Storylines: What to watch for this high school football season

Transfers impact area programs

Lake Braddock likely would have been a Virginia AAA Northern Region contender even before the arrival of former West Potomac quarterback Caleb Henderson.

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• 2012 high school football preview
• High school rivalries stand out from rest
• Games to Watch
• Story lines: What to watch for this season

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• Rankings: The Post Top 20
• Capsules: Private schools
• Capsules: Outer Virginia counties
• Capsules: Arlington, Alexandria, Fairfax
• Capsules: Outer Maryland counties
• Capsules: Prince George's County
• Capsules: Montgomery County
• Capsules: D.C. schools
• Montgomery rivalry: Northwest vs. Seneca Valley
• Prince George's rivalry: Eleanor Roosevelt vs. Wise
• Southern Maryland rivalry: McDonough vs. North Point
• Anne Arundel rivalry: Arundel vs. Old Mill
• D.C. rivalry: Dunbar vs. H.D. Woodson
• Fairfax rivalry: Centreville vs. Westfield
• Prince William rivalry: Gar-Field vs. Woodbridge
• Loudoun rivalry: Broad Run vs. Stone Bridge

With Henderson, though, the Bruins have gone from contender to favorite to win their third Division 6 region title in four years.

The 6-foot-4, 223-pound Henderson threw for 2,403 yards and 27 touchdowns last season under his father, Eric, who was dismissed as coach in March. Caleb Henderson helped lead West Potomac to the Division 6 semifinals, where the Wolverines lost to then-unbeaten Westfield, 42-34.

Caleb Henderson and brother Jon, a senior linebacker, then transferred to Lake Braddock. Their father is an assistant coach there and also works at the school.

“The boys are doing well,” Eric Henderson said. “[The two schools] run very similar systems, so Caleb’s been able to come in and hit the ground running.”

Henderson has drawn keen intense from several schools from the ACC and Big Ten and has firm offers from Illinois, Michigan State, Old Dominion and Marshall, his father said.

“He’s just so big, has a cannon for an arm, understands the game,” Lake Braddock Coach Jim Poythress said.

Other notable players have switched uniforms, too. Junior running back-defensive back Jonathan Haden transferred to Friendship Collegiate from Carroll. Haden, who accumulated more than 1,000 offensive yards last season, had scholarship offers before he played his first high school game.

Sophomore linebacker Blake Dove transferred to Churchill from Seneca Valley, where he led the Screaming Eagles (9-2) in tackles last season. Churchill went 10-2 last year.

—Preston Williams

High Point seeks elusive victory

High Point Coach Andre Brown strutted down his school’s hallway last week and said something one wouldn’t expect to hear from the man in charge of a football team that has not won a game since November 2007.

“Everybody on our schedule, I think we’re gonna beat,” he said.

“. . . Now, people think I’m crazy, right?” he said. “But I think you have to be a little bit nutso to take a program that hasn’t won a game in five years and try to build it.”

Thirteen schools in The Post’s high school coverage area went winless in 2011. Anacostia has lost 13 straight. Falls Church hasn’t won in 17 games. It’s been 19 games since Brentsville tasted victory. Only two of those 13 teams also dropped every contest in 2009 and 2010, as well. Marriotts Ridge has lost 30 consecutive games.

But no team in the D.C. area possesses a losing streak as long as High Point’s. For 41 straight games, the Eagles have taken the field and walked away in defeat. Brown, who is entering his second season as the team’s coach, wasn’t around when the streak began. Neither were any of his players.

The neighborhood surrounding High Point is saturated with immigrants that have recently moved to the United States. Last year, the school taught students from 68 countries. The student body has a large Hispanic population, and Brown said the school’s baseball and soccer coaches have no problem finding talented players to fill their roster.