Who’s Built for a State Title Run in Each NOVA District (9-5)

With the district tournaments kicking off, I want to focus on the team from each NOVA district that has the best shot to win states. This is ranked in order of who I think has the best chance to win in their class, not the best teams in order.   9. Potomac District: Briar Woods    Defense and balanced scoring are what I think of when I think of Briar Woods.  They are a good team, and even if they don't have super high-end talent, they play well together. Brianna Zaher and Sadie Auch are really solid, and Briar Woods has a handful of other contributors. The reason I have Briar Woods at 9 is that there is a wealth of talent at the top of Class 5. Princess Anne could be the best public school team in the country, and they are pretty far above the rest of the pack right now. Menchville and Kings Fork are outstanding as well, so you're going to need a pretty massive effort to beat those teams.   8. Cardinal District: Potomac Senior    Potomac Senior is a slightly difficult team to rank because of their lack of elite competition. After losing early in the year to their best competition, they have run through their district with ease. Potomac has obvious talent like athletic Junior [player_tooltip player_id='1357632' first='Meme' last='Conteh'], who is a walking double-double, along with Miya and Breanna Semenuk, who are fantastic in the backcourt. Potomac is also in the top 10 in NOVA on both offense and defense. An important thing that impressed me about Potomac is that they have blown out the inferior opponents, and outside of a close game with a solid Hylton team and an OT win over Colgan, they have shown their dominance. It will still be very tough for them to challenge the elite contenders in Class 6, though.     7. National District: Hayfield   Hayfield is a well-balanced and experienced team, and after beating Edison last week, they clinched their district. Hayfield has had losses you don't mind seeing. One of them is a 1-point loss to Manor and an early December loss to South County. Hayfield has not had an amazing strength of schedule recently, but wins over Woodgrove and Edison are still good wins that show Hayfield has real quality. They have a top ten offense and defense in NOVA and are 20-2.   6. Concorde District: Centreville    I was really splitting hairs picking between Oakton, Centreville, and Chantilly, but ultimately I settled on Centreville. Deciding between Centreville and Oakton was especially tough, and even though Centreville finished a game better than Oakton in the Concorde district, that did not have a big impact on why I chose Centreville. Oakton is as well-coached as anyone in the state with long-time coach and VHSL Hall of Fame member Fred Priester. These teams are excellent at similar things in terms of elite guard play and elite defense. But I feel like Centreville's guards provide more in terms of go-to scoring. [player_tooltip player_id='433880' first='Malia' last='Siriwardene'] and [player_tooltip player_id='376338' first='Aliza' last='Murray'] are experienced bucket getters who have played excellent ball as of late. Centreville split with Oakton and has two wins over Chantilly.    5. Catoctin District: Loudoun County   The Catoctin District is hardly a district at this point, with an already small 4-team district being whittled to 3 with Park View not playing a game since early January. With that being said, there is still quality here with Loudoun County and Woodgrove. Woodgrove has quality wins and is probably the safer pick here, but I think Loudoun County will surprise a lot of teams. Woodgrove is the slightly better offensive team, but Loudoun County is a really elite defensive team, which is something Woodgrove is pretty average at. Sami White is one of the top players in the 2028 class in NOVA, and she has had another big year for Loudoun County. Her offensive versatility and three-level scoring are huge, and she is huge on the glass as well. She is a true go-to scorer, and I love the fact that County plays terrific defense.

With the district tournaments kicking off, I want to focus on the team from each NOVA district that has the best shot to win states. This is ranked in order of who I think has the best chance to win in their class, not the best teams in order.