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DeMatha Football sweeps Fla. champions By Chris McManes
The DeMatha Catholic High School football team completed a two-game sweep of the reigning 6A and 5A Florida state champions in its opening two weeks of the season. The Stags first beat Miami Central handily at the Prince George’s Sports and Learning Complex. Then, the team travelled to Florida to defeat the American Heritage School by a score of 23-22. DeMatha Coach Elijah Brooks chose to start the season with contests against nationally ranked opponents and said he is happy to come out 2-0. “To beat two great Florida teams is definitely something that we’re proud of,” Brooks said. “But we’ve got a long way to go to get better.” The Stags were ranked third nationally according to USA Today after their 38-14 victory over then-No. 2 Miami Central on Aug. 29 in Landover. The Stags led No. 15 American Heritage 23-9 with 5:30 to play, but the American Heritage Patriots scored two touchdowns and pulled within one with 53 seconds left. Two five-yard penalties pushed
Life&Times
Vol. 12 No. 9
Hyattsville’s Community Newspaper
September 2015
BACK TO SCHOOL
NEW SCHOOL YEAR, NEW STUDENTS, NEW PRINCIPALS by Rebecca Bennett
Prince George’s County officials visited several Hyattsville public schools as students headed back to class for the 2015-16 school year. According to Prince George’s County Public Schools (PGCPS), the school system enrolled nearly 2,000 new students, bringing the
total number of students to 129,000. "Our schools have steadily improved in both the performance and outcomes over the last five years. This improvement is due to our unwavering focus on raising the bar for our students, while supporting our teachers and administrators as much as possible,” said Prince George’s County Executive Rushern Baker, III.
PGCPS Chief Executive Officer Dr. Kevin Maxwell visited both Edward M. Felegy Elementary School and Hyattsville Middle School (HMS) during the first week. Felegy Elementary School, which opened last year, was designed as an arts integration school, said John Ceschini, a SCHOOLS continued on page 16
NONPROFIT ORG U.S. POSTAGE PAID EASTON MD PERMIT NO. 43
FOOTBALL continued on page 15
New stormwater project breaks ground Hyattsville Life & Times PO Box 132 Hyattsville, MD 20781
by Caroline Selle
On Aug. 7, local officials, members of the Anacostia Watershed Society (AWS), and representatives from the First United Methodist Church of Hyattsville (FUMCHY) gathered in the church’s parking lot to break ground on a new stormwater treatment project. The church uses the parking lot frequently, said Martha Schrader,
a FUMCHY representative for the project. “ ... a lot of community members park there, and we have our weekly flea markets back there. … It's a busy area for pedestrian access.” The project — the first of its kind and one of more than 4,000 acres of planned stormwater retrofit projects in Prince George’s County — included a redesign of the three acre parking lot. Today, the site is lined with a series of
rain gardens planted with native species. Permeable pavement is installed throughout, and a section of the site is devoted to conservation landscaping and is planted with species that can tolerate fluctuations in water, AWS said. That section, known as the BayScape, also includes a labyrinth which will function as “a meditation space for the church,” AWS said in a press release. “The long and short of it is,
it was a relationship between the church and Prince George’s County and AWS to allow this to happen,” said Mary Abe, Chief Architect of Restoration and Sustainability Programs at AWS. Maryland Delegate and Hyattsville resident Anne Healey (D-22), Prince George’s County Councilmember Deni Taveras (D-2), Adam Ortiz, director for STORMWATER continued on page 17
CENTER SECTION: THE SEPTEMBER 9, 2015 ISSUE OF THE HYATTSVILLE REPORTER