The 2024 high-school football season was plenty memorable, in multiple ways, for Arlington’s four varsity teams.
Two things from the season stood out as the most likely to be remembered in coming years:
- The outstanding campaign the Washington-Liberty Generals achieved, one of their best in the century-long history of the program.
- Bruce Hanson’s postseason announcement that he is retiring as the longtime head coach of the Yorktown Patriots after 40 years in local sports.
Often using uniquely-different Wing-T offensive formations, Hanson’s teams won 302 career games, 272 of those victories coming at Yorktown. His Patriots won two region championships and a dozen district titles.
Yorktown finished with a 6-5 record this season and earned a region-playoff berth, Postseason play was a regular occurrence for the Hanson-coached Yorktown squad.
Going forward, Arlington football will be different without Hanson, leaving a big void.
Washington-Liberty finished 12-1 this season, with its one loss coming to Madison in the 6D North Region tournament-championship game. The Generals were the first Arlington team to reach the region final since Yorktown in 2019.
The Generals won the Liberty District title for the second straight year this fall and were 12-0 for the first time in team history. The dozen wins were a single-season best.
Washington-Liberty also had the district’s players of the year on offense in wide receiver Jon Malatesta and on defense in lineman Ben Hughes.
With Hanson gone, Washington-Liberty head coach Josh Shapiro (88 career victories) is now the senior football coach of an Arlington team.
Also in 2024, the Wakefield Warriors got better. They won two games and were competitive in others after consecutive 0-10 seasons when most of the 20 losses were lopsided.
Looking ahead, Wakefield head coach Clarence Martin is confident the program is trending in the right direction.
Hanson and Shapiro are both complimentary of the job Martin has done. Yorktown and Washington-Liberty each defeated Wakefield this season, but not without some early struggles in those contests.
The Bishop O’Connell Knights finished 2-9 this fall. Like Wakefield, the Knights were competitive in losses and broke through by winning a conference game to earn a Metro Division playoff berth for the first time in a couple of seasons.
Second-year O’Connell head coach Todd Sabatino is also confident he has the Knights headed upward.
The four Arlington teams combined for a 22-23 overall record this fall.
