Flashback Friday: Sherando's 1996 football team continued a spectacular run
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Members of the 1996 Sherando football team will always wonder what might have happened if they didn’t have to play in “ankle-deep” mud in the Group AA, Division 4 state title game on Dec. 7 of that year.
What they don’t have to ponder is their special place in history.
Since the Virginia High School League instituted a playoff system for each of its classes in 1971, only three of the five area high schools have played in a state championship game, and only two schools have played in more than one.
Only one area school has played in back-to-back state championship games — Sherando, in 1995 and 1996. And while the Warriors didn’t win either one, the fact that they made it to two straight title games took remarkable effort and determination. Sherando won a combined 22 games over those two years. There are eight other instances in area history of teams winning at least that many games over two seasons. But none of them made back-to-back title games.
The 1996 Warriors had their backs against the wall at 4-2, but they ripped off seven straight wins and nearly won the first team state title of any kind in school history. They lost 20-12 to Salem at Victory Stadium in Roanoke in a hard-fought title game.
For a school that only opened in 1993, two state title games in the first four years wasn’t too shabby.
“Even if we didn’t win, we did go to two in a row,” said Kelley Washington, a senior on that team who went on to an eight-year NFL career as a wide receiver, in a phone interview. “Not many teams, not many players, can say they were able to experience that.
“I can remember those playoff games, and those were some of the best times, not just for myself and my family, but the whole community. People were just coming from everywhere, watching Sherando football. It was awesome. Every player who played on those teams, they can all tell you, those were some of the best times of our lives. We always cherished those moments together — the bus rides, the meetings, coming out on the field and seeing the community. It was just an unbelievable time in our lives.”
The stage for the Warriors’ 1996 season was set up by a pretty unbelievable 1995 campaign. Heading into 1995, Frederick County had not experienced a winning football season since James Wood went 5-4-1 in 1981. In just its third year as a school, Sherando not only had a winning season (11-3) after going 4-6 in 1994, but almost won it all. The Warriors fell 56-12 in the Group AA, Division 4 title game to Amherst County, the state runner-up in 1994.
The 1996 team was without more than half of the starters from the 1995 team, including their two leading rushers and receivers and most of the people on the offensive and defensive lines.
But the returning players knew what it took to reach the ultimate game, and they wanted nothing more than to get back.
“For us, anything short of making it back to the championship wouldn’t have been acceptable,” said Adam Orndorff, a senior left guard who began the year as Sherando’s only returning starter on the offensive line. “Our freshman year, we were 0-10. A couple years later, we’re in the state championship. The 1995 season showed us that we could make it to the state championship game, and that’s where we needed to set our level of expectations.”
Arthur said that the team had great leadership, and it all started with the team’s third-year head coach, Walter Barr. Previously, Barr’s accomplishments included guiding James Wood to the 1970 Group AAA state championship and Shepherd College to the school’s first postseason appearance in 1983.
“He was so tough mentally,” said Washington, who was a quarterback in high school and earned Group AA First Team All-State honors as a senior. “He taught us discipline that prepared us not only for football, but also for life.”
Barr led a team that didn’t waste any time showing that its wing-T offense was more explosive than the 1995 version.
Against three non-Northwestern District teams that the Warriors didn’t play at all in 1995 (the district was reduced from 11 to eight teams prior to the 1996 season), Sherando racked up 138 points and 1,166 yards to start the year 3-0. The Warriors defeated Spotswood 49-32, Martinsburg (W.Va.) 48-21 and Harrisonburg 41-14.
The 1996 Warriors would score at least 34 points nine times en route to averaging 31 points and 335 yards per game. The 1995 Warriors averaged 20.6 points and reached 34 points just twice.
Sherando emphasized the run, and its outstanding attack was led by sophomore fullback Terrence Foreman in the first half of the season (705 yards and 68 points before suffering a broken wrist in the eighth game against Handley; he would help the team on defense and offense in the playoffs) and junior Daniel Baltimore (more than 800 yards for the season) in the second half of the year.
But the Warriors were more comfortable showcasing the passing attack than they were in 1995 thanks to the development of Washington. As a junior, Washington threw for 929 yards through the team’s first 13 games. But as a senior he threw for 1,887 yards, completing 101 of 183 passes (55.2 percent) and recording 20 TD passes.
The development of junior wide receiver Bo Arthur played a big role in the team’s passing growth as well. Arthur — who also played safety and cornerback — emerged as a starting wide receiver at the end of the 1995 season. In 1996, nearly 60 percent of Sherando’s passing yards went to Arthur, whose 1,130 yards are still the single-season record for the school. Arthur also had 58 catches and 11 touchdown catches. After the season, he was named to the All-State Second Team.
“Coach Barr had the confidence in Kelley and I to be able to let the ball go,” said Arthur, who now works as a fifth-grade teacher at Myakka River Elementary School in Port Charlotte, Fla. “I think Kelley and I were able to prove to him through practice and him watching us that we could go out there and be successful throwing the ball. We started throwing more and more throughout the season.”
And an offensive line that came together quickly helped Sherando operate like a well-oiled machine.
In addition to Orndorff, the line also included junior right tackle Chris Grimm, junior right guard Mike Castelli, senior center Ricky Feathers and junior left tackle Josh Nadolny. A starter in 1995, Feathers was initially told he would miss the entire season because of a concussion suffered in a car accident over the summer, but he was able to come back for the fourth game. Senior Ryan Oravec stepped in to replace him, though Oravec was lost to a broken leg after three games. Junior tight end Scott Taylor and Arthur, who also played some at tight end, were other key blockers.
Orndorff — who would play on Barr’s first Shenandoah University football team in 2000 — and Feathers were Second Team Region II and First Team District selections, and Taylor was Second Team All-Area.
“The offensive line is a team within itself,” said Orndorff, who is now a Warren County High School physical education and health teacher and a 14-year assistant with the Wildcats’ football team. “We had a lot of young guys who had been around on the team, but hadn’t really had the opportunity to start. We came together really quick, quicker than most people might have expected. We worked out the whole offseason together, and just tried to stay close.”
Sherando’s defense was a formidable group as well. Current Sherando activities coordinator Jason Barbe was the defensive coordinator of the group that had a 4-4 look and played a lot of six-man fronts. Sherando allowed 14.9 points and 247.9 yards per game.
Second Team All-State senior linebacker Brad Payton was seemingly everywhere during both title-game runs. After taking part in 199 tackles in 1995, Payton racked up 205 tackles in 1996. Those remain the two highest single-season tackle numbers in school history.
Barbe said defensive tackles Grayson Hamman (a 6-1, 265-pound sophomore) and John Edwards (a 6-0, 300-pound junior, Second Team all-district) — who grew up next to each other on Germain Street in Stephens City — helped make a lot of those Payton tackles possible by taking on double teams and allowing Payton to roam the width of the field.
The defense also included senior defensive end Jon Farrell (16 sacks overall, 98 tackles in the regular season, First Team All-District); Baltimore at linebacker (Second Team All-District, 86 tackles in the regular season), senior cornerback Sean Burns (Second Team All-Region) and Washington (Second Team All-Region). A safety, Barbe said Washington only played 20 percent of the time on defense to save his body for offense. He intercepted nine passes.
“It was a strong, strong defensive unit all the way across the board,” Barbe said. “That team really understood what we wanted to do defensively. We very seldom signaled a defensive call in. For the most part, during the week, we installed what we wanted to do defensively and then Brad would put us where we wanted to be based on how the opponent came out of the huddle.”
Sherando also had strong special teams. Washington was a First Team All-Region punter (school-record 38.6 average) and sophomore kicker Ben Whitacre went on to play for Towson University.
But after a dominant display in the non-district schedule, the Warriors got off to a rough start in Northwestern District play. They opened with a 7-0 loss to Fauquier (Arthur missed the game to attend his uncle’s funeral). The Warriors had nine possessions end in Fauquier territory, turning it over three times.
Sherando rebounded with a 39-7 win over Warren County, but then lost 20-9 to undefeated Loudoun County at Arrowhead Stadium. The Raiders and their wing-T offense racked up 225 rushing yards on 51 carries.
Barr said he thought his team was thinking too much about returning to the playoffs during the season’s first six games, but the Loudoun County loss took care of that mindset.
Back then, only four teams from each region made the playoffs. At 4-2, Sherando knew it had to win its remaining four games if it wanted to participate in the postseason.
“We just kind of reevaluated ourselves after that,” Orndorff said. “It was kind of a wake-up all for all of us. This isn’t just going to be a walk in the park. We have to get back to work and get things done.”
Sherando proceeded to do so in both dominant and clutch fashion.
The Warriors ripped Loudoun Valley 34-0, setting up a crucial game at the Handley Bowl.
Through three quarters, the Judges (4-3) were up 13-0. With the score 13-6, Payton blocked a punt and Washington connected with Arthur for a 25-yard TD pass on the next play, and Whitacre’s extra point made it 13-13. But with 4:13 to play, Handley regained the lead at 16-13 on a 32-yard field goal.
Following the kickoff, Sherando took over at its own 23-yard line. The drive lasted 14 plays and 77 yards, but because of lost yardage Washington threw for 78 on 5-of-9 passing. Baltimore finished off the drive with a two-yard TD run with 25 seconds left, and Whitacre’s extra point made it 20-16, which turned out to be the final score.
“I think that’s one of those drives that you remember for the rest of your life,” Orndorff said. “You line up and you make a decision as a team right there that this is what’s going to happen — we’re going to score, and the game’s going to be over.
“That’s just kind of what was bred into us. We never felt like we were out of a game.”
“We were all fighting for our lives,” said Arthur, who contributed 16- and 14-yard receptions on the drive. “I remember Kelley was out of breath because he had taken some big hits, and he just kept saying, ‘We’ve got to keep pushing. We’ve got to execute this drive.’ And we did.”
Sherando won another critical game the following week, this time without the drama. Against a 7-1 Liberty team that could have clinched a Region II, Division 4 playoff spot with a win, the Warriors rolled 35-13.
Sherando (8-2, 5-2 district) then closed the regular season with a 40-6 win over James Wood that gave the Warriors the No. 3 seed in the Region II, Division 4 playoffs.
The Warriors opened with Western Albemarle, which took a 9-1 record and a nine-game winning streak into the regional semifinals held in Crozet. Sherando jumped out to a 20-0 lead after one quarter and led 33-14 at the half in a 45-26 win. Sherando had five takeaways and didn’t turn the ball over once. Baltimore had 166 yards and four TDs rushing.
That earned Sherando a rematch with top-seeded Loudoun County (11-0) in the Region II final, this time in Leesburg. The Raiders boasted three backs, including District Offensive Player of the Year Stevie Jackson, who recorded between 986 and 1,113 rushing yards, and were averaging 33.4 points per game.
Jackson wound up not playing against Sherando because of an injury suffered the week before. The players who were on the field were swallowed up by the Warriors — Loudoun County managed only 93 rushing yards on 39 attempts, 111 total yards, and five first downs.
Because of that lack of offensive success, the Raiders elected to go for it on fourth-and-1 from their own 38 with a 14-12 lead with about 10 minutes left after quarterback James Wynn had been stuffed on a third-and-1 quarterback sneak on the previous play.
Sherando made the call to go with its “Comanche stack” on the next play, in which the two tackles line up over center and the inside linebackers fill the gaps. Farrell and Edwards teamed up to stop Loudoun County on a fullback dive for no gain, giving the Warriors the ball with 9:55 left.
Six plays later, on fourth-and-7 from the 22-yard line, Washington (14 of 23 for 205 yards) connected with Burns for a touchdown pass after Burns signaled to Washington to throw a post-fade route. The TD gave the Warriors an 18-14 lead halfway through the fourth quarter. (Burns, a wingback who had only nine catches during the regular season, had eight catches for 130 yards that day against Loudoun County.) Washington’s two-point run gave Sherando a 20-14 lead, and the defense closed it out from there.
“That was an incredible defensive challenge we had that day,” Barbe said. “That team could run the ball as well as anybody in the state. We really stepped up big defensively in that game.”
“That game was a battle,” Orndorff said. “To win that was an unreal feeling. We felt like if we could beat them, we were going to go to the big dance and we had a shot to take it all.”
In the Group AA Division 4 state semifinals at Arrowhead Stadium, Sherando certainly played like a potential state champion. The Warriors dominated York 42-12. Washington completed 8 of 12 passes for 166 yards and two TDs, with Arthur accounting for both those TDs and 158 yards on seven catches. Baltimore had 88 yards and two TDs rushing.
That set up a state final matchup with Salem (11-2). In 1995, the Spartans nearly knocked off eventual state champion Amherst in the regional finals, falling 36-29 in overtime. Salem averaged 29.2 points per game and ran the ball about 75 percent time while using four running backs. The Spartans allowed just 8.1 points per game
Simply put, Salem was hard enough to score on, and the rain that fell steadily until the sun came out late in the third quarter at Victory Stadium made it even harder. The game was a muddy mess, and through three quarters Sherando found itself down 14-6.
But early in the fourth quarter, Sherando had a chance to make it a brand-new game. The Warriors had third-and-goal from the 1-yard line, but Foreman was stopped for no gain. On fourth down, Washington faked to Foreman, then pitched to the wingback Burns to the right. Burns was forced inside by pursuit and was eventually dropped for a four-yard loss, resulting in a turnover on downs.
Salem then marched 95 yards down the field for a touchdown that put it up 20-6. The Spartans rushed for 264 yards on 46 carries.
Washington connected with Payton — who started at tight end for an injured Taylor the last two games after not having played offense all year — for a three-yard TD pass to make it 20-12. After a failed onside kick attempt, Sherando forced a punt, but the Warriors got the ball at their own 1 with just 1:30 to go. Four plays later, at the Warriors’ own 15-yard line, Washington was intercepted. Sherando had four turnovers while Salem had none.
Sherando coaches and players emphasized that both teams had to play in the same conditions, and lauded Salem’s performance. The Warriors just wish the conditions were different because they relied more on misdirection and more on their passing game than Salem did.
“Kelley and Bo were just a half-second off on what could have been really, really, big plays for us,” Barbe said. “Their timing was thrown off just barely by the field conditions. I really believe on a fast track, we would have been state champions.”
“We were playing in a mud bowl,” Arthur said. “The mud was coming up over our shoes the whole entire time. If I could do it all over again and play on a field that didn’t hinder our ability to throw ...”
“If you ask any of us on that team, we believe we were the best team in the state that year,” Orndorff said. “But in the end, the results are the results. I think given the opportunity to go back and play on a dry field, every one of us would do it in a heartbeat.”
They didn’t win a title, but Barbe said the 1995 and 1996 seasons set the tone for Sherando’s future success. In the last 25 years, the Warriors have 17 playoff appearances, seven region titles and four championship game appearances.
“That group really busted their tails,” Barbe said. “What they brought to this community, I don’t think will ever go away.”
“Those teams had great attitudes,” said Barr, who would leave Sherando after a 12-1 record and a state semifinal appearance in 1997. “It was their goal to be the best they could be, and as it turned out, that is what took them so far.”
The players will always cherish the accomplishment of playing in back-to-back title games, and the memories associated with it.
“That’s a big deal, and I just wish we could have won one of them,” Arthur said. “That was a special time, and I still think about it to this day.
“All three years I played at Sherando, the spirit we had from the community and the fans really helped us out. It was cool to always see our stadium sold out. Even when we traveled, it was just great. They were like the 12th man.”
While Orndorff wouldn’t mind playing that 1996 state title game on a dry field, he said Barr taught his players that just because you deserve something doesn’t mean you’re going to get it.
What Orndorff also took from that year is believing anything is possible based on your mindset and effort, something he tells his son Logan Schultz, a junior Warren County football player.
“Nobody ever thought a third-year school could go to a state title game, and nobody outside the program ever thought that after graduating everybody that we did, that we could repeat that, and we did,” Orndorff said. “It’s a testament to the way we were brought up through the program that anything’s possible if you’re willing to work for it.”
https://www.winchesterstar.com/content/tncms/live/#1
Members of the 1996 Sherando football team will always wonder what might have happened if they didn’t have to play in “ankle-deep” mud in the Group AA, Division 4 state title game on Dec. 7 of that year.
What they don’t have to ponder is their special place in history.
Since the Virginia High School League instituted a playoff system for each of its classes in 1971, only three of the five area high schools have played in a state championship game, and only two schools have played in more than one.
Only one area school has played in back-to-back state championship games — Sherando, in 1995 and 1996. And while the Warriors didn’t win either one, the fact that they made it to two straight title games took remarkable effort and determination. Sherando won a combined 22 games over those two years. There are eight other instances in area history of teams winning at least that many games over two seasons. But none of them made back-to-back title games.
The 1996 Warriors had their backs against the wall at 4-2, but they ripped off seven straight wins and nearly won the first team state title of any kind in school history. They lost 20-12 to Salem at Victory Stadium in Roanoke in a hard-fought title game.
For a school that only opened in 1993, two state title games in the first four years wasn’t too shabby.
“Even if we didn’t win, we did go to two in a row,” said Kelley Washington, a senior on that team who went on to an eight-year NFL career as a wide receiver, in a phone interview. “Not many teams, not many players, can say they were able to experience that.
“I can remember those playoff games, and those were some of the best times, not just for myself and my family, but the whole community. People were just coming from everywhere, watching Sherando football. It was awesome. Every player who played on those teams, they can all tell you, those were some of the best times of our lives. We always cherished those moments together — the bus rides, the meetings, coming out on the field and seeing the community. It was just an unbelievable time in our lives.”
The stage for the Warriors’ 1996 season was set up by a pretty unbelievable 1995 campaign. Heading into 1995, Frederick County had not experienced a winning football season since James Wood went 5-4-1 in 1981. In just its third year as a school, Sherando not only had a winning season (11-3) after going 4-6 in 1994, but almost won it all. The Warriors fell 56-12 in the Group AA, Division 4 title game to Amherst County, the state runner-up in 1994.
The 1996 team was without more than half of the starters from the 1995 team, including their two leading rushers and receivers and most of the people on the offensive and defensive lines.
But the returning players knew what it took to reach the ultimate game, and they wanted nothing more than to get back.
“For us, anything short of making it back to the championship wouldn’t have been acceptable,” said Adam Orndorff, a senior left guard who began the year as Sherando’s only returning starter on the offensive line. “Our freshman year, we were 0-10. A couple years later, we’re in the state championship. The 1995 season showed us that we could make it to the state championship game, and that’s where we needed to set our level of expectations.”
Arthur said that the team had great leadership, and it all started with the team’s third-year head coach, Walter Barr. Previously, Barr’s accomplishments included guiding James Wood to the 1970 Group AAA state championship and Shepherd College to the school’s first postseason appearance in 1983.
“He was so tough mentally,” said Washington, who was a quarterback in high school and earned Group AA First Team All-State honors as a senior. “He taught us discipline that prepared us not only for football, but also for life.”
Barr led a team that didn’t waste any time showing that its wing-T offense was more explosive than the 1995 version.
Against three non-Northwestern District teams that the Warriors didn’t play at all in 1995 (the district was reduced from 11 to eight teams prior to the 1996 season), Sherando racked up 138 points and 1,166 yards to start the year 3-0. The Warriors defeated Spotswood 49-32, Martinsburg (W.Va.) 48-21 and Harrisonburg 41-14.
The 1996 Warriors would score at least 34 points nine times en route to averaging 31 points and 335 yards per game. The 1995 Warriors averaged 20.6 points and reached 34 points just twice.
Sherando emphasized the run, and its outstanding attack was led by sophomore fullback Terrence Foreman in the first half of the season (705 yards and 68 points before suffering a broken wrist in the eighth game against Handley; he would help the team on defense and offense in the playoffs) and junior Daniel Baltimore (more than 800 yards for the season) in the second half of the year.
But the Warriors were more comfortable showcasing the passing attack than they were in 1995 thanks to the development of Washington. As a junior, Washington threw for 929 yards through the team’s first 13 games. But as a senior he threw for 1,887 yards, completing 101 of 183 passes (55.2 percent) and recording 20 TD passes.
The development of junior wide receiver Bo Arthur played a big role in the team’s passing growth as well. Arthur — who also played safety and cornerback — emerged as a starting wide receiver at the end of the 1995 season. In 1996, nearly 60 percent of Sherando’s passing yards went to Arthur, whose 1,130 yards are still the single-season record for the school. Arthur also had 58 catches and 11 touchdown catches. After the season, he was named to the All-State Second Team.
“Coach Barr had the confidence in Kelley and I to be able to let the ball go,” said Arthur, who now works as a fifth-grade teacher at Myakka River Elementary School in Port Charlotte, Fla. “I think Kelley and I were able to prove to him through practice and him watching us that we could go out there and be successful throwing the ball. We started throwing more and more throughout the season.”
And an offensive line that came together quickly helped Sherando operate like a well-oiled machine.
In addition to Orndorff, the line also included junior right tackle Chris Grimm, junior right guard Mike Castelli, senior center Ricky Feathers and junior left tackle Josh Nadolny. A starter in 1995, Feathers was initially told he would miss the entire season because of a concussion suffered in a car accident over the summer, but he was able to come back for the fourth game. Senior Ryan Oravec stepped in to replace him, though Oravec was lost to a broken leg after three games. Junior tight end Scott Taylor and Arthur, who also played some at tight end, were other key blockers.
Orndorff — who would play on Barr’s first Shenandoah University football team in 2000 — and Feathers were Second Team Region II and First Team District selections, and Taylor was Second Team All-Area.
“The offensive line is a team within itself,” said Orndorff, who is now a Warren County High School physical education and health teacher and a 14-year assistant with the Wildcats’ football team. “We had a lot of young guys who had been around on the team, but hadn’t really had the opportunity to start. We came together really quick, quicker than most people might have expected. We worked out the whole offseason together, and just tried to stay close.”
Sherando’s defense was a formidable group as well. Current Sherando activities coordinator Jason Barbe was the defensive coordinator of the group that had a 4-4 look and played a lot of six-man fronts. Sherando allowed 14.9 points and 247.9 yards per game.
Second Team All-State senior linebacker Brad Payton was seemingly everywhere during both title-game runs. After taking part in 199 tackles in 1995, Payton racked up 205 tackles in 1996. Those remain the two highest single-season tackle numbers in school history.
Barbe said defensive tackles Grayson Hamman (a 6-1, 265-pound sophomore) and John Edwards (a 6-0, 300-pound junior, Second Team all-district) — who grew up next to each other on Germain Street in Stephens City — helped make a lot of those Payton tackles possible by taking on double teams and allowing Payton to roam the width of the field.
The defense also included senior defensive end Jon Farrell (16 sacks overall, 98 tackles in the regular season, First Team All-District); Baltimore at linebacker (Second Team All-District, 86 tackles in the regular season), senior cornerback Sean Burns (Second Team All-Region) and Washington (Second Team All-Region). A safety, Barbe said Washington only played 20 percent of the time on defense to save his body for offense. He intercepted nine passes.
“It was a strong, strong defensive unit all the way across the board,” Barbe said. “That team really understood what we wanted to do defensively. We very seldom signaled a defensive call in. For the most part, during the week, we installed what we wanted to do defensively and then Brad would put us where we wanted to be based on how the opponent came out of the huddle.”
Sherando also had strong special teams. Washington was a First Team All-Region punter (school-record 38.6 average) and sophomore kicker Ben Whitacre went on to play for Towson University.
But after a dominant display in the non-district schedule, the Warriors got off to a rough start in Northwestern District play. They opened with a 7-0 loss to Fauquier (Arthur missed the game to attend his uncle’s funeral). The Warriors had nine possessions end in Fauquier territory, turning it over three times.
Sherando rebounded with a 39-7 win over Warren County, but then lost 20-9 to undefeated Loudoun County at Arrowhead Stadium. The Raiders and their wing-T offense racked up 225 rushing yards on 51 carries.
Barr said he thought his team was thinking too much about returning to the playoffs during the season’s first six games, but the Loudoun County loss took care of that mindset.
Back then, only four teams from each region made the playoffs. At 4-2, Sherando knew it had to win its remaining four games if it wanted to participate in the postseason.
“We just kind of reevaluated ourselves after that,” Orndorff said. “It was kind of a wake-up all for all of us. This isn’t just going to be a walk in the park. We have to get back to work and get things done.”
Sherando proceeded to do so in both dominant and clutch fashion.
The Warriors ripped Loudoun Valley 34-0, setting up a crucial game at the Handley Bowl.
Through three quarters, the Judges (4-3) were up 13-0. With the score 13-6, Payton blocked a punt and Washington connected with Arthur for a 25-yard TD pass on the next play, and Whitacre’s extra point made it 13-13. But with 4:13 to play, Handley regained the lead at 16-13 on a 32-yard field goal.
Following the kickoff, Sherando took over at its own 23-yard line. The drive lasted 14 plays and 77 yards, but because of lost yardage Washington threw for 78 on 5-of-9 passing. Baltimore finished off the drive with a two-yard TD run with 25 seconds left, and Whitacre’s extra point made it 20-16, which turned out to be the final score.
“I think that’s one of those drives that you remember for the rest of your life,” Orndorff said. “You line up and you make a decision as a team right there that this is what’s going to happen — we’re going to score, and the game’s going to be over.
“That’s just kind of what was bred into us. We never felt like we were out of a game.”
“We were all fighting for our lives,” said Arthur, who contributed 16- and 14-yard receptions on the drive. “I remember Kelley was out of breath because he had taken some big hits, and he just kept saying, ‘We’ve got to keep pushing. We’ve got to execute this drive.’ And we did.”
Sherando won another critical game the following week, this time without the drama. Against a 7-1 Liberty team that could have clinched a Region II, Division 4 playoff spot with a win, the Warriors rolled 35-13.
Sherando (8-2, 5-2 district) then closed the regular season with a 40-6 win over James Wood that gave the Warriors the No. 3 seed in the Region II, Division 4 playoffs.
The Warriors opened with Western Albemarle, which took a 9-1 record and a nine-game winning streak into the regional semifinals held in Crozet. Sherando jumped out to a 20-0 lead after one quarter and led 33-14 at the half in a 45-26 win. Sherando had five takeaways and didn’t turn the ball over once. Baltimore had 166 yards and four TDs rushing.
That earned Sherando a rematch with top-seeded Loudoun County (11-0) in the Region II final, this time in Leesburg. The Raiders boasted three backs, including District Offensive Player of the Year Stevie Jackson, who recorded between 986 and 1,113 rushing yards, and were averaging 33.4 points per game.
Jackson wound up not playing against Sherando because of an injury suffered the week before. The players who were on the field were swallowed up by the Warriors — Loudoun County managed only 93 rushing yards on 39 attempts, 111 total yards, and five first downs.
Because of that lack of offensive success, the Raiders elected to go for it on fourth-and-1 from their own 38 with a 14-12 lead with about 10 minutes left after quarterback James Wynn had been stuffed on a third-and-1 quarterback sneak on the previous play.
Sherando made the call to go with its “Comanche stack” on the next play, in which the two tackles line up over center and the inside linebackers fill the gaps. Farrell and Edwards teamed up to stop Loudoun County on a fullback dive for no gain, giving the Warriors the ball with 9:55 left.
Six plays later, on fourth-and-7 from the 22-yard line, Washington (14 of 23 for 205 yards) connected with Burns for a touchdown pass after Burns signaled to Washington to throw a post-fade route. The TD gave the Warriors an 18-14 lead halfway through the fourth quarter. (Burns, a wingback who had only nine catches during the regular season, had eight catches for 130 yards that day against Loudoun County.) Washington’s two-point run gave Sherando a 20-14 lead, and the defense closed it out from there.
“That was an incredible defensive challenge we had that day,” Barbe said. “That team could run the ball as well as anybody in the state. We really stepped up big defensively in that game.”
“That game was a battle,” Orndorff said. “To win that was an unreal feeling. We felt like if we could beat them, we were going to go to the big dance and we had a shot to take it all.”
In the Group AA Division 4 state semifinals at Arrowhead Stadium, Sherando certainly played like a potential state champion. The Warriors dominated York 42-12. Washington completed 8 of 12 passes for 166 yards and two TDs, with Arthur accounting for both those TDs and 158 yards on seven catches. Baltimore had 88 yards and two TDs rushing.
That set up a state final matchup with Salem (11-2). In 1995, the Spartans nearly knocked off eventual state champion Amherst in the regional finals, falling 36-29 in overtime. Salem averaged 29.2 points per game and ran the ball about 75 percent time while using four running backs. The Spartans allowed just 8.1 points per game
Simply put, Salem was hard enough to score on, and the rain that fell steadily until the sun came out late in the third quarter at Victory Stadium made it even harder. The game was a muddy mess, and through three quarters Sherando found itself down 14-6.
But early in the fourth quarter, Sherando had a chance to make it a brand-new game. The Warriors had third-and-goal from the 1-yard line, but Foreman was stopped for no gain. On fourth down, Washington faked to Foreman, then pitched to the wingback Burns to the right. Burns was forced inside by pursuit and was eventually dropped for a four-yard loss, resulting in a turnover on downs.
Salem then marched 95 yards down the field for a touchdown that put it up 20-6. The Spartans rushed for 264 yards on 46 carries.
Washington connected with Payton — who started at tight end for an injured Taylor the last two games after not having played offense all year — for a three-yard TD pass to make it 20-12. After a failed onside kick attempt, Sherando forced a punt, but the Warriors got the ball at their own 1 with just 1:30 to go. Four plays later, at the Warriors’ own 15-yard line, Washington was intercepted. Sherando had four turnovers while Salem had none.
Sherando coaches and players emphasized that both teams had to play in the same conditions, and lauded Salem’s performance. The Warriors just wish the conditions were different because they relied more on misdirection and more on their passing game than Salem did.
“Kelley and Bo were just a half-second off on what could have been really, really, big plays for us,” Barbe said. “Their timing was thrown off just barely by the field conditions. I really believe on a fast track, we would have been state champions.”
“We were playing in a mud bowl,” Arthur said. “The mud was coming up over our shoes the whole entire time. If I could do it all over again and play on a field that didn’t hinder our ability to throw ...”
“If you ask any of us on that team, we believe we were the best team in the state that year,” Orndorff said. “But in the end, the results are the results. I think given the opportunity to go back and play on a dry field, every one of us would do it in a heartbeat.”
They didn’t win a title, but Barbe said the 1995 and 1996 seasons set the tone for Sherando’s future success. In the last 25 years, the Warriors have 17 playoff appearances, seven region titles and four championship game appearances.
“That group really busted their tails,” Barbe said. “What they brought to this community, I don’t think will ever go away.”
“Those teams had great attitudes,” said Barr, who would leave Sherando after a 12-1 record and a state semifinal appearance in 1997. “It was their goal to be the best they could be, and as it turned out, that is what took them so far.”
The players will always cherish the accomplishment of playing in back-to-back title games, and the memories associated with it.
“That’s a big deal, and I just wish we could have won one of them,” Arthur said. “That was a special time, and I still think about it to this day.
“All three years I played at Sherando, the spirit we had from the community and the fans really helped us out. It was cool to always see our stadium sold out. Even when we traveled, it was just great. They were like the 12th man.”
While Orndorff wouldn’t mind playing that 1996 state title game on a dry field, he said Barr taught his players that just because you deserve something doesn’t mean you’re going to get it.
What Orndorff also took from that year is believing anything is possible based on your mindset and effort, something he tells his son Logan Schultz, a junior Warren County football player.
“Nobody ever thought a third-year school could go to a state title game, and nobody outside the program ever thought that after graduating everybody that we did, that we could repeat that, and we did,” Orndorff said. “It’s a testament to the way we were brought up through the program that anything’s possible if you’re willing to work for it.”
