Park View’s Stunning Fall

[SpartanOfYore]

Last night, in a matchup of 0–8 teams, the Tigers of Independence beat the Patriots of Park View (Sterling) 88-8. It was the first football victory in school history for Independence, which just opened this fall in Loudoun County.

Despite Park View’s well-documented recent struggles with fielding a football team, this result is still stunning to me. Exactly how bad must Park View be to lose to a previously-winless first-year team by a score of 88-8?! Prior to last night, the most points Independence had scored was 42, with an average of 26.8. The fewest the Tigers had allowed was 27, on two occasions.

The purpose of this post is not to mock Park View’s players or program. Maybe the Patriots’ situation should serve as a cautionary tale. In 1988, Park View was undefeated state champions in Division 4. For the next twenty years, the Patriots were a fixture among the state’s top programs. I still include their 1999 team among the five best I’ve ever seen Salem play. PV went 10-2 in 2007, and had their last winning record (to date), at 8-4, two years later.

Now, the Patriots are working on a twenty-five game losing streak - not including last year. Prior to this current streak, they had lost thirty-eight of forty-two games, going back to the beginning of the 2012 season. In the space of less than a decade, Park View has gone from a model of success and consistency to an unmitigated disaster.

Again - no insult intended to the Park View kids and coaches who are out there this year, trying to turn things around. But, facts are facts, scores are scores, and records are records. I guess I’m wondering how such a dramatic fall from grace happens in the first place. Was it a unique set of circumstances that created the perfect storm in Ashburn? Or could this happen literally anywhere? Is this indeed a cautionary tale for all of the powerhouse programs out there across the Old Dominion?

 

[Lafayette]

I lived in Sterling from 1986- 1994 and remember their teams well. The downfall is the result of the population explosion in Loudoun county in the 90’s and beyond creating huge number of homes west of Sterling in Ashburn and west to Leesburg and beyond and off of Rt 7 in Loudoun in huge Cascades development (my last address prior to Williamsburg). This eclipsed the older smaller homes prevelant in most of the Sterling district. Adding to that all the coaches knew and saw this and all went to Stonebridge HS and others. It was a perfect storm of upscale development further west and the coaching pool following it. Any county subject to massive growth over a fairly short period will experience issues as multiple HS crop up where one only a few existed before and the new areas draw the people and a lot of the talent.

 

[SpartanOfYore]

I lived in Sterling from 1986- 1994 and remember their teams well. The downfall is the result of the population explosion in Loudoun county in the 90’s and beyond creating huge number of homes west of Sterling in Ashburn and west to Leesburg and beyond and off of Rt 7 in Loudoun in huge Cascades development (my last address prior to Williamsburg). This eclipsed the older smaller homes prevelant in most of the Sterling district. Adding to that all the coaches knew and saw this and all went to Stonebridge HS and others. It was a perfect storm of upscale development further west and the coaching pool following it. Any county subject to massive growth over a fairly short period will experience issues as multiple HS crop up where one only a few existed before and the new areas draw the people and a lot of the talent.

Thanks for the response. Yes, I recall that you used to live up there. I can’t even begin to wrap my head around the population explosion in Loudoun County. John Champe went from Class 3 to Class 6 in about six years, and another new high school, Lightridge, is opening up about a mile down the road next fall. I think that will be seventeen high schools in Loudoun County. Living in the relatively sleepy hamlet of Salem all my life, I can’t begin to imagine what constantly coping with all the people in places like Loudoun and Fairfax counties must be like, on a daily basis. Fairfax has a Class 6 school two miles from another Class 6 school, which is two miles from another Class 6 school, and so on.

Your explanation makes sense. I guess Park View is completely starting over from scratch. However, it makes me wonder about what kind of developmental programs they had in place, the rec leagues and middle schools. It seems like Park View must have had some good developmental structure in place for those two decades that they had a great high school program. That alone could have kept the Patriots from falling to the wretched depths to which they’ve plummeted. They wouldn’t still be among the state’s best, but they wouldn’t be reeling off losses in streaks of 20 and 30 at a time, either. Did that structure collapse when the exodus of coaching and playing talent occurred, or is there just a complete vacuum of said talent now?

 

[bceagle47]

Lower Loudoun Football is the feeder system for the Sterling schools (PV, Dominion, and Potomac Falls). The Sterling Park community “aged” out and the demographics changed. Families moving into Loudoun are moving into the new communities everywhere else. Many Sterling Park residents stayed but their children grew up and are raising their kids in these new communities. Many of the new families moving into Sterling Park are Hispanic and their kids have no familiarity with football. Getting those kids out has been difficult but, Coach Wilde is working very hard to do that. Many former PV grads feel your pain and want to support the rebuild but, they work outside of education and don’t coach. All of their kids go to the other schools (mostly west of Sterling). Potomac Falls and Dominion have some newer communities or have some areas of affluence which make their athletic programs more sustainable. PV is stuck between a rock and hard place. They have the same number of kids as the other Loudoun schools but, the kids don’t play football, basketball, or baseball. PV was also a title 9 school and parents moving into Loudoun evaluate those things. The Principal at PV is awesome and is doing great things there. The teachers are good too. I hope Coach Wilde sticks it out there and is getting his kids into competitive 7v7’s and THUD camps. They have a really nice weight room, field house and field. They have a lot of the things the good Loudoun schools have except the kids. Some of the talented kids they do have move in 8th grade to be part of the more successful programs in the county. Every time I go out with my childhood friends the subject always comes up and it does bother them.

 

[SpartanOfYore]

What about Broad Run? They’ve been playing football since 1969, and for decades, it was just Broad Run and Park View in the Sterling-Ashburn area. Not only has Broad Run avoided the precipitous decline that struck Park View, the Spartans have managed to ascend to the top. In fact, Broad Run’s rise seems to coincide with Park View’s fall. Did Broad Run somehow manage to avoid the westward migration and demographics shift that killed PV football and other sports, or have they benefited from those factors?

 

[bceagle47]

When I moved to Ashburn in 1990 there was nothing there except corn fields. New communities continue to pop up in and around Ashburn and these communities range from multi-million dollar houses to section 8 housing. The schools are diverse in every way. Ashburn youth football (although shrinking in terms of numbers) is still filled with talented athletes and coaches who often volunteer to coach at their kids HS when they come of age. BR, SB, and Briar Woods are doing well and attract talented coaches from around the County.

 

[falcettik]

Lower Loudoun Football is the feeder system for the Sterling schools (PV, Dominion, and Potomac Falls). The Sterling Park community “aged” out and the demographics changed. Families moving into Loudoun are moving into the new communities everywhere else. Many Sterling Park residents stayed but their children grew up and are raising their kids in these new communities. Many of the new families moving into Sterling Park are Hispanic and their kids have no familiarity with football. Getting those kids out has been difficult but, Coach Wilde is working very hard to do that. Many former PV grads feel your pain and want to support the rebuild but, they work outside of education and don’t coach. All of their kids go to the other schools (mostly west of Sterling). Potomac Falls and Dominion have some newer communities or have some areas of affluence which make their athletic programs more sustainable. PV is stuck between a rock and hard place. They have the same number of kids as the other Loudoun schools but, the kids don’t play football, basketball, or baseball. PV was also a title 9 school and parents moving into Loudoun evaluate those things. The Principal at PV is awesome and is doing great things there. The teachers are good too. I hope Coach Wilde sticks it out there and is getting his kids into competitive 7v7’s and THUD camps. They have a really nice weight room, field house and field. They have a lot of the things the good Loudoun schools have except the kids. Some of the talented kids they do have move in 8th grade to be part of the more successful programs in the county. Every time I go out with my childhood friends the subject always comes up and it does bother them.

bceagle47 - Bingo! extremely well written and knowledgeable post. You hit it on the head on numerous points. Unfortunately, exactly what you spell out is the exact same reason that the Fairfax County schools closer in, the ones that used to be dominant, are no longer the same programs. I have lived in western Fairfax for 19 years now and, like it or not, the same thing is starting to happen out in the western part of the county as the Gainesville/western PW County and Loudon County areas continue to grow. It just is what it is as demographics change, but the Class 4 and below schools just don't see the changes in their areas because most of those communities either don't grow much, or if they do it is on a much, much slower scale.

 

[otnorot]

Tough for Park View to get traction in any sport other than boys soccer playing in a tough district. One thing that helps the weaker Fairfax athletic programs a lot is being grouped together in the National District, where they can play teams of a similar level and avoid getting thrashed by the powerhouses. Park View has no such luxury in the Dulles.

Football they are going to have to play a similar schedule to TJ in order to get some wins. Maybe they can build from there. Or hire a coach with connections who can bring in players through school choice.

 

[aw19752]

Lower Loudoun Football is the feeder system for the Sterling schools (PV, Dominion, and Potomac Falls). The Sterling Park community “aged” out and the demographics changed. Families moving into Loudoun are moving into the new communities everywhere else. Many Sterling Park residents stayed but their children grew up and are raising their kids in these new communities. Many of the new families moving into Sterling Park are Hispanic and their kids have no familiarity with football. Getting those kids out has been difficult but, Coach Wilde is working very hard to do that. Many former PV grads feel your pain and want to support the rebuild but, they work outside of education and don’t coach. All of their kids go to the other schools (mostly west of Sterling). Potomac Falls and Dominion have some newer communities or have some areas of affluence which make their athletic programs more sustainable. PV is stuck between a rock and hard place. They have the same number of kids as the other Loudoun schools but, the kids don’t play football, basketball, or baseball. PV was also a title 9 school and parents moving into Loudoun evaluate those things. The Principal at PV is awesome and is doing great things there. The teachers are good too. I hope Coach Wilde sticks it out there and is getting his kids into competitive 7v7’s and THUD camps. They have a really nice weight room, field house and field. They have a lot of the things the good Loudoun schools have except the kids. Some of the talented kids they do have move in 8th grade to be part of the more successful programs in the county. Every time I go out with my childhood friends the subject always comes up and it does bother them.

Good explanation

 

[aw19752]

Tough for Park View to get traction in any sport other than boys soccer playing in a tough district. One thing that helps the weaker Fairfax athletic programs a lot is being grouped together in the National District, where they can play teams of a similar level and avoid getting thrashed by the powerhouses. Park View has no such luxury in the Dulles.

Football they are going to have to play a similar schedule to TJ in order to get some wins. Maybe they can build from there. Or hire a coach with connections who can bring in players through school choice.

School choice is another huge issue with Park View. With their current situation why would a middle school kid with talent consider?