<ro> See a High-School Performance
<lst><b>Cappies
www.cappies .com/nca </b>
Potomac’s high-school students put on dozens of high-quality and often award-winning plays, musicals, revues, and dance performances every year. Seeing high-school theater is inexpensive and close to home and supports school art programs. The Almanac previews many of these shows, but keeping in touch with local schools through their Web sites and listservs is the best way to make sure you won’t miss a curtain call. Most school Web sites provide information on how to sign up to receive regular e-mails about school events.
The Cappies National Capital Area Web site also provides information about dozens of local schools’ performances. Participating Cappies schools send student critics to review one another’s performances, and hold a gala event each spring to honor the top performances in Washington-area high-school theater.
<ro> Have a ‘Blast’
<lst><b>‘Blast from the Past’
Winston Churchill High School
11300 Gainsborough Road, Potomac
301-469-1200
www.mcps.k12.md.us/schools/churchillhs </b>
Falco’s “Rock Me Amadeus,” Neil Diamond’s “America,” Shania Twain’s “Whose Bed Have Your Boots Been Under” and Otis Redding’s “(Sittin’ on) The Dock of the Bay” all in one show? It can only be Winston Churchill High School’s annual “Blast From the Past” music and dance revue. Every year in April, more than 200 Churchill student signers, dancers and musicians perform costumed song-and-dance routines to a range of tunes that offers something for everybody.
<ro> See the Annual Landon-Georgetown Prep Lacrosse Game
<lst> <b>Landon School
6101 Wilson Lane, Bethesda
301-320-3200
Georgetown Prep
10900 Rockville Pike, North Bethesda
301-493-5000 </b>
One local lacrosse coach likened it to a “Braveheart” scene — giant, roaring mobs of battle-painted Prep and Landon students charge into the student sections before the game to cheer their schools on in America’s greatest high-school lacrosse rivalry, which usually takes place in April. Both schools send an annual crop of graduates to Division I college programs. Landon won the first 18 matches, often by the skin of its teeth, but Prep finally triumphed in 2003. Since that game, Prep holds a 5-3 advantage — the teams met in the Interstate Athletic Conference finals in each of the last four seasons.
<ro> Watch a High School Football Game
<lst>Stadiums come alive on Friday nights each fall. Rivalries between local the football teams at Winston Churchill, Walt Whitman, Thomas Wootton and Walter Johnson are intense, and Churchill and Whitman each reached the playoffs once in the past three seasons. It’s not just the football players putting on a show, either — Churchill, Whitman and Wootton all have pep bands, cheerleaders, and pom squad (dance team) shows at halftime. Local private schools Bullis and Landon compete in the Interstate Athletic Conference, while Georgetown Prep plays in the A Division of the Maryland Interstate Athletic Association. Bullis and Georgetown Prep each have newly renovated stadiums, and each has alums playing Division I college football.
<ro>Watch Real Wrestlers Compete
<lst> The excitement of a high-school wrestling match begs the question: Why did somebody bother to create the scripted, gimmicky spectacle of “professional” wrestling? Varsity teams feature 14 different wrestlers, from 103-pounders to 275-pound heavyweights. Walt Whitman High School won the state team (duals) tournament in 2005, Eren Civan (Whitman ‘07) won the state championship for his weight class in 2004, ‘05 and ‘06, as well as national Greco Roman and freestyle wrestling tournaments. Several Winston Churchill wrestlers also won state individual titles in recent years.
<ro>Watch a High School Basketball Doubleheader
<lst> Walt Whitman High School won the first state boys basketball championship in the school’s 43-year history at the University of Maryland’s Comcast Center last March, and roughly two-thirds of the 9,000 fans were cheering for Whitman. None of the local school gyms hold 9,000 fans, but rivalry matchups can draw a full house. Most public-school basketball games are on Tuesdays and Fridays during the winter months, often doubleheaders with a boys game and a girls game between the same two schools.
<ro> See the Next Freddy Adu
<lst>There are more elite youth soccer players where Freddy came from. Walt Whitman High School’s girls soccer team made it to the 2005 state championship and won the ‘04 state title match; the boys teams at Whitman and Winston Churchill also won state titles in the past six seasons. Each season, local public high schools schedule several doubleheaders featuring the same two schools’ varsity boys and girls teams. Many private schools also have outstanding soccer teams — Freddy’s little brother Fro Adu plays for Georgetown Prep. Varsity soccer is a fall sport for both girls and boys in Montgomery County.
<ro>See Churchill Girls Tennis
<lst> Want to see Montgomery County’s most dominant varsity sports team over the last four years? It’s Churchill’s girls tennis team, undefeated in county play through the 2002, ‘03, ‘04 and ‘05 seasons. Varsity tennis matches can be confusing affairs, with seven matches going on at the same time. There are no scoreboards either, but they’re usually not necessary in a Churchill match — odds are pretty good that Bulldogs are winning.