FEARLESS FORECASTS RETURN: GAZETTE STAFF PICKS THE WINNERS OF ALL HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL GAMES, B-3
SPORTS GAITHERSBURG | DAMASCUS | GERMANTOWN
www.gazette.net | Wednesday, August 21, 2013 | Page B-1
Stronger Diggs tacklesleadership role for Terps Good Counsel graduate chosen to lead Maryland football team as a sophomore
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DAN FELDMAN STAFF WRITER
TOM FEDOR/THE GAZETTE
Northwest High School athletes take the Montgomery County Public Schools’ baseline concussion test on Aug. 14.
New baseline
University of Maryland, College Park football coach Randy Edsall can tell everyone how highly he thinks of Our Lady of Good Counsel High School graduate Stefon Diggs — and, don’t worry, he will — but Edsall would rather let outsiders draw their own conclusions. Edsall even challenged reporters to evaluate Diggs for themselves before Maryland opened fall practice. IF YOU GO “He’s gotten stronger,” Edsall said. “You can see it. n Good Counsel Just look at his arms when he vs. Gilman comes in today.” n When: 8:30 p.m. Diggs complied, wearing Friday a short-sleeve shirt and casually massaging his biceps n Where: Towson while answering questions. University’s Johnny But whether Diggs is Unitas Stadium physically stronger isn’t the n Tickets: $10 only proving ground for the star receiver this season. He’s n TV: ESPNews also attempting to prove he’s become a stronger leader. Last spring, Edsall named Diggs, a sophomore, to a 10-player leadership council comprised mostly of upperclassmen. “He’s a great kid,” Edsall said. “I love being around him. I love how he works. I love his competitiveness. And I love that he likes to accept the challenge. I think, for him, being a leader is another thing that he could look at, say, ‘Hey, this is a challenge, and I’m going to
See DIGGS, Page B-2
in concussion testing
Montgomery County student-athletes undergo mandatory baseline concussion testing n
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BY JENNIFER BEEKMAN STAFF WRITER
ired, moody, irritable, short attention span. Sounds like the typical teenager, right? Maybe, but these are also common concussion symptoms that can easily be mistaken for adolescent angst. Last week, thousands of Montgomery County Public Schools high school studentathletes underwent mandatory baseline concussion testing for the first time, a major step forward in providing awareness and education and ensuring the safety of the county’s athletes, said Dr. Michael R. Yochelson, the vice president of medical affairs and chief medical officer for the MedStar National Rehabilitation Network. In June, the Montgomery County Board of Education approved MCPS Superintendent Joshua P. Starr’s proposal to provide baseline concussion testing at high schools
TOM FEDOR/THE GAZETTE
Northwest High School athletes take the Montgomery County Public Schools’ baseline concussion test on Aug. 14.
countywide. MCPS entered into contracts with MedStar, Adventist Rehabilitation Hospital of Maryland, ATI Physical Therapy and Metro Orthopedics and Sports Therapy to administer the testing. Yochelson said MedStar will also provide each of its six assigned schools — Walt Whitman, Walter Johnson, Northwood, Sherwood, James H. Blake and Col. Zadok Magruder — with an athletic trainer and a physician. While many of her peers seemed indifferent to the testing — athletes were supposed to go before Aug. 14 tryouts — Thomas S. Wootton High School sophomore Emma Weinberg is a major proponent for it. A concussion knocked the junior varsity soccer player out of the sport for eight months last year. Weinberg and her mother Julie aren’t convinced the hiatus, which the teen said began to affect her emotional well-being, needed to be that long. But doctors had no baseline to work from. A concussion is a force to the brain that causes a change in neurologic function, Yochelson said. Most concussed individuals recover within three weeks, but some can experience prolonged symptoms that include headaches, dizziness, inability to concen-
See CONCUSSION, Page B-2
GREG DOHLER/THE GAZETTE
Our Lady of Good Counsel High School graduate and University of Maryland, College Park sophomore Stefon Diggs (right) eludes a tackler after catching a pass during practice.
Montrose Christian hires basketball coach Mustangs select former pro player to lead its nationally-known program
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Wootton a favorite to repeat as state champs Patriots return all four members of state championship team n
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TRAVIS MEWHIRTER STAFF WRITER
Allison Wong laughed when recalling last year’s fall pep rally at Thomas S. Wootton High School. She recounted the story, how everyone in the gym rah-rahhed for the football team and the state champion soccer team, how even the cheerleaders got a whoop or two. And then, when the golf team was introduced, Wong remembered her friends looking over at her, incredulous, asking: “We have a golf team?” Yes, and not just any golf team. It’s a 3A/4A champion squad, the first to topple Urbana in four years, finishing just seven strokes shy of Walt Whitman’s
STAFF WRITER
in the state hiding in plain sight. It got so bad that, at one point, Shah, who shot a team-best 73-
See WOOTTON, Page B-2
See MONTROSE, Page B-2
n Schedule n Today: Golf, field hockey, cross country. n Next week: Football. n Sept. 4: Boys and girls soccer, girls volleyball, girls tennis.
BILL RYAN/THE GAZETTE
Wootton High School golfers Allison Wong, Delaney Shah and Graysen Bright, practice Saturday at Needwood Golf Course. The rest of the starters — junior Justin Feldman, sophomore Delaney Shah, junior Graysen Bright — took note of their anonymity as well, the best golf team
TRAVIS MEWHIRTER
Stu Vetter may have taken his 321 wins, his 2011 National High School Invitational title, his resume boasting more than 40 Division I college athletes and three that played in the National Basketball Association when he resigned in June, but don’t expect the Mustangs to take a step back. About two months after Vetter resigned, saying he wanted to visit his former pupils, the Mustangs hired Bryan Bartley from Hebron Christian Academy (Dacula, Ga.). “The hiring of coach Bartley shows our continued commitment to both academic and athletic excellence as a Christian school,” Montrose Christian Athletic Director Bill Vernon said in a news release. In addition to his duties as the basketball coach, Bartley will also serve as an assistant principal and director of advancement. Bartley played three years of college ball for Upsala and a professional season in Portugal from 1989-1990. He’s been on the marketing side of the sport with the Atlanta Hawks and the coaching side at the high school level for Landmark Christian (Ga.). He was also an assistant at Auburn for three years and a recruiting director for one. Most recently, Bartley was the athletic director for the past two years at Hebron. Now, he’s secured one of the country’s most prestigious names in high school hoops.
FALL SPORTS PREVIEWS
record of 596. Oh, and it featured three girls, an amount that none of the dozen or so coaches and officials asked last October could remember starting in a state championship, let alone to win while doing so. “Even with winning states, no one really knew who the golf team was,” said Wong, whose 146 twoday total was second on the team in the state championship. “Our school was all excited about the soccer team winning.”
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