Like it or not, Hebron’s run was one for the books

Published May 17, 2008 4:00am EST



The field where the Mount Hebron girls lacrosse team practices is vacant today.

No girls in goggles.

No coaches warming up goalies.

No “Ha-ha-ha Hebron” chant in the post-practice huddle.

No way this is happening.

Since 1990, Mount Hebron has won seven national championships, 19 Howard County titles, 15 state championships and made more girls cry than N’Sync and New Kids on the Block combined.

Let that sink in. The last time the Vikings failed to advance to the state tournament, George W’s daddy was in office, Milli Vanilli was lip-synching its way to a Grammy, and not one girl on the current Hebron roster was born.

With the Vikings’ domination over — at least for this year — we have just witnessed the end of the single greatest run in high school sports history. We just saw the Ellicott City Celtics tumble.

For many, seeing the small, 43-year-old public school — nestled among middle-class neighborhoods on Route 99 in Ellicott City — lose to Route 40-rival Centennial, 10-9, in a Class 3A/2A South Region final was a shocking — and to some, a downright joyous — occasion.

Don’t believe me? Log on to Laxpower.com and read what people have written throughout the years about high school girls who fill the school’s honor roll as quickly as a stat column.

You’d think Fidel Castro was just overthrown.

For years, many have wondered — and even publicly questioned — how a public school that draws its enrollment from fewer than 10 square miles could hang a national record 11 straight state championships and so thoroughly dominate a sport that is played better in this state than anywhere in the world.

Here’s how a community — not just a group of girls — built a dynasty. When there was snow on the ground in the middle of December, the girls shoveled the fields to have a place to play pick-up games. When the girls needed direction, they had visionaries — the Mount Rushmore of girls lacrosse coaches — P.J. Kesmodel, Chris Robinson, Scott Robinson and current head coach Brooke Kuhl-McClelland.

When the team needed money, parents treated all the girls — even those who competed for playing time against their daughters — as their own, putting in thousands of hours the past two decades coordinating fundraisers.

But above all else, every time the girls stepped onto the field, they did so with the passion to stay on top.

It was a passion that birthed unrealistic expectations — the kind of expectations not even associated with Duke men’s basketball, North Carolina women’s soccer and Northwestern’s women’s lacrosse.

For the past decade, the team played with almost nothing to gain and everything to lose. Still, it welcomed all challengers — from Cherry Creek, Colo., to Alexandria, Va., to upstate New York to numerous top Interscholastic Athletic Association of Maryland opponents. At one point, the team won a national-record 103 straight games.

And the Vikings beat every team in this state — until falling to John Carroll, the IAAM champion, earlier this season.

For Mount Hebron’s players, wearing the black and white was akin to wearing Yankee pinstripes, as wherever they went, fans cheered as much for the Vikings to lose as for their team to win.

But the reign is over now, as every dynasty ends. The only remnants are in the school’s gymnasium, where banners drape the walls, serving as a reminder of the greatest ever.

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