Boys win Salem High’s first state lacrosse championship

Tommy Girani would have loved to have been part of Salem High’s first state lacrosse championship last Saturday. And he was, sort of.

Salem won the 2025 Class 4 championship with an 11-7 win over Loudoun County at Charlottesville High School. It was the goal of Spartan coach George Revercomb when he took the job four years ago, when he enlisted his good friend Girani to be one of his assistant coaches.

Unfortunately, Girani died on October 30 of last year and missed the wild celebration after Salem’s championship win. He was gone, but not forgotten.

“When Tommy died they gave me his heartbeat(on paper) and I put that in my pocket before the game,” said Revercomb. “We graduated high school (at North Cross) together and played and coached together. He was my best friend.”

Prior to the game on Saturday George reminded the team of Coach Girani and what he had meant to the program. Revercomb and North Cross coach Chris Pollack decided they would play for the “Tommy Girani Cup” with an annual game between the two schools, which Salem won in the initial meeting.

“Tommy played Salem Youth Lacrosse as a kid,” said Revercomb. “His dad was at the game Saturday. When I talked to the team prior to the game I told them we’re going to do this for ‘coach’.”

And they did. The Spartans played what might have been their best game in the history of the program on a hot and humid Saturday morning in Charlottesville. And when the final horn blew, the Spartans were state champs for the first time in the 39 years of lacrosse at Salem High, of which the last 28 were as a varsity sport.

“We were a hungry team,” said Revercomb. “We lost in the state quarterfinals last year and that was a real motivating factor this season.”

Last year was going to be Salem’s year. They were undefeated heading into the state quarterfinal and hosted Hanover, at home, in front of a big crowd. However, the visitors scored with 23 seconds on the clock to stun the Spartans, 9-8, and end their season with unfinished business.

This year, the Spartans returned with an agenda. There was one goal back in March, and that was to win a state championship.

“I thought we could do it,” said Revercomb. “We had almost all our defense back, including our goalie. We had to replace a few guys on offense but I thought we had some guys who could step up.”

Revercomb also beefed up the schedule. He added games with private schools Woodberry Forest and St. Anne’s-Bellfield, the latter one of the top 10 high school lacrosse programs in the country.

“Playing those private schools helped us a lot,” said Revercomb. “Those teams have a high lacrosse IQ and they execute at a high level, and it was good for our kids to play against teams like that. I think, last year, we played too many teams that didn’t challenge us and we didn’t improve.”

The Spartans were on a mission this year. They beat Jefferson Forest, 14-3, to win the region then beat Broad Run in the quarterfinals, 9-4. That set up a game with three-time defending state champion Atlee High on Spartan Field, and the Salemites pulled off a semi-upset with a 7-5 win in a game where they led for almost the entire game.

“That was a big win because they were social media bullies,” said Salem senior Jackson Wininger of the Atlee team. “They did a lot of talking about the Hanover game and that gave us some motivation.”

Salem went into the championship game at 16-3 while Loudoun County was 17-3 after beating Meridian, 12-11 in overtime, in the other semifinal. It looked like an even matchup for the championship game, which was moved to 9 am with anticipated thunderstorms in the early afternoon.

The Spartans held a 2-1 lead after the first quarter on goals by Holden Custer and Ty Hicklin. The Captains tied the game early in the second period but Parker Dallas scored at 7:15 and Custer found the net again at 1:49 for a 4-2 lead. Loudoun County cut it to 4-3 at 1:24 but Hicklin scored again with just 37 seconds remaining in the half and Salem held a 5-3 lead at intermission.

Just before heading out to the field for the second half Spartan senior Jackson Jones gave a fiery speech in the huddle, and the Spartans outscored the Captains 4-0 in the period. Dallas, Hicklin, Custer and Wade Marble all had goals to put the Spartans up 9-3 with 12 minutes to play.

“We were halfway through the battle and I wanted to give us some extra motivation,” said Jones of his halftime rant. “I wanted to make sure we kept our foot on the pedal and it was the best outcome we could have had.”

Key to the streak was senior Ryan Warren, who won all five faceoffs in the third quarter as the Spartans controlled the ball. Loudoun County didn’t have a single shot on goal in the period and a lot of that was a tribute to Warren, who won 15 of 22 faceoffs in the game.

“Credit my success to coach (Chad) Fisher,” said Warren. “He’s worked with me on faceoffs all season. A lot of it has to do with quick hands and reaction time and he’s great at teaching technique.”

Things were looking good for Salem at this point with a 9-3 lead but no one was popping the corks just yet.

“I knew it wasn’t over,” said Revercomb. “When I was a senior in high school we lost the state championship game after we were ahead, so I knew what could happen.”

Loudoun County cut the lead to 9-4 with 11:23 on the clock but Dallas and Logan Sparks answered to make it 11-4, and now there was just 7:27 to go. The Captains were able to score three more times in the late going but it was too little, too late. Goalie Richard Hof made a save with seconds on the clock, then as time expired he ripped off his helmet and gloves and welcomed a sea of teammates who buried him on the Charlottesville field.

The mob scene soon moved to Jones, who was wearing a “state champs” chain that fan Justin Wynn had made and brought to the game. After celebrating on the field the team bussed back to Salem for a victory dinner at Mac & Bob’s Restaurant, the heart of lacrosse in Salem. Proprietors Bob Rotanz and Joe Dishaw played on the 1978 Roanoke College national championship team and Rotanz started the Salem High club team back in 1989. Dishaw’s son Joey is an assistant coach for Salem.

The final stats had Custer, Dallas and Hicklin with three goals each. Marble and Sparks had one each while Jones had four assists and Hicklin had two. Custer, Wininger and Sparks had one assist each.

Warren and Wininger led the team with five grounds ball apiece. Brayden Hall and Ronnie Frith had four each while Hicklin and Carson Garland had three each. Frith and Winston Wolfe had two takeaways each to lead the Spartans and Hof had a dozen saves, including a few that were at point blank range.

Salem assistant coaches include Dishaw and Fisher, who both played at Salem High and Roanoke College. Chad Custer has been with the team since the beginning and coached most of the boys from a young age in the recreation program. AJ Blankenship, another former Spartan player, is the jayvee coach and former head coach David Turk, who was instrumental in building the program, was also on the staff as a volunteer.

“They’re the best coaches you could play for,” said Wininger. “We’re one of the smartest teams in the state and they’re the reason. After we lost to Glass they put in a whole new offense.”

The players and coaches were also most complimentary of the large crowd of Salem fans who attended the game, despite it being a 9 am start and a two-hour trip to Charlottesville. Salem fans far outnumbered their Loudoun County counterparts.

“It was awesome,” said Revercomb. “You look up in the stands and see all those people, and they were cheering and chanting for us. That means a lot.”

And George couldn’t help but notice Tommy Girani’s dad up there, and how much that would have meant to his good friend. Tommy couldn’t make it, but his heart was there.