Walking onto the track, the Virginia Comets look outnumbered.

Very outnumbered.

With 15 core members, compared to some teams that have as many as 50 members, the Virginia Comets track and field team is one of the smaller squads. They don’t let that stand in the way of success, however.

“We show up with 15 girls and still win the event as a team because our girls place in every event,” said Samantha Nichols-Whitfield, mother of Maya Whitfield, a 9-year-old member.

The Comets’ success helped them qualify for the State Games of America in San Diego this August. The team hopes not only to dominate in California, but in area meets as well. The first summer meet for the squad is the Coventry Commonwealth Games on July 16.

The Comets are not a new team but rather an old team reborn. The original Comets began in Richmond nearly 40 years ago. Current Comet coach Van Graves competed with the group starting at age 7 and contends that even then, the Comets were a premiere squad.

The team was resurrected years later, in 2009, thanks to a youth track meet in Fort Belvoir. Graves and Nichols-Whitfield, who at the time didn’t know each other, both had daughters competing in the event.

“The kids were unattached, but wanted to run a relay,” recollects Graves. He and Whitfield combined their girls and from there, the Comets were born.

Currently, the Comets team is composed of all girls ages 7-15 from various parts of Virginia. Seven girls reside in Northern Virginia, while others live in Hampton, Lynchburg, Richmond and Roanoke. One team member competes from Tennessee.

Loudoun residents on the Comets with top events in parenthesis: Reese Graves (200-meter dash, long jump), Maya Whitfield (50 dash, 100 dash, 200 dash), Jesslyn Manni (shot put, discus), Kennedy Graves (100 dash, 200 dash), Kiley Turner (1,500 race walk) and Jennelle Manni (1,500 race walk).

While the entire squad doesn’t practice together, the girls assemble for meets.

“They became fast friends at the meets,” Whitfield said.

Despite the team’s small size, its members compete in both track and field events, putting at least one girl in nearly every discipline.

The Comets’ season began in June, following the conclusion of spring sports. Many of the girls are multi-sport athletes, partaking in sports such as softball and lacrosse. Once the season begins, the girls practice two or three days a week and attend one or two meets a month.

The team adjourns for the fall season, but starts up again in December to compete in indoor track and field.

Graves hopes to see the squad expand a bit, although he admits a bigger team would require more resources and volunteers.

“The program works because the parents see the vision, see the dream,” Graves said.

For now, the dream leads to California.