Washington-Liberty High School golfer and 2020 graduate Kaiya Mitchell was one of 38 players from Virginia to receive a recent scholarship from the Virginia State Golf Association. 

Thanks to some vision, imagination and dogged determination, diligence and hard work, there were plenty of local sports to follow during the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic summer.

DAVID GALLION: Arlington resident David Gallion was chosen to the 2019-2020 Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference Scholar-Athlete team as a result of his sophomore efforts in both men’s swimming and men’s water polo for Gannon University.

In the high-school football annals in Arlington, Friday, Sept. 11 of 1987 was the only time in county history that all four Arlington varsity prep teams were involved in games against one another on the same date.  

Other than one scrimmage, which was a dominating multi-strikeout performance, Katie Kutz didn’t get another opportunity to demonstrate her hard-throwing talents and potential as the latest standout pitcher for the perennial power Bishop O’Connell Knights girls softball team during the spring.

Longtime Yorktown High School head golf coach Chris Williams recently was honored for his years of service.

W-L HIRES VOLLEYBALL COACH: Former player Aliya Rakhmetova has been hired at Washington-Liberty High School as the girls head freshman volleyball coach.

No matter what the level of competition, winning any kind of high-school or youth-sports state title is a lifelong prize accomplishment that can be owned as a badge of honor.

Kenya Hunter, a Wakefield High School graduate and longtime Division I men’s assistant coach, is leaving the University of Connecticut to take a similar position with the Indiana University men’s program.

One of the regular themes of the National Coaches Alliance internet broadcast is to occasionally feature successful local coaches from Northern Virginia.

Whatever the preference for use – running, walking, biking,  riding scooters, maybe even roller skating – the popular 45-mile Washington & Old Dominion (W&OD) Regional Trail has become much more busy, according to users, during the COVID-19 pandemic.

With the recent commitments of Ryan Bhojwani and Joe Suarez to play college baseball, that makes 11 players from the 2020 Bishop O’Connell Knights high-school team who will compete at the next level.

They weren’t able to have a high-school season – canceled because of the COVID-19 pandemic – but a number of Yorktown High School boys lacrosse players competed in summer-league action for club teams in recent weeks.

Melo Trimble, a standout basketball when he played for the Bishop O’Connell High School boys basketball team, signed a contract in June to join the Montakit Fuenlabrada team in a Spanish professional men’s league.

The Arlington Sage 10-and-under girls travel softball team won the recent C-level 2020 Virginia State Tournament.

By making the commitment to play women’s college basketball at the University of Maine, Adrianna Smith becomes the fifth player from the 24-win 2019-20 Bishop O’Connell High School girls team who will compete in college.

In normal times, high-school football fields would be busy with scads of noisy activities this time of the year, with teams practicing for the upcoming season. 

For Mac Marsh, his 2020 summer baseball season playing for Arlington Post 139 was more special, significant and satisfying than normal.

With its 2020 competition a victim of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Northern Virginia Swimming League is now looking toward 2021, and teams should expect that seedings in the 17 divisions could remain largely unchanged from the canceled season that never was. 

In the popular baseball movie “Field Of Dreams,” there is a scene when outfielder Shoeless Joe Jackson says to farm owner Ray Kinsella, “There are others, you know.”

This summer, Arlington Post 139’s strong postseason Cinderella performance was a big surprise – a young fifth-seeded baseball team wound up finishing second in district-tournament action.

GOLF RUNNER-UP: Arlington resident Charlie Wisniewski finished second with a score of 90 in the 18-hole 9-and-under age division of the 14th Virginia State Golf Association Youth Championship on the Kingsmill Resort’s Plantation course.

Those who know such things described the late Colton Poythress’ talent as immense, whether playing football, baseball or maneuvering on the basketball court.

NEW YORKTOWN GYMNASTICS COACH HIRED: Yorktown High School has chosen Jessie Everett as its new head girls gymnastics coach.

Arlington Little League’s condensed and shortened 2020 spring and summer baseball season has pretty much ended with a few exceptions, with registration for the fall campaign now ahead.

With this past spring’s high-school baseball and softball seasons canceled, then many of the summer campaigns suffering the same fate because of the COVID-19 pandemic, some of those old scorebooks regularly used to record such contests didn’t see much action, either.

It took nearly five months and some intricate planning. Then at last, the popular and annual all-Arlington ice hockey  high-school club match between the Washington-Liberty Generals and Yorktown Patriots was played Aug. 1.

A bright spot, and one of the reasons Arlington Post 139 enjoyed postseason success in finishing a surprising second in the Virginia Independent Veterans Baseball League tournament, was the batting came around in the playoffs.

A season-ending knee injury to Sam Dozier was the tough-luck story to an otherwise successful ending of the summer baseball season for Arlington Post 139.

The Arlington Arsenal 10-under Blue baseball team won the top flight of the USSSA 804 Around the Horn tournament in Richmond.