High School

Mike Tomlin's high school alma mater breaks 34-game losing streak

Denbigh (Virginia) downed Gloucester on Thursday to snap years of frustration

Gary Adornato

Denbigh quarterback Kevin Walker, who later rushed for the game-winning touchdown, looks down the field during the Patriots' 14-9 win over Gloucester, Thursday, snapping a 34-game winning streak.
Denbigh quarterback Kevin Walker, who later rushed for the game-winning touchdown, looks down the field during the Patriots' 14-9 win over Gloucester, Thursday, snapping a 34-game winning streak. /

Denbigh High School in Newport News, Virginia is the alma mater of Pittsburgh Steelers' head coach Mike Tomlin, who encouraged Patriots' head coach Tommy Reamon to take the job and change the culture at the school.

Denbigh has never been a big winner on the football field and the Patriots had not won a single one of their previous 34 contests, prior to Thursday night.

However, Denbigh faithful, Reamon and, most likely Mike Tomlin himself, are celebrating this morning after the Patriots topped Peninsula Distric rival Gloucester, 14-9, Thursday night, ending one of the nation's longest high school football losing streaks. Quarterback Kevin Parker scored what proved to be the clinching touchdown on a 1-yard sneak with 3:03 remaining in the fourth quarter.

According to a story in The Virginian-Pilot, Eddie Tomlin, Mike's younger brother and also a former Denbigh player, attended his first game at the school in 10 years and was on hand to witness the streak buster.

“In my old life I wanted to change the culture here at Denbigh,” Reamon told the newspaper. Eddie Tomlin, this win is for you and send it back to Michael."

The coach then addressed his players.

“I’m so proud of you guys. We’ve been talking about this in many ways of doing it, and we had no idea how it was going to get done."

Denbigh (1-2) carried a 32-game losing streak into the 2024 season, which tied them for 16th place on the list of the nation's longest current losing streaks. The Patriots also lost their first two games this year.

Ironically, Denbigh's last victory was also against Gloucester. It came on Sept. 19, 2020, in the COVID-19 shortened season. The score that night was very similar as the Patriots prevailed 14-9.

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Gary Adornato

GARY ADORNATO

Gary Adornato began covering high school sports with the Baltimore Sun in 1982, while still a mass communications major at Towson University, and in 2003 became one of the first journalists to cover high school sports online while operating MIAASports.com, the official website of the Maryland Interscholastic Athletic Association. Later, Adornato pioneered market-wide coverage of high school sports with DigitalSports.com, introducing video highlights and player interviews while assembling an award-winning editorial staff. In 2010, he launched VarsitySportsNetwork.com which became the premier source of high school media coverage in the state of Maryland. In 2022, he sold VSN to The Baltimore Banner and joined SBLive Sports as the company's East Coast Managing Editor.

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