Loudoun County’s (Leesburg, VA) 2008 season was a successful one, with then second-year head coach Todd Hill guiding the Raiders to a 6-5 record that included the school’s first playoff appearance since 1999. Virginia Tech recruit Chase Williams racked up 163 tackles last season as a junior, in what was his first full season at linebacker. He did well on offense, too, hauling in 36 receptions and scoring five touchdowns from the tight end spot.

Coach Hill and his star player head into the 2009 season with high expectations.

“I think the biggest thing for us is we’ve got to stay focused and we’ve got to stay at one level,” said Hill, who is entering his third year as LCHS head coach. “I think the downfall of our program the last two years is we’ve been up and down and up and down. We play hard two weeks and then we take a week off. We focused the whole off-season on trying to stay even keel, same type of effort every single day and I’m very pleased to say we’re at that point right now. The other part I think is going to make us strong this year is we’ve created a lot of depth. The last two years we did not have a lot of depth. Creating depth has been huge for us.”

Loudoun County’s secondary, which lost a safety and a corner to graduation, will be young, but Coach Hill is especially excited about the potential of a defensive front eight that includes Williams and two other potential standout linebackers.

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