Chantilly's Fridy Serving 30-Day Suspension

Chantilly's Adam Fridy, the 20th-ranked Chargers' leading scorer, has been suspended for seven games for a violation of school policy, Coach Jim Smith confirmed.

Fridy, a 6-foot-4 junior forward averaging 12.6 points per game, is not expected to return to the team until after he has served a 30-day suspension that started Dec. 21.

"Adam violated a school policy and he's serving his suspension and will be back with the team when that suspension is completed," said Smith, who declined to elaborate on the nature of the violation. "He was honest. He's serving his punishment and I think he is really looking forward to getting back with the team."

With 22 made three-pointers in seven games, Fridy is the Virginia AAA Northern Region's leading three-point shooter.

Fridy did not play in any of three games during the host school's Pohanka Chantilly Classic tournament last week and Chantilly (9-1, 2-0 Concorde District) suffered its first loss of the season to Landon, 72-60, in the tournament's championship game.

Football Players Bolster Broad Run

With several of its players still putting on shoulder pads instead of basketball jerseys and the school's attention focused on the football team's first Virginia AA Division 4 state championship, Broad Run's basketball team started its season 3-0 under first-year head coach John Costello with little fanfare.

The Spartans won district tournament titles in 2005-06 and 2006-07 under longtime coach Larry Boomer, but there were few expectations this year after a disappointing 7-16 campaign last season.

But since the return of their football players, the Spartans have continued to win. And behind talented junior forward Kevin McGaughey and the play of its athletic guards, Broad Run has charged to a surprising 10-1 start.

"We couldn't be more excited," Costello said. "I like my first five, but I love my first 10. With the football guys getting in late, we were able to develop other guys and it's hard to beat a team that can have four or five guys go double figures." . . .

In the offseason, Potomac (Va.) graduated four starters from its Virginia AAA Cardinal District championship team, and a rebuilding season seemed on the horizon. But in the summer, two players transferred in -- point guard Justin Burrell (from Paul VI Catholic) and swingman Charles Shedrick (Atlanta) -- and Potomac has not missed a beat.

Burrell scored 22 points and Shedrick added 13 as the Panthers knocked off Liberty, 66-55, last week to close their nonleague schedule, and Potomac enters district play Friday once again as a leading contender in the Cardinal.

"We've never had an issue here with our kids playing hard," Potomac Coach Keith Honore said. "It was just a matter of moving kids up from junior varsity and getting the new kids into our system." Burrell, who is being courted by several Division I schools, and Shedrick have combined to average nearly 26 points for Potomac (8-2). . . .

Curtis Symonds got a little tired of hearing how great the high school basketball talent was in the District and Maryland. He knew there's plenty of talent on the other side of the Potomac River, too.

The commonwealth will have a chance to prove Symonds right this Saturday in "Nova vs. the Nation," a six-game bill at Symonds's Hoop Magic Sports Academy in Chantilly. A half-dozen Virginia public and private schools will take on opponents from the District and Maryland. There are some terrific matchups, beginning with Hylton-Eleanor Roosevelt at noon, and concluding with Woodbridge-Coolidge at 8 p.m. At 6:40, Paul VI is scheduled to meet Riverdale Baptist.

"D.C. and Maryland get a lot of exposure, but I'm trying to build more awareness about the kids in Virginia," said Symonds, the former chief operating officer for the Washington Mystics and executive for Black Entertainment Television. "We want to begin building a sentiment that there is decent basketball in Virginia and get rid of that misnomer."

Staff writer Paul Tenorio and special correspondent Matthew Stanmyre contributed to this report.