A couple of summers ago when Al Vaxmonsky stepped down as the longtime manager of the American Legion Springfield Post 176 baseball team, that left Ray Zdancewicz as the longest active tenured manager of a District 17 team.
Zdancewicz, a Bishop O’Connell High School graduate and former one-season interim head coach of the McLean High baseball team, has been the Falls Church Post 130 Legion manager since the 2009 season. After this year’s team finished with a 13-9 record and earned the No. 3 seed in the district tourney, Zdancewicz has 174 career wins as the head of that team.
Falls Church draws some players from Marshall High School as well as a few from O’Connell some seasons and other local schools.
During the high-school season, Zdancewicz is an assistant coach for the Lake Braddock Bruins. He also was a longtime manager of various local Babe Ruth teams for many years, sometimes leading Legion and Babe Ruth squads during the same summer seasons.
For years, Zdancewicz has remained one of the busiest baseball coaches in the local area at the different levels of play.
This summer, the 13 wins were the most in a season for Falls Church since the 2018 campaign.
Zdancewicz has long said one of his goals for the Falls Church Legion team is to win a district championship or earn a state-tournament berth. Both goals have escaped the team. Post 130 finished a disappointing 0-2 in this season’s district tourney and did not earn a state berth.
The best finish for Falls Church under Zdancewicz in the district tournament was a second.
Zdancewicz was the manager of one of the District 17 teams of this past season’s July 4 all-star game, won by his squad.
