Aces on parade at Sportsman’s Club
The Alexandria Sportsmans Club held their monthly meeting on Tuesday at the Old Dominion Boat Club and the Alexandria Aces baseball teams prospects and current state of affairs was the topic of the night.

The 31-player team is comprised of college baseball players from around the nation and they compete in the Cal Ripken, Sr. Collegiate Baseball League, which includes seven other local teams.

A handful of the other local teams include: the Herndon Braves, the Bethesda Big Train, the College Park Bombers, the Maryland Redbirds and the Silver Spring-Takoma Thunderbolts.

The Aces have a total of 21 home games during June and July at Four Mile Run Field, behind Cora Kelly Elementary School.

Three of the Aces play college ball within the Commonwealth of Virginia: Virginia Tech infielder Nate Clark, Radford University infielder William Whitty and University of Virginia catcher Will Campbell are Aces for the summer.

Also at the June 17 meeting of the Alexandria Sportsmans Club, T.C. Williams senior soccer player Ethan Cornelio was honored as the May Athlete of the Month. Cornelio will attend Randolph Macon University in the fall.

The Alexandria Sportsmans Club meets 10 times per year. The Club will not meet again until mid-September when the four area high school football coaches will discuss area high school football. Those four coaches are T.C.’s Dennis Randolph, Episcopal’s Mark Gowin, Ireton’s Tony Verducci and St. Stephens & St. Agnes’s Dave Holm.

Schwimmer drafted
St. Stephens & St. Agnes class of 2004 grad Mike Schwimer was drafted by the Philadelphia Phillies in the 14th round of the 2008 Major League Baseball Draft.
Schwimer, who pitched for the Saints and for the University of Virginia, was the 436th pick overall (out of more than 1,200 players drafted). No one else with Alexandria ties was drafted in this months draft.

The 6’7″, 235 lb Schwimer is a right-handed pitcher who primarily was a “closer” at Virginia during his four collegiate seasons.

Schwimer’s top three pitches include a 93 mph fastball, a slider and a changeup.
During his four high school seasons at St. Stephens & St. Agnes, Schwimer played baseball, football and basketball.

This season, at UVA, he posted a 3-1 record with 13 saves and a 1.84 ERA. Virginia advanced to the NCAA Round of 64 Tournament this season, but did not advance to the Super Regional Round of 16.

Class of 2008 standout athletes head to college
There are some other Alexandria City “just graduated” seniors that will attend a variety of colleges to continue their studies and their athletic careers.
From St. Stephens & St. Agnes: Briggs Davis (Middlebury lacrosse); Jason Neithamer (Bucknell lacrosse); Hadley Lankford (Dartmouth lacrosse); Cassie Pyle (Princeton lacrosse); Lila Samperton (Georgetown – field hockey) and Annie Taylor (Virginia lacrosse).

From Ireton: Tyler Dupre (Virginia Tech – baseball “walk on status”); Francis “Briggy” Imbriglia (Virginia – swim/dive); Brian O’Donnell (Catholic football); Meghan Bohn (William and Mary tennis) and Kristin Kelleher (Charleston Southern softball).

From Episcopal: Matt Hurley (U.S. Military Academy, West Point lacrosse) and Lindsey de Butts (Princeton lacrosse).

More honors for Ruffian-Pratt
T.C. Williams rising senior basketball standout Tierra Ruffin-Pratt has garnered nearly enough post-season honors to sink a battleship.

The member of the Titans class of ’09 averaged nearly 26.5 points and nearly 14.5 rebounds during the most recent “hardwood” season.

Ruffin-Pratt, in addition to being named the Northern Region Player of the Year, the Washington Post All-Met Player of the Year and a Parade All-American, was recently selected as the AP Virginia Player of the Year as well.

Ruffin-Pratt may very well prove to be the most highly recruited high school senior ever out of Alexandria as she enters her senior season playing for head coach Jim Lewis.

Saint swimmers shatter school records
While the St. Stephens & St. Agnes girls swim/dive team has not set any school records since the ’05/’06 school year, the boys penchant for setting school records reached an all-time high in the just concluded school year.

No less than eight individual school records and three relay records were set by the boys of the Red, White and Green.

Individual boys swim/dive school record just set in the ’07/’08 school year:
50 freestyle – Cabell Perrot (21.82); 100 freestyle – C. Perrot (47.67); 100 backstroke – Mac Routh (55.03); 100 breaststroke – Conor MacNair (1:01.66); 100 butterfly – M. Routh (53.60); 200 freestyle – Hunter Perrot [brothers] (1:43.27); 200 individual medley – H. Perrot (2:02.81) and 500 freestyle – H. Perrot (4:44.19).

Boy swim/dive relay school records during ’07/’08:
200 freestyle – C. Perrot, M. Routh, C. MacNair and H. Perrot (1:28.52); 200 medley – M. Routh, C. MacNair, C. Perrot and H. Perrot (1:38.19) and 400 freestyle – C. Perrot, H. Perrot, M. Routh and C. MacNair (3:12.89). The 400 freestyle relay mark was not only a school record but it was also a Virginia State Independent Schools all-time record.

Titans tackle football registration
The Alexandria Titans are currently registering students/players ages 7-16 to participate in the upcoming fall season.

Practice will commence in August and there are seven weight categories of teams: anklebiters, 75 lbs, 85 lbs., 95 lbs., 110 lbs., 125 lbs. and 150 lbs.

The Alexandria teams will participate in the Fairfax County Youth Football League.
For more information, please contact the Alexandria Department of Recreation, Parks and Cultural Activities (703-838-4345) – “ARPCA”/Youth Sports – 1108 Jefferson Street – Alexandria, Va. 22314-3999.

Summer league basketball
Most of the nine Alexandria-area high school basketball teams (especially the boys teams) will be participating in summer league play over the next 6-8 weeks.