Author: Dave Facinoli

Dave Facinoli grew up in Prince George’s County, Md. and attended Friendly High School. After attending Prince’s George Community College and James Madison University, where he covered sports on both college papers, he launched a local newspaper career that included roles as the sports editor of the Alexandria Gazette, the Arlington Sun Gazette and GazetteLeader, and other local papers.

Sports

O’Connell adds box seats plus a pressbox to baseball field for 2025

By Dave Facinoli
O'Connell 's baseball-field updates (photo by Dave Facinoli)

A pressbox with accompanying box seats, all located behind home plate, are new additions to the Bishop O’Connell High School baseball field for the 2025 spring season.

The new look was completed in recent weeks, prior to the Knights’ March 7 home opener against the Potomac School Panthers, a 6-3 O’Connell win.

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Sports

Arlington Little League’s annual opening-day ceremony approaches

By Dave Facinoli
Little Leaguers parade through high-school players (photo by Dave Facinoli)

Barcroft Park Field No. 1 will be the main site of the annual Arlington Little League  2025 opening-day ceremonies, set for Sunday, April 6.

The event will begin between 1:30 and 2 p.m. with a parade of multiple baseball teams and their players and coaches onto the  main field at Barcroft Park, where games, announcements, recognitions and first pitches are scheduled to be thrown.

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Sports

O’Connell grad scores 1,000 points in durable college hoop career

By Dave Facinoli
Alyssa Hayashi (courtesy of Swarthmore athletics)

Talk about durability — Alyssa Hayashi was the definition of that word during her college career for the Swarthmore College women’s basketball team.

Over four seasons, the Bishop O’Connell High School graduate started 99 of the 101 games she played in for the Division III team.

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Sports

Yorktown baseball team has long winning streaks against rivals

By Dave Facinoli
Sean Guffey, left, and Jack Rubin are top returners this season (photo by Dave Facinoli)

Dating back a number of seasons, the Yorktown Patriots have long winning streaks working against its two biggest Arlington County high-school baseball rivals.

Entering this spring’s action, Yorktown has defeated the Wakefield Warriors 25 straight times dating back to the 2007 campaign. Wakefield last defeated Yorktown when it swept three games from the Patriots in 2006.

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Sports

Divisions set for Arlington’s teams in biggest summer swim league

By Dave Facinoli
Donaldson Run's Mikey Maloney (file photo by Deb Kolt)

Of the four Arlington teams participating in the Northern Virginia Swimming League, only the Dominion Hills Thunder Ducks will change divisions for the upcoming summer season.

Dominion Hills will be in Division 8 this summer, down from Division 7, where the Thunder Ducks finished 1-4 last summer.

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Sports

Arlington high school sports schedule for March 14-20

By Dave Facinoli
W-L lacrosse goalie Alexander Conner (photo by Dave Facinoli)

The spring sports season is beginning in earnest starting this week and next for the majority of teams at all four high schools in Arlington.

A few teams have played regular-season events this week, while others are still participating in scrimmage events.

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Sports

Yorktown swim & dive team wins third straight state championship

By Dave Facinoli
The state champion Yorktown team (courtesy of Yorktown athletics)

Anxiety gave way to confidence as the Yorktown Patriots realized they would win a third straight girls state swimming-and-diving championship.

Yorktown finished first with 288 points Wednesday (March 5) at the Virginia High School League Class 6 state meet, with their rival Battlefield Bobcats second with 252 at the Jeff Rouse Swim & Sport Center in Stafford.

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Sports

Wakefield was happy to host region-tourney basketball title games

By Dave Facinoli
The South Lakes boys celebrate in the Wakefield gym (photo by Dave Facinoli)

Having successfully hosted the girls and boys 6D North Region tournament-championship basketball games on Feb. 28, Wakefield High School is eager to do the same next season.

The title contests were at 6 p.m. for the girls between the Langley Saxons and Oakton Cougars, followed by the 8 p.m. boys tilt, with the South Lakes Seahawks and Westfield Bulldogs facing off.

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Sports

O’Connell boys basketball team finishes second in state tourney

By Dave Facinoli
O'Connell gathers during a timeout (photo by Dave Facinoli)

As the fourth seed, the Bishop O’Connell Knights made a big impact by playing three tight games and finishing a close second in the Division I private-school boys state basketball tournament.

The Knights (23-10) lost in overtime to the No. 2 seed Highland School Hawks of Warrenton, 56-51, in the Saturday (March 1) championship game at Benedictine College Prep in Richmond.

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Sports

Marymount falls in overtime in conference-tourney title game

By Dave Facinoli
The Marymount team huddles (courtesy of Marymount athletics)

A quest for a third straight conference-tournament championship ended with a disappointing overtime loss in the title game for the Marymount University Saints men’s basketball team.

Second-seeded Marymount (17-10) lost that road contest in the Atlantic East Conference final to the host and top seed Neumann University Knights, 83-77, to end the Saints’ season.

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Sports

Three Arlington hoop coaches have more than 1,300 combined wins

By Dave Facinoli
Tony Bentley has 395 career wins (photo by Dave Facinoli)

The 2024-25 boys high school basketball season ended with three longtime head coaches of Arlington teams having a combined lifetime victory total of 1,304 games.

Of the three, Joe Wootten of the Bishop O’Connell Knights has the most career wins with 558. Those are the most victories by any O’Connell boys basketball coach in program history.

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