To say Freedom (Woodbridge) was bound to repeat as state champions might have been hyperbolic, but a team that returned nearly all of its starters from a record-breaking 2022 season and scored 1,765 points in two years never really felt all that stoppable.
With a 42-34 win over Highland Springs in the Virginia Class 6 state finals, it largely wasn’t, as the Eagles jumped out to a 28-0 advantage in Charlottesville and clung to their lead in the second half, becoming the fifth team in the past 35 years in Virginia’s largest classification to go back-to-back. They end the fall as the area’s lone undefeated program and lock into the final Top 20 at No. 2 behind Washington Catholic Athletic Conference champion Good Counsel.
“We talked about our program, our school, trying to get at the big boy table … getting in that circle of teams that have done it back-to-back,” Freedom Coach Darryl Overton said.
The Eagles were the last of seven ranked champions to win a title. Four repeated: Freedom, Archbishop Spalding (Maryland Interscholastic Athletic Association A conference), Friendship Collegiate (D.C. State Athletic Association) and Dunbar (Turkey Bowl), while Good Counsel, Wise (Maryland 4A) and Georgetown Prep (Interstate Athletic Conference) all snapped short stints away from the top.
Flint Hill (Mid-Atlantic Athletic Conference), St. Mary’s Ryken (the WCAC’s lower division) and Episcopal and Landon (share of the IAC title) also finished atop their conferences but end the year outside the Top 20.