Predicting the future

WASHINGTON (Map, News) - Long before the 10-game winning streak, well before the Liberty District and Northern Region championships, members of Thomas Jefferson’s boys soccer team sat in the basement of teammate James Ramadan’s house discussing the upcoming season.

As they went over the games on the schedule one by one, senior captain Justin Johnson spoke up with a bold prediction: “We’re only going to lose twice.”

It was a confident bit of prognosticating for a team that finished with just five wins in 2006 and returned not a single first-team All-Liberty District player. But it’s also a prediction that Johnson hopes doesn’t come true any more. Because 20 games into the season the Colonials are still playing. And loss number two now means the end of the line for a group of 12 seniors that helped lift TJ to its first region title in almost 30 years.

“What he said became a lot more real to us as we got closer to the end,” said Ramadan, also a senior captain. “Back then it was nice idea. We thought it would be awesome if we had a season like that. But as time went on we could actually see it coming true.”

The seventh-ranked Colonials (14-1-5) won at No. 6 Westfield on Friday, 2-1, and will face No. 2 Forest Park tonight at Westfield in the Group AAA state quarterfinals. That is rarified air for a program that has always been competitive, yet has won just three district titles since 1994.

Jefferson’s success has fallen under the direction of second-year coach Sean Burke, who has been in this position before. Just not with Jefferson. Or coaching boys. Burke led W.T. Woodson’s girls soccer team to a state championship in 2004. His two-year record with the Cavaliers was 33-3-3.

But when he took over at Jefferson the perception was he wouldn’t find that same level of success at a school renowned for its academic record and not its athletic achievements.

“At Woodson, some people say we won because we had so much talent and all I had to do was roll the ball out and let them go, which got under my skin at times,” Burke said. “Woodson did have talent. But it also had some tough losses [in the region tournament]. I’m proud that we were able to break through there. And I’m just as proud of what this group has done here.”

Colonials era

» TJ senior forward Harry Beddo (Washington University) has a team-high 17 goals, including four in the region semifinal win over Robinson last Wednesday.

» Senior midfielder James Ramadan has 12 goals and a knack for hitting game-winners, as seen in his golden goals against Langley in the district semifinals and Loudoun Valley in the first round of the region tournament.

» Senior midfielder Justin Johnson has a team-best 13 assists.

Advertisement