character from the Box Office smash, whose $155 million opening weekend was the highest-grossing of all-time. While MoCo is no Gotham, its athletes often played like the fictional city's black-clad hero.
You'd be hard-pressed to find a year with better athletes coming through the county. Good Counsel senior football player Jelani Jenkins, Maryland's Gatorade Player of the Year as a junior, is one of the most sought-after prospects in the country, ranked the country's third-best player according to recruiting database www.rivals.com.
Oh yeah, he also scored 25 touchdowns while leading the Falcons to an undefeated regular season.
Gaithersburg senior Kevin Brady, the Gazette's Player of the Year in baseball, was selected by the Baltimore Orioles in the 44th round of the Major League Baseball Draft, then went on to lead the Cal Ripken Sr. Collegiate Baseball League with 59 strikeouts during the summer.
He wasn't the only star in the wood-bat league: 2006 Quince Orchard graduated Mike Celenza led the CRSCBL with a .412 batting average, the highest in the Ripken League's four-year history.
Damascus senior and Loyola (Ill.) signee Ryan Mullsteff emerged as one of the county's top boys volleyball players ever, leading the Hornet coeds to an undefeated season. Churchill's Kevin Dansky spearheaded a dominant team of his own, scoring an outrageous 26 goals in leading the Bulldogs to 10-0-2 soccer season.
But the preeminent "Batman" of 2008 walks the corridors of Sherwood High: senior Solomon Haile. The native of Ethiopia emerged this year as the county's greatest high school distance runner, ever.
The Silver Spring resident broke almost every record that existed this fall, including a time of 15 minutes, 43 seconds in the 3-mile Maryland State Championship meet in November, crushing the former record by 18 seconds.
That was merely a warmup, however; on Dec. 13 in San Diego, Haile won the 5-kilometer race at the prestigious Foot Locker Cross Country Championship with a time of 15:15, becoming the first D.C.-area runner to ever finish first in sports' premier national event.
The "whole club was lookin' at her" award
You could call this the Batgirl award, but this T-Pain lyric from the Billboard Chart's No. 1 song of 2008, Flo Rida's "Low," seems more relevant. Just as with the fellas, the county featured plenty of girls who catapulted into the spotlight.
Take Walter Johnson soccer sensation Caroline Miller, not only the Wildcats' star since arriving at the Bethesda school but also a standout on the U.S U-17 Women's National Team. The Gazette Player of the Year was the county's — and one of the country's — most unstoppable strikers once again, scoring 29 goals to finish with a school-record 91 for her career.
Whitman's Maya Herm was named to the U.S.A. Field Hockey Futures Elite Program in September, making her one of the country's top 150 players. She didn't disappoint in the fall, scoring 15 goals to buoy the Vikings to the Class 4A South Region final.
Even more overwhelming was Holy Cross senior Maria Fuccillo, who won her fourth-consecutive Washington Catholic Athletic Conference No. 1 singles title. The Virginia commit finished her high school singles career without a loss.
But for our money, the Flo Rida winner is another runner, only in shorter distances than the male honoree. Wootton's Olivia Ekponé had about as precocious a debut as a freshman could feasibly have in the spring, winning county, regional and state titles in the 100-, 200- and 400-meter dashes.
She went unbeaten in county competition, led the Patriots to two county titles and earned three All-American awards at the Nike Indoor Championship Meet in March.
The "Here comes Lezak ... The U.S. has done it" award
The top athlete of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing was, without a doubt, Michael Phelps, whose world-record eight gold medals established him as arguably the greatest Olympian ever.
But what we'll most remember is the thrilling finish to the 4x100 freestyle relay, with unknown 32-year old Jason Lezak swimming the greatest anchor leg in the history of the event to help the United States oust France by .08 seconds, keeping Phelps' quest for immortality alive.
So this team award commemorates Lezak's swim (and NBC commentator Dan Hicks' suspenseful call). Plus, Phelps was painfully unfunny on "Saturday Night Live," which has to count for something.
Narrowing a list here was difficult. There were almost too many dominant teams to count in Montgomery County this year.
One of the most remarkable performances was turned in by Sherwood football. They didn't the star power like in years past; there weren't any record-setters like 2007 grad Deontay Twyman, or all-around forces like two-time All-Gazette first-teamer Dominique Budd.
Yet it was a team that thrived on being underestimated, and against bigger and faster teams, they were rarely challenged in 14 straight victories. It was truly unbelievable.
They weren't the most overwhelming, though. The Bethesda-Chevy Chase girls soccer team was even more breathtaking, finishing 17-0 and capturing the Class 3A state title. But here's what was really astounding about the Barons: They outscored opponents 88-5 on the season, led by the 26 goals from the school's all-time leading goal-scorer, Hannah Cooper. Only three of their victories weren't acquired in shutout fashion, and they ended the fall ranked 20th among public and private schools by the National Soccer Coaches Association of America.
The Good Counsel girls volleyball team was pretty extraordinary, as well, thanks to Gazette Co-Players of the Year Brighid Casey and Becky West, finishing 28-0 en route to a third-straight WCAC title. The Falcons owned the conference, winning 96 of 101 games along the way.
So it was far from a runaway, but the envelope opens to reveal the Paint Branch girls basketball team.
The Panthers get a little extra boost by starting off this winter even more impressively than last, but what they accomplished in 2007-08 was truly awe-inspiring. They went 25-0 in capturing 3A title, devastating Atholton in the championship game by 35 points. They won by an average of 30 points per game.
But here's what made them most impressive: their core was all-underclass. Back this winter is Gazette Player of the Year, James Madison (Va.) signee Tarik Hislop. Back is All-Gazette first-teamer Khalilah Quigley, a Boston University commit.
Happy New Year
If you're looking to wrap 2008 in a nutshell, we offer up the word "change." This year saw more than usual, not because it was the defining motif for the country's new president-elect. On the contrary, our political platform revolves around bouncing balls and stopwatches, not votes.
It was an exceptional year of firsts in county sports. Sherwood's baseball team won its first state championship with a surprising victory over C. Milton Wright. Springbrook boys basketball won its first title since 1988, with Gazette Player of the Year C.J. Garner helping the Blue Devils rally from an 18-point deficit to top Thomas Stone, 61-57.
This year witnessed the birth of professional soccer in Montgomery County, as "Real Maryland" debuted in the United Soccer Leagues Second Division this spring. The Monarchs hosted half of their 20-game schedule at the Maryland SoccerPlex in Boyds, showcasing talent such as former Major League Soccer great Ronald Cerritos and burgeoning star midfielder Dennis Alas, both of whom play on the Salvadorian National Team.
It was also a once-in-a-lifetime year on the gridiron. The 2009 recruiting class is generally considered the county's greatest ever, as evidenced by its 20 representatives at the recent Maryland Crab Bowl, the state's new All-Star game.
Before the year came to a close, no fewer than 10 county alums had already committed to Division I-A (FBS) programs, with several more unquestionably to follow. One soon-to-be is Jenkins, who headlined the county's first nationally televised game, a 42-21 victory over DeMatha Oct. 2 on ESPN2. While Jenkins grabbed the headlines, it was teammate Caleb Porzel, a Maryland commit, who stole the show with three rushing touchdowns.
But the more things change, the more they stay the same. So when you hear Dick Clark ring in the New Year for the 37th time in a row, just know that 2009 will again bring stories of greatness, redemption, dominance and broken records over 365 days.
Even if it is only the "International Year of Natural Fibres."
