Brookville’s swimming coach wasn’t sure what to expect from his girls swimming team coming into the year after losing some key members of last year’s team. After being knocked off by Jefferson Forest at the Seminole District meet, the Bees rebounded to repeat as the Region III champions and that is why Brookville’s Hank Reed was selected as the News & Advance’s girls swimming coach of the year.

Few could have predicted Jefferson Forest freshman Susanna White would break the Group AA state meet record in the 100 breaststroke at George Mason University’s Freedom Aquatic Center in Manassas.

Jefferson Forest second-year swim coach Jann Brown never swam in high school. Her school in Pennsylvania only had a boys team, but she went on to Penn State where she enjoyed a career in synchronized swimming.

Jefferson Forest’s Travis Stauder had zeroed in on a goal for his season. He wanted to break Scott Thacker’s school record in the 100-yard breast stroke. Stauder accomplished that goal and he couldn’t have done it at a better time as set the record at the Group AA state meet. That was just one of the reasons that Stauder was selected the News & Advance’s male Swimmer of the Year.

Appomattox High School football coach Jeremy Haymore, who led the Raiders to an 8-3 record and Region B playoff berth and was selected as The News & Advance all-area coach of the year in his second season, resigned recently for unspecified personal reasons.

Many of the area’s brightest track and field stars came out and shined brightly Friday night at Brookville for the second Lynchburg Elite Invitational. It was run on the newly dedicated John O. Vasvary Track & Field Facility, named for Brookville’s retiring athletic director.

Holy Cross senior shortstop Kaity Harrison and Liberty Christian Academy freshman pitcher Killian Harrison had a little sibling rivalry going on in Thursday’s doubleheader at LCA.

Brookville leadoff batter Kristina Finamore has tremendous speed out of the box, which makes it almost impossible to throw her out when she gets the ball down with a left-handed bunt to the third-base side.

FOREST — Jefferson Forest senior midfielder Timothy Bullock became the first local recruit in several seasons for Liberty University coach Jeff Alder, signing a partial scholarship to play for the Flames’ men’s soccer team starting next fall.

APPOMATTOX — Guarding a half-game lead in the Dogwood District, Appomattox’s baseball team put together its best all-around game of the season in Friday night’s 6-2 victory over second-place William Campbell.

After a month-long search for Scott Abell’s successor, and a whirlwind week of interviews, Amherst High School named Cecil Phillips as its new football coach, a move approved at Thursday night’s school board meeting.

On Thursday night the Amherst County School Board approved Cecil Phillips of King’s Fork High School in Suffolk. Phillips has worked as head football coach at King’s Fork since 2004.

Visiting Jefferson Forest used three extra base hits to power its way past Heritage in a key Seminole Distinct baseball clash on Wednesday.

In soccer, unless you’re the goalkeeper, it’s illegal to touch the ball with your hands in the field of play.

Amherst’s junior LaCear Hubbard has been at the forefront of a resurgent girls track program under second-year coach Lance Carter.

FOREST — With members of Jefferson Forest’s boys soccer team providing continuous Brazilian-style percussion from the bleachers, the Cavaliers’ girls finally found their rhythm late in the first half of Friday night’s showdown with Staunton River.

Virginia Episcopal School goalkeeper Sarah Gencarelli came out of the cage with confidence, the ball cradled in the net of her stick with the Bishops and host E.C. Glass knotted at 13 in overtime.

Pending final approval from the Virginia High School League’s executive committee in early May, both E.C. Glass’s request to be reclassified as a Group AA school and placed in the Seminole District and Staunton River’s appeal to move to the Blue Ridge District will go into effect in the fall of 2009.

NARUNA — In a duel between defending state softball champions, William Campbell came out of its hitting slump and exacted a measure of revenge against Holy Cross with an error-free 3-0 non-district victory Monday at home.

APPOMATTOX — Runs, of any kind, are precious commodities when the Dogwood District’s softball elites square off.

FOREST — This is the fourth consecutive season Jefferson Forest senior Tyler Johnston has played second fiddle to Josh Ranowsky in the Cavaliers’ boys tennis singles lineup.

If E.C. Glass senior Caroline Gough handles adversity better than most girls her age, it’s because she’s been through plenty of it.

John Vasvary, athletic director for Brookville High School, has been named AA Activities Administrator of the Year by the Virginia Interscholastic Athletic Administrators Association.

BEDFORD — Liberty High’s softball team put together a two-out rally in the bottom of the sixth against Brookville, scoring the winning run without hitting the ball out of the infield, Friday night at home.
The Minettes improved to 6-0, 3-0 in Seminole District play, with their 3-2 win over the Bees.

The spring sports season was in full bloom this past Wednesday, on a beautiful afternoon at E.C. Glass High, with the campus engulfed in a hubbub of athletic activities.

A 7-1 triumph on its home turf inspired E.C. Glass’s girls soccer players to do some dancing in the rain on Thursday night.

Lynchburg United Soccer club director Steve Senna recently called E.C. Glass senior midfielder Hodges Berry “the best he’s ever seen for a high school player at heading the ball,” Hodges’ father and Hilltoppers coach Chip Berry said.

A roundup of area girls’ soccer teams.

Prep Athletes of the week

FOREST — Some might say senior captain Brigid Benincasa has it easy playing center midfielder on Jefferson Forest’s girls soccer team, feeding a trio of forwards — Brittany Gallagher, Taylor Duff and Cameron DeWitt — who netted 65 goals last season, and supported by a defensive line that is constantly alerting her to oncoming attackers.