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Republished with permission granted by The Washington Newspaper Publishing Co. LLC d/b/a MediaDC. Back to Montgomery Journal articles
Former sports rivals learn to be partners
By MARCIE RITZ
Journal staff writer
The Wildcat on the floor of the Walter Johnson High School gymnasium has a fierce expression on its face.
That ferocity is aimed at the school's opponents, a group that no longer includes former Old Georgetown Road rival Woodward High School.
Woodward is closed; Walter Johnson has adopted its old nickname - Wildcats. The two schools are one.
Gone is the rancor that accompanied the Woodward closing. If sports can establish a tone - and the adoption of Woodward's nickname means people believe they can - then things are great at Walter Johnson High School.
"The kids are going to make it work," said Walter Johnson Athletic Director Mike Lanahan. "Athletics is the area where it's most visible. You could see it in the football on Saturday. Once they took the field against Magruder, any feeling of two different schools was gone. They had one common goal, one common opponent."
Meshing players into teams
The groundwork for the schools' merger began before practice opened. In late May, Lanahan ordered uniforms with the new nickname. Art students painted the new mascot on the press box at the football stadium and on the gym floor.
Inside the main entrance to the school, a bronze wildcat resides next to the Spartan that has been there since the school opened 30 years ago.
Now, it's a matter of getting all the teams to mesh. It's not easy because the players come from different systems. But the individuals are getting along well, the coaches said.
"This was the greatest, easiest summer practice we've had," said football Coach Joe Mencarini. "The kids meshed well, they practiced hard and every starter from the two teams is starting somewhere for us now."
The move to Class AA (the largest high school classification) will be hardest on the football team. Neither Walter Johnson nor Woodward had strong teams last season, and in 1987, the Wildcats play against some of the best programs in the state. But Mencarini said, the players know that "their backs will be against the wall every week. That doesn't bother them."
New coaches, good sports
Mencarini said much of the credit for the team's unity belongs to assistants Rod Frye and Leo Campion, former assistants to Tom George at Woodward.
And thanks to the integrity and generosity of Walter Johnson staffers, other sports have former Woodward staffers at the helm as well.
"Jerry Kline (former W.J. cross country coach) said that if Greg (Dunston, former Woodward coach) came into the school, that he should have the cross country team," Lanaham explained. "Jerry helps him with that, then Jerry will coach the indoor track team and Greg will help him.
"Candy (Thurman) and Steve Swift (the girls soccer coaches) recognized that if Corky (Logsdon, former Woodward coach) was going to be in the building, well, he has a tremendous reputation and they stepped down."
When the Walter Johnson girls tennis coach resigned, Lanahan was able to hire Gabby Von Nordheim from Woodward.
The biggest problem Dunston, a math teacher, has seen at Walter Johnson is getting around a bigger building.
"The classes are normal (size)," Dunston said of the school, which has approximately 1,800 students. "The periods are a little shorter and the building is gigantic. When I first got here, I knew two rooms - mine and the bathroom."
Dunston had one of the finest cross country and track programs in the state at Woodward. He has brought that enthusiasm to Walter Johnson.
"My biggest question was: Would I be accepted by the W.J. kids?" Dunston said. "At Woodward, the kids knew me. But Friday night, I got home about 11:30 p.m.... I went back out to put the garbage out and there was a big sign out there like the one Dave Scaggs used to put out that said, "Woodward home soccer game today."
"It hadn't been there when I got home. Then, three kids from Walter Johnson called me and said they thought it would be nice for me to have it as a souvenir, so I guess I've been accepted."
The Judge Woodward Relays
Dunston is quick to point out that Walter Johnson has a strong tradition in track and cross country, also. He will continue his season-opening relay meets, formerly called the Woodward Relays. Now they are the Judge Charles W. Woodward Relays.
"I wanted the name, not for the school, but well it's like the Penn Relays. When people hear that name, they know what it is," Dunston explained of the 14-year-old event. "I want it so that when people who ran in the relays 10 years ago hear the name, they'll know it's still alive. It will be: Walter Johnson High School presents the Judge Charles W. Woodward Relays."
The sports with the most pressure on them are soccer and field hockey. Both Walter Johnson and Woodward had strong traditions in those sports, and outsiders figure that consolidation should create powerhouses.
The coaches of those respective teams are cautious.
"This year, I have a lot of talent, but it's different because the kids aren't a team yet." said soccer Coach Dave Kelly. "We've got a lot of work to do, but in the future we'll be powerful.
"As far as morale, the kids are getting along just fine. They have known each other for quite a few years, either playing against each other or with each other in junior high. Our practices are productive and we're having fun."
Kelley's team is split about 50-50 between new and old Walter Johnson students. Field hockey Coach Candy Thurman has about the same split.
"We have about eight or nine from each school and only time will tell," Thurman said. "The kids don't know each other yet, but the attitude has been really good. When we first started, they would divide by school for the team drills and things, but that's not going on as much now.
"It's hard to tell right now (how the team will come together), but I'm real pleased with the camaraderie and the discipline from both programs."
Selecting captains
Thurman got lucky, she said, because most of the returning players from last year's W.J. team are on offense. Most of the returnees from Woodward are defensive players.
As far as naming team captains, most coaches are letting the players vote. Thurman told her team they could vote for two captains, one from each of last year's teams or two captains from the same 1986 team. Either was OK.
"They seem to enjoy each other and I think it's going to work out," she said.
Girls volleyball Coach Jack Stout had things easy as far as selecting captains. He has just two seniors on his team - Sharon Krogman, who played for Woodward, and Amy Kingman, a starter for Walter Johnson.
"I don't think it would have been a problem anyway," Stout said of captain selections.
Stout, who is retired from teaching, said because he isn't in the building all day, he doesn't see how things are working. But in addition to the fact that his players get along just fine, he has noticed something else.
Lanahan said that a lot of the administrative side of the merger is still piled up on his desk, but most of the headaches are over. Now, he said, it's just a matter of the former Woodward students getting used to the larger building and bigger student body. It's the same adjustment he had to make when he arrived at the school 19 years ago, he said.
But the kids are making it work, coaches said, both on the field and in the classroom.
"I don't know all the names as I probably would have in the past," Mencarini said of his math classes. "But from my perspective, the merger has been good. I don't see any conflict. It's just like everyone's been here forever."
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