The month of December is the busiest time of the long campaign for girls and boys varsity basketball teams across Arlington and Northern Virginia.
During those 31 days, some squads will play as many as 10 to 12 games, including contests in a variety of tournaments.
One of those early tourneys is the third annual Braylon Meade Basketball Classic, to held Saturday, Dec. 13 at Washington-Liberty High School. The event will include eight teams (four from Arlington) and four games, three boys contests and one girls.
A big highlight of this year’s competition will be the participation of the two-time defending Virginia High School League Class 6 boys state champion South Lakes Seahawks. South Lakes will play the host Washington-Liberty Generals in the day’s final game at 4 p.m.
“It’s a good field of teams this year with some good games and all three Arlington [boys public-school] teams playing,” tournament organizer Mark Weiser told ARLnow. “The intent is that this tournament will be an ongoing event.”
Also participating from Arlington are the Wakefield Warriors and Yorktown Patriots on the boys side and the Washington-Liberty girls. This will be the first year all three Arlington boys teams take part.
The Yorktown boys tip off the tournament with an 11:30 a.m. game against Colonial Forge. The Wakefield boys face Woodgrove at 1, W-L takes on Forest Park at 2:30, followed by the W-L vs. South Lakes boys clash.
Meade was a 17-year-old-student at Washington-Liberty and member of the boys varsity basketball team, wearing uniform number 22. He died Nov. 11, 2022, in an auto accident when the vehicle he was driving was struck by a drunk driver. A scholarship fund has been established in Meade’s honor.
The fund provides need-based scholarships to three graduates of Arlington’s public high schools. There is more information about the tournament, Meade and how to donate to the scholarship at the organization’s website.
During December boys action, the private-school Bishop O’Connell Knights could play 12 games. Yorktown is slated to participate in four different tournaments and has 11 games scheduled.
The first all-Arlington public-school showdowns of the season occurs the night of Thursday, Dec. 11 in 7:30 p.m. contests when Wakefield hosts Yorktown in a boys game, with the girls contest between the same schools held at Yorktown.
On Friday, Dec. 19, Washington-Liberty hosts Yorktown in an all-Arlington varsity doubleheader, with the boys game at 5:45 p.m. followed by the girls contest at 7:30 p.m.
There will be other all-Arlington contests after the turn of the new year.
The eight Arlington varsity girls and boys basketball teams open play for the 2025-26 season between Friday, Nov. 28 and Monday, Dec. 1. There was one game set for Nov. 28, when the O’Connell boys hosted Summer Creek from Houston at 7:10 p.m. O’Connell finished 23-10 last season and second in the Division I private school state tournament.
On Dec. 1, the Washington-Liberty boys (6-18 last season) host Oakton at 7:30 p.m., the W-L girls (17-9) play at Oakton at the same time; the Yorktown boys (20-5) play at Lewis High at 7:15 with the Yorktown girls (10-16) hosting Lewis at the same time; and the Wakefield girls (5-17) host Madeira at 7.
The Wakefield boys (12-12) open their season Tuesday, Dec. 2 at 7:30 p.m. at home against Falls Church.
The O’Connell girls (17-15) begin play Sunday, Dec. 7 at 2:10 p.m. against Academy Nation from Durham, N.C., during a tournament at St. Paul VI High School.
NOTE: The four Arlington boys head coaches return to their familiar posts this season with 1,422 combined career victories. O’Connell’s Joe Wootten has the most wins with 558, Wakefield’s Tony Bentley has 395, W-L’s Bobby Dobson, 351 and Yorktown’s Joe Keimig 118. The Yorktown and W-L girls teams have new head coaches this season in Jessica Turgon and Horace “Buck” Willis, respectively.
