Football season has returned. With that, VirginiaPreps.com is the place for you to get the comprehensive coverage you crave for the 2024 campaign that you won't find anywhere else.

As part of our in-depth breakdowns, we count down the Top Ten Rankings for each classification. It's found exclusively on this web site, the only one that has been ranking each class in Virginia for over two decades. We'll be updating it weekly during the season, too.

Enjoy!

What to Know: After guiding to Sherando to a pair of playoff appearances, Jake Smith arrived at John Handley High School in 2023 and helped the Judges achieve something that had not been done at the Winchester school in quite some time. Following a 1-3 start, Handley reeled off seven straight wins, which included a 21-7 triumph over Millbrook in the opening round of the Region 4D playoffs. It marked the first postseason victory for the Judges since 2010.

Though the celebration was short-lived with a 42-0 thumping suffered at the hands of perennial power Salem in the region semis, Handley entered the off-season, as well as August practice of 2024, with great enthusiasm and for good reason. A total of 15 starters are back with eight on defense and seven from an offense that piled up 403.6 total yards and 31.5 points per game. The nucleus is a powerful offensive line.

Heading up that o-line is senior left tackle Jaishaun Offutt (6-4, 342), a recent Wake Forest commit who earned 1st Team All-Region 4D honors on both sides of the ball a season ago. Jaishaun is a multi-sport standout who also participates in basketball and track, where he's a two-time State Champ in the shot put. His younger brother, junior left guard Jaiquan Offutt (6-3, 323), has serious next-level potential as well and picked up an offer from Morgan State in the spring.

Rounding out the o-line are senior Ivan Membreno, freshman Tyler Davis, senior right guard Xavier Lee (6-0, 240) and senior right tackle Matt Bosshard (6-5, 240). Coach Smith wants to establish the running game, which shouldn't be hard at all with these blockers and one of the better ball carriers at the Class 4 level returning in Hassan Akanbi (5-10, 175), who garnered 1st Team All-Region honors as a junior with 1159 yards rushing and 12 TD's on 112 attempts to go with 462 yards and 4 TD's receiving on 27 catches. Furthermore, Akanbi was an All-District selection on special teams with his 24 returns totaling 527 yards.

Besides Akanbi, look for senior Trent Neal (5-10, 175) and junior Josiah 'Jo-Jo' Johnson (6-0, 190), a 2nd Team All-District linebacker, to get touches in the offense. What looks to be up in the air heading into their scrimmages is who will get the majority of the snaps at quarterback as three players vie for time there in senior Jack Prosser (6-1, 165), junior Ryan Weant (5-11, 185) and freshman Triston Darling (5-11, 167). Whoever emerges should have quality receiving options. The Judges are six-deep at receiver with the likes of senior Pat Burks as well as juniors Will Yoder (5-10, 140) and Rylan Stribling (5-8, 155) at the front of that rotation.

Flipping over to the defense, the secondary features four faces in Burks, Akanbi, Stribling and junior Gavin Williams (5-9, 145) that saw starting time in 2023. In the case of Burks and Williams, each was chosen 1st Team All-District on that side of the ball. Yoder, junior Jamir Washington (5-8, 170), and senior Jordan Tobar (5-9, 165) provide them with depth on the back end. To go with Johnson at linebacker, junior ZeQuon Williams (6-1, 220) and senior Kenyon Anderson (5-11, 161) bring them more experienced returnees.

Alongside the Offutt brothers on the d-line, junior Carson Green (5-9, 305) clogs the middle and was a 2nd Team All-District performer with 45 tackles and 12 for loss during his breakout sophomore campaign. Overall, the defense is littered with seniors and juniors at all three levels, so that bodes well in them progressing as a whole like it was shown during last year's hot streak.

There are definitely some early tests on the schedule with the home opener against West Virginia visitor Mussleman, which leads the all-time series 4-2, and a trip on September 13th to Kettle Run, who has won 11 of the past 12 meetings. If they're able to take a 2-1 or 3-0 record into the trip to Brentsville District that follows on September 20th, then look out.

Final Class 4 Rankings from 2023:

#1 - Phoebus (15-0)

#2 - Salem (13-2)

#3 - King George (13-1)

#4 - Tuscarora (12-1)

#5 - Varina (10-3)

#6 - Dinwiddie (8-4)

#7 - Warhill (12-1)

#8 - John Champe (10-2)

#9 - E.C. Glass (9-4)

#10 - Jefferson Forest (10-2)

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