Doug Doughty

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Top 100 recruits for 2008

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Some interesting family dynamics will be at play in the recruiting of Zach Thompson, a 6-foot-5, 240-pound junior from Stone Bridge High School, the Group AAA Division 5 state champion.

Thompson’s father, Mickey, is the Stone Bridge High School coach and a University of Virginia graduate. Thompson’s mother is a Virginia Tech graduate.

UVa recently became the first school to make a scholarship offer to the younger Thompson. However, before Thompson does anything, he wants to see what options are available for his 6-2, 205-pound twin brother, Patrick, the Stone Bridge quarterback.

“I don’t think Zach is going to do anything real soon,” Mickey Thompson said. “He’d like to see if there is a chance they can go to the same school.”

Mickey Thompson doesn’t know if Virginia will benefit from being the first school to offer Zach, “but when we went down to Charlottesville for the state-championship game, I think all the kids got excited about it,” he said.

“Honestly, this area is big into Tech.”

Thompson thinks that there are as many as six Division I-A prospects in his junior class, including his sons and defensive lineman David Wang, who committed to Virginia Tech shortly after getting an offer from the Hokies in September.

Wang’s older brother, Ed, starts at offensive tackle for the Hokies.

The top senior for Stone Bridge this year, Washington Post metro defensive player of the year Jeron Gouveia, has committed to Tech for 2008.

Mickey Thompson said the most heavily recruited of his juniors might be Brian Slay, a 6-3, 255-pound defensive end who played at Harrison High School in Kennesaw, Ga., as a sophomore.

Zach Thompson is prominent as a run-stopper in Stone Bridge’s 3-5 scheme, while Slay projects as more of an outside pass-rusher.

Coach Thompson also thinks he has a pair of I-A or I-AA prospects in 6-3, 195-pound linebacker Mike Olson and 5-11, 180-pound running back Daniel Allen, who had a sprained ankle this year.

Olson grew 3-4 inches in the past year and coaches are saying, "Wow, where did he come from?" Thompson said. “He’s a real find.”

Thompson has been coaching in the Loudoun County area for nearly 20 years and says that Virginia previously has offered only one of his players, defensive lineman Andrew Hoffman, when he was at Park View in Sterling.

Hoffman was a three-year starter at UVa before being drafted by the Cleveland Browns.

“It never seemed like they recruited our area that hard,” said Thompson, whose latest UVa contact has been assistant Wayne Lineburg, “but they’ve gotten a lot better.”

>> Thompson said that late offers have started to roll in for Stone Bridge wide receiver Ryan Moody, named first-team All-Group AAA after a monster senior year, Connecticut and Nebraska are the biggest names in the Moody sweepstakes.

THERE IS NO INDICATION that Kyle Long will play any sport other than baseball after signing with Florida State, but that didn’t prevent USA Today from naming Long to its All-America second team in football.

Long, a 6-foot-7, 285-pounder, played a variety of positions at St. Anne’s-Belfield in Charlottesville but was recognized by USA Today as an offensive lineman.

Long, brother of University of Virginia All-American Chris Long and son of NFL Hall of Famer Howie Long, was rated the No. 1 football prospect in Virginia last year among rising seniors and was named to SuperPrep’s preseason All-America team.

The list of the state’s top 25 juniors that appears in The Roanoke Times each Christmas usually goes through a major transformation in a year’s time. Of the 25 players named to the top juniors list in 2006, only 14 were among this season’s top 25 juniors.

Players who dropped from the top 25 included four quarterbacks – Casey Turner from Great Bridge, Matthew Hurdle from Highland Springs, Tommy Reamon Jr. from Gloucester and Justin Thorpe from Varina.

All four had respectable senior seasons, but the market wasn’t as great this year, with Virginia and Virginia Tech grooming a pair of 2007 quarterback signees, Peter Lalich at UVa and Tyrod Taylor at Tech.

Two quarterbacks from the state received national interest, E.J. Manuel from Bayside and Mike Glennon from Westfield. Both committed during the summer, Manuel to Florida State and Glennon to N.C. State.

GENERALLY SPEAKING, the top juniors list has become less speculative with the trend toward earlier offers from the colleges.

At one point, the junior list was little more than a recognition of the juniors who made the various all-state teams, with some of the better-known Timesland area underclassmen added to the mix.

Now, most of the state’s top juniors already have multiple Division I-A offers and some legitimate I-A prospects can’t crack the list.

Slay and Wang from Stone Bridge were Nos. 14 and 18 on that list but Zach Thompson could have been included, too. Other late cuts included Bethel quarterback Teddy Bacote, Hampton running back Tron Martinez, Centreville linebacker Mike Upham, Giles place-kicker Cody Journell, Chantilly running back Torrian Pace, Bayside defensive back William Marable and Lord Boretourt tight end Rodney Cooper.

CARL WINCKLER, WHO has succeeded Lew Johnston as football coach at Western Branch in Chesapeake, reports that quarterback Kevin Newsome is not the only Division I prospect in his junior class.

Newsome, a quarterback, was rated second among the state’s top juniors at Christmas. Winckler said that Division I-A programs also have inquired about 6-foot-4, 300-pound offensive tackle Darnell Rodgers and defensive back-running back Javantai Sparrow.

“Javantai has received interest from virtually every school in the south and is a nationally ranked track guy,” said Winckler, who indicated that Rodgers already has heard from North Carolina, Virginia Tech and Maryland.