We begin counting down the top ten programs of the decade with

Northern Region powerhouse Stone Bridge who has found success at both the D4 and

D5 levels as they've qualified for six straight postseasons and have never lost

in the first round.

After missing the playoffs in both 2000 and 2001 (the first

two years of the school's existence), Stone Bridge qualified for the postseason

in 2002 and made an immediate impact at the Division Four level by topping

Charlottesville in their opener 45-35 and Fauquier 40-21 to win the regional

championship before falling to Lafayette 26-12 in the state semis.

The 2003 season played out nearly the same way as the Bulldogs

opened the playoffs with a 21-13 win over Loudoun Valley, then captured the

region title by besting Liberty-Bealeton 28-19 before falling to Powhatan 28-14

in the state semis.

The '04 squad blasted Louisa in the opening round 42-7, but

dropped the regional title to Harrisonburg in a 14-3 contest.

Before the 2005 season, Stone Bridge was reclassified as a

Division Five program, but the move up to play with the "big boys"

didn't faze the program.  They beat James Madison 21-14 in the first round

and topped Edison in the first of three regional title game match ups

29-21.  The third trip to the state playoffs proved better than the first

two as they smashed Matoaca 52-12 to advance to the school's first ever state

championship game where their hopes were dashed in a 15-8 loss to Hampton.

A 49-28 win over James Madison in 2006 put the Bulldogs into

their fifth straight regional championship game but Edison avenged the '05 loss

by topping Stone Bridge 31-17.

Last season, Coach Thompson's squad got over the hump and won

their first state championship by beating George Marshall 49-29, Edison 27-14,

Phoebus 38-24 and Potomac 38-0 in the postseason.

To take a look back at their decade, VirginiaPreps.com is

re-running a previous Program Spotlight article produced from an interview

conducted by  Football Editor Rod Johnson with the school's only head

coach, Mickey Thompson.

Since opening in 2000, two things have become

constant for the Stone Bridge High School football team -- moving districts and

winning. Though the Bulldogs struggled in their opening season (who

doesn't?) finishing 3-7 while playing an independent schedule, they've strung

together seven winning seasons in a row since while playing in Dulles ('01-'04)

then Liberty ('05-present) districts.

The school was slated to move to the Cedar Run District after the 2008 season, but an appeal to the VHSL overruled that

change so

now the Bulldogs will stay in the Liberty District. How has the moving affected the school's football program?

Coach Mickey Thompson, the only head coach in

the program's history says, "I think that biggest thing for us is that our kids start to develop

a rivalry, get to know some of the other kids at the other schools,

and those are the fun games to play but then you turn around and lose that. It's especially hard because we don't play any schools in our area. We have four high schools within five miles of us and we don't play any of them."

[Ed: That is due to an enrollment issue because Stone Bridge is a AAA school and the

other area schools are AA].

However, the nomadic nature of the program may

have come in handy in other respects. The Bulldogs run a single wing

offense which is rarely seen these days in the high school ranks, so it takes

opponents some time to figure out its intricacies. "In some regards, it helps us. We do run a pretty unique offense and as people start to get used to it, we go away."

Any discussion of the program will inevitable

turn towards the offense as the Bulldogs are renown for their single wing

attack, but will also run out of spread and five-wide formations giving defenses

a lot to prepare for in one week's time. The Notre Dame box attack is fun

for fans to watch as it involves three backs in shotgun formation, any of whom

could receive the snap. Often times, the recipient will completely turn

his back to the line of scrimmage and spin a full 360 degrees around.

Because of the misdirection and spinning, some call the attack a "trick

offense".

"The first thing that we want to do is to run the power stuff and take advantage of that,"

says Thompson, "but if people match up with us and we're having a hard time physically taking it to them, then the spinning stuff and the half-spinning stuff starts. We've had years where

we've been almost all single wing and some where we've run very little single

wing. Where we try to trick people is in formations. We might be unbalanced right and then you try to adjust to that side and we'll try to manipulate that. We try to outnumber you in different places and try to trick you that way. If they are not well-coached and cannot handle the formations then we can beat you that

way."

If there was any "trick" in

implementing the offensive system, it had to be getting high school players to

believe in running a 1940's style offense. "There was a lot of people questioning what we were doing, but thank goodness, we started scoring all over the place. Once you win

a couple of games, it gets all over the Washington Post and it became a hot thing. Once the good coaches had time to digest it, they started doing things that caused us problems which forced us to be good coaches and figure out what adjustments that we needed to make."

The first adjustment that the staff made was to implement a passing attack

which balanced out their powerful rushing

options so Thompson and company opted to adapt both a spread and a five-wide

package which allowed them to find a home for virtually every player who comes

out for the team. "Our kids have bought into all three packages. If you are a kid and you come in and are good at throwing the football or you are a good receiver, coach is going to run more spread game and you are going to get the ball. If we have better running backs

than receivers, we are going to run more single wing, so every kid has a place."

But the system does not come without its

problems. For example, most coaches spend their offseason attending

coaching clinics or working with college staffs in search of tweaks to their systems which will help put them

over the top. Since virtually no one runs the same offense, the Bulldogs have nearly no opportunities to sit down with

others to talk about the single wing. More likely, the staff can add to

their spread attack or will attend defensive seminars. "There are some spread things that we can incorporate. Our single wing hasn't evolved much except for formations and some

blocking schemes. We are a single wing team, so while we will tinker with the spread game, we are defined by the single wing. I talk to a lot of guys who are in their 60's, 70's and 80's. I'm constantly trying to find tapes from those guys."

Along with the offense, Stone Bridge is known

as a team willing to take chances that other programs will not, often eschewing

the punt to go for first downs even in their own territory and liberally using

onsides kicks as well as other risky maneuvers. More than anything, that

seems to be how Thompson defines the program and he's willing to do so because

he believes that the kids draw a lot of their confidence from the risky nature

that they approach the game.

"We are a high-risk program who will take chances. You will never be chastised for taking risks. We're going to take risks beyond what normal people would do because of our belief in ourselves. Everybody loves football and they like being a part of a winner. You go to the middle school and you tell them about opportunities and about all the players who have gone before them who are playing college ball and all that is nice, but I think that the kids around our area really attach themselves to the high-risk attitude. I think that we've gone for it on fourth down inside of our own fifteen maybe ten or fifteen times and nobody does that. Sometimes we do it just to make the point that is who we are."

But Thompson cautions that they are not a team

which haphazardly makes decisions. "We're not stupid risky. Sometimes it's to make a point and sometimes it's because we really

believe that we have a play that we can do something with. Sometimes you think about punting and you think about the punter that you have and think that you are only going to get twenty yards anyway."

How did the philosophy develop? Seemingly

out of boredom. "In 1998, I was thinking about getting out of football, my career record was 39-37 or something. It was a boring game to me. We went to Colorado and talked to a lot of single wing guys out there and started our own feeling of what we wanted to do. The first couple of years, it was easy to run, we got a lot of yards and people weren't used to it, but after a couple of years, people started catching up to it. So we had to

evolve and get into some of the spread game and some of the different formations to stay ahead. Because we can put all those guys at the line of scrimmage and run a power game, we feel that it is really hard for someone to stop

us without us gaining a yard or two, so we started going for it on fourth down because we always felt that we could gain a yard or two. Through some trick plays and other things that we have, it's gotten to the point now where we went for it twice on fourth and twenty or more this year and got it both times. Sometimes you get a little carried away but against the better teams you get a lot more conservative."

Though they found regional success rather

quickly, in the Bulldogs first five playoff appearances, they were knocked off

in the regional final twice, the state semifinal level twice and once in a state

final before they broke through by winning a state title this year. Was

there some frustration setting in having come so close so many times before the

2007 season?

It doesn't seem so. "In Loudoun County, that

[the 2005 season] was only the third and fourth state appearance by a football team, so it wasn't as frustrating as maybe it would have been for some of the programs that have been there over and over and over. Just being in the state playoffs was a huge accomplishment for Loudoun County in football. So you get there back to back and, okay, you lose but everyone's going

"Wow!". I mean, we were like the kings of Loudoun because we were getting to the state playoffs. The frustration really didn't start setting in

until after 2005 when it was our third time going there and though we at least made the championship game, we still didn't have a state title."

By getting to the state level so early and so

often, Thompson's group set a high bar of expectations and have built a big

tradition in relatively little time. "We established the expectation early, especially for our area, that we were the team to beat and that we expected to be there.

There was an expectation where we felt like we were good enough to play with anybody. We've got a short history but I think that

we've got the same sort of expectations as some of the better teams in Division 5 down in the Eastern Region. We feel like we've gotten to the level where we expect to be there and we want to be there."

Any team in the state playing at the Division

Five level will inevitably be compared to the two power programs from the

Eastern Region -- Hampton and Phoebus -- who have collectively dominated the

division having won eight of the last twelve championships. The Bulldogs

met Hampton in the 2005 title game where they lost 15-8 and played Phoebus in

2007 in a state semifinal game which they won 38-24. "We've at least said that we can play with the 757 area.

That's kind of what we hang our hats on. We might not be able to beat them,

but I think that know that when they play us that we are a capable program. I think that is what we are most proud of."

Thompson says that having earned that level of

confidence from their on field success has helped them carry on a winning

tradition. "The 2005 team, quite honestly, talent-wise wasn't our best team, but they were talking about a state championship from day one.

Because of that expectation and of what they believed that they could do, we've been able to survive sometimes just on tradition."

But what was it that put them over the top in

2007? What allowed them to advance to that final game and score a 38-0 win

over Potomac? "I really thought that the difference was our passing game. We moved my son Patrick to quarterback and he was pretty raw early and as we got into the middle of the season, he started to make some throws and do some things that we hadn't even practiced, we'd just talked about, so I really felt like if we got into a situation where they start shutting us down in the single wing stuff, we really have a good weapon to go to. I really felt that was going to be a difference maker for us. I thought that was a big deal for us. We just had a great year throwing the ball."

Thompson was quick to point out that the move to a new defense a few years back

was also a big moment in the program's history. "I think that the best thing that we did was, in 2005, we went to the 3-5 defense. Our philosophy was high-risk offense and our defense was pretty conservative, so we wanted to have a high-risk defense also where we blitzed about every down. We brought people and left seams and if you found a seam, you were going to get points but if you didn't you were in trouble. That was a big turning point for us and this was the first year that we really had the personnel at almost every position to really make that work."

Rome and championship teams are not built in a

day and the glory of the 2007 title was built on the successes of a number of

standout players from the Stone Bridge program through the 00's.

Four names jumped out of the school's record

book and Thompson remembers each of those players with joy.

Terrence Glenn...The team's quarterback

from 2004-2006, Glenn holds school records for career passing yards (2,680) and

is currently playing at Rhode Island University.

"We had been playing Loudoun County football and had been doing well with three straight 10 win seasons but then when it came time to go play with the big boys in AAA, I remember sitting in the office wondering who was going to be our quarterback. I still remember one of our assistant coaches saying 'So, we are going to take these guys and we are going to play Hampton?!' We had only returned two starters and we thought that we were in trouble.

But Terrence and those other guys walked in and said that they were going to win a state championship just like they had said the year before and he was the guy who did all the leadership-type stuff. You just always remember a kid like that. When your program might be in a little bit of trouble, he was the guy who rescued us, that's the way that I look at it."

Brian Calloway...A Bulldogs wide receiver from 2002-2004, Calloway holds

school records for receptions in a game (10), receptions in a season (56),

receptions in a career (117), and receiving yards in a game (169), season (857)

and career (1,899).

"He was the beginning of the

development into the passing game. We were almost purely single wing, then he comes along and, as a coach you have to take

advantage of that kind of talent, so we added the spread game to take advantage of him. He was the guy who was responsible for us

becoming more diverse on offense. He forced our hand and made us change how we thought about offense. He and Sean Ryan (the

quarterback) really caused that change."

Khalil Conteh...In 2003 and 2004, no player did more athletically for Stone

Bridge. He holds school records for most fumbles caused in a season (4)

and a career (8), most QB sacks in a season (10) and career (17) and his 72-yard

return in 2004 still stands as the longest in program history.

"Every year, we look for the

guy on defense who we think is our best playmaker and that is a kid who we are going to move around on the line, coming off the

corner or at linebacker so that offense can't find him. We named him the 'K' player after Khalil. He played nose guard, defensive tackle,

linebacker and cornerback. He changed our terminology and our thought process because of the way he played. Again, it's high risk

but we wanted to give him as many opportunities as we could to make plays."

Jeron Gouveia...earned District Player of the Year honors on both sides of ball

in 2007 en route to also being named the VirginiaPreps.com State Defensive

Player of the Year. He signed to play at Virginia Tech.

"Every time that he touched the ball, he was scoring. He got hurt the year before so we made a commitment that we were going to play him on defense full-time and spot play him on offense. He is pretty special. Every time that he went out there, you knew that he had to defend him. When he went into the game, we were getting him the ball and he was still making big plays."

Additionally, Thompson offered praise for some

other players who made mighty contributions.

"The guy who really got us started was Grant Harris. He was the guy who really established our program. The guys after Grant who

carried us was Mike O'Brien who was a running quarterback and the guy who was responsible for really getting us off the ground was Landon

Gouveia, Jeron's older brother. Those two brothers have really controlled our program over the past seven years."

The Bulldogs seem to be in a prime spot to

repeat as state champions with a number of outstanding players returning to the

2008 starting lineup. Quarterback Patrick Thompson is getting DI

interest, running back Daniel Allen could be a big time recruit, and

offensive lineman Ed Wang (Virginia Tech) commit will lead the

offense while defensive linemen Brian Slay (NC State commit) and Zack

Thompson (Wake Forest) are supported by linebacker Mike Olson (Wake

Forest) on the other side of the ball.

They'll likely enter the season as the D5

preseason favorites and will be looking to draw on their tremendous tradition of

excellence to maintain their high level of play. The program has recorded

a 79-19 record this decade and have not lost a district game in five

seasons. Can they maintain that type of success? It certainly seems

like they are in line to this season.