Ashburn Football Game Pits Student Against Teacher

In 1996, a young and eager Matt Griffis started his teaching career at Park View High School. Fresh off his first taste of coaching high school football while in college, Griffis had a bad case of coaching fever, and he hoped to join head coach Mickey Thompson's staff at Park View. The problem was Thompson already had a full compliment of coaches, and wasn't really hiring.

"I basically begged him to let me do anything," Griffis said. "They didn't need a coach at the time, so I said I'll do anything, I'll work with the JV team, freshmen, I'll clean laundry."

At first Thompson reiterated to Griffis that he really didn't really have any open coaching positions. But Thompson saw something in the young and persistent wannabe coach.

"A lot of young coaches don't want to put in the time and effort that it takes to be successful,” said Thompson, who decided to name Griffis his quarterback coach. “So, if you find a guy who wants to put the time into football that it takes to be successful, you have to find a place for him."

The move may have been one of the best in Thompson's storied career. For the next fourteen seasons, Griffis served as an assistant with Thompson at Park View and then at Stone Bridge, playing a key role coaching some of the of the best teams in the history of Virginia high school football. The two won numerous district and regional championships together, and led Stone Bridge to a Division 5 state championship in 2007.

But this Friday, the longtime partners faceoff for the first time as rivals when Griffis – now the head coach at Broad Run – takes his Spartans (4-0) to Stone Bridge (3-1) for a game between two of the most decorated teams in the state during the past several years, with playoff implications on the line and local bragging rights at stake.

During their last years together at Stone Bridge, Thompson knew it was only a matter of time before Grifis landed a head-coaching job of his own. After serving as Thompson's offensive coordinator for several seasons and helping to perfect Stone Bridge's vaunted "single-wing" offensive attack, Griffis had the skills and resume necessary to find a head-coaching job of his choosing. But neither coach expected Griffis to end up right in Stone Bridge's backyard.

Shortly after leading Broad Run to a second-straight AA Division 4 state championship in 2009, head coach Mike Burnett unexpectedly stepped down to start the new football program at Tuscarora in Leesburg. The sudden departure left a void at the top of one of the best teams in the state, and Griffis grabbed the opportunity.

"I wanted Matt to get a job because he deserved it, but I didn't necessarily want it to be right here," said Thompson, who told Griffis about the vacancy.

Griffis quickly landed the Broad Run job and wasted no time installing his version of the single-wing offense that proved to be so successful at Park View and Stone Bridge. In his first season at the helm, the understudy led the Spartans to an 11-2 record and a spot in the regional championship game – the team's only two losses came at the hands of eventual state champion Briar Woods.

This season the Spartans made the leap from AA to AAA, based on increased enrollment at the school, and the team seems poised to do better, despite the bump up in competition. The Spartans opened the season with an impressive 14-0 win over Briar Woods and head into Friday's meeting with Stone Bridge undefeated.

Even though he'll be on the opposite sideline from Thompson for the first time in his coaching career, Griffis will rely on many of the lessons he learned during their years coaching together.

"He taught me work ethic, how to prepare for a football game, but also how to work with people," Griffis said. "He taught me that coaching is not just about wins, losses and X's and O's, but it's also being a sports psychologist, understanding the adolescent mind, and trying to make [playing football] as positive of an experience as possible for all of the kids involved."

Both coaches speak glowingly of the other’s ability to prepare teams as well an anyone for an upcoming opponent, and such preparation should make for a great game Friday in Ashburn. With both teams running the single-wing offense that the two coaches pioneered in Virginia, the results of the game may come down to the chess match on the sidelines as much as a battle on the field.

"We both know each other's countermeasures, which makes preparation tougher. Every time I think of something to do I already know he knows how to counter it, which should make for an interesting game Friday," said Griffis.

Perhaps more than anything though, the game will feature two tacticians dedicated to their craft, who share a mutual respect for each other as a result of their shared love of hard work and commitment that continues to provide success for both.

"Good, hard working people are hard to find, and Matt is one of them," Thompson said. "People who do things the right way should succeed, and Matt is one of those people, so it comes as no surprise that he's having success."