Photo by billkoplitz.Washingtonians have spent a lot of time over the last couple of years bemoaning the sorry state of many of our professional sports teams. But at least one high school squad is doing us proud: The H.D. Woodson Senior High School girls’ basketball squad, who has dominated the D.C. Interscholastic Athletic Association for the last several years.
High school sports tends to fly a bit under the radar around these parts, but Woodson’s accomplishments are pretty jaw-dropping. The Warriors just put the icing on their sixth-straight D.C. Interscholastic Athletic Association championship, beating fellow finalists Coolidge by 44 points last weekend in a game which saw Woodson take a 17-point lead before their opponents even made a shot from the field. That Coolidge win was the team’s 84th consecutive DCIAA victory. Woodson hasn’t lost a DCIAA game in over five years. (Last loss? By two points to Anacostia on January 25, 2006.) And they’re even better in the DCIAA playoffs — their average margin of victory during an 18-game playoff winning streak has been 40 points, and they’ve never failed to defeat an opponent by less than 27 points. So yeah, they’re kind of a powerhouse. The craziest thing? This was actually considered a weaker team, on paper, than previous Woodson squads:
A team with a much different look from the previous five, which entered the season with few experienced leaders, no returning All-Mets or impending McDonald’s All-Americans, still produced the same overwhelming result: another dominant run to a sixth consecutive DCIAA championship.
“Whenever they come through those doors,” Woodson Coach Frank Oliver said, “no matter who puts on that uniform, you’re expected to win.”
The one blip on the Warriors’ radar? Last year, Woodson lost the city title game, falling to Washington Catholic Athletic Conference champs Elizabeth Seton. This year, Woodson will attempt to translate their DCIAA dominance to a tilt with St. John’s College High School on March 7 in the annual Abe Pollin City Title Game.
