Wheaton High School
Encyclopedia
Wheaton High School is an American
four-year public high school
in Montgomery County
, Maryland
. It is located in the unincorporated Wheaton/Glenmont
section of Silver Spring
, about 5 miles north of Washington, D.C.
.
The high school is a part of the Montgomery County Public School system
and a member of its Downcounty Consortium. The school is named for the Wheaton area, which is in turn named for Frank Wheaton
(1833-1903), a career officer in the Union Army
who rose to the rank of major-general while serving before, during, and after the Civil War
.
The school is also physically connected to the Thomas Edison High School of Technology
, named in honor of the famous American inventor
.
of Biosciences and Medicine
, the Academy
of Engineering
(voted the top CTE program in Maryland), the Academy
of Information Technology
, and the Academy of International Global and Cultural Studies.
, representative of valor, chivalry
, and bravery.
Wheaton's athletic teams have brought home several state championships. The Football Team captured a 2A State Championship in 1996 and were state finalists in 1994. They also were state semi-finalists in 1979 and 1980. The Girls Basketball Team won State Championships in 1985, 1997 and 1998. They were also state finalists in 1976 and 1982.
Wheaton's main rival is John F. Kennedy High School
which is located down Randolph Road. The rivalry is fueled by the schools' close proximity to one another. The Wheaton-Kennedy competitive rivalry is one of the oldest in Montgomery County.
Wheaton High School has produced several titles in Winter Sports to include multiple boys and girls basketball State Championships and Wrestling State Champions. In Wrestling, Wheaton has the longest running tradition of state qualifiers in the entire state of Maryland that has not been broken since 1970. The next closest in comparison is Damascus High School with a 27 year long run from 1982-2009
who gained fame with her bands, The Runaways
and The Blackhearts. Jett attended Wheaton High School briefly in the early 1970s before moving to L.A. to launch her music career.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
four-year public high school
High school
High school is a term used in parts of the English speaking world to describe institutions which provide all or part of secondary education. The term is often incorporated into the name of such institutions....
in Montgomery County
Montgomery County, Maryland
Montgomery County is a county in the U.S. state of Maryland, situated just to the north of Washington, D.C., and southwest of the city of Baltimore. It is one of the most affluent counties in the United States, and has the highest percentage of residents over 25 years of age who hold post-graduate...
, Maryland
Maryland
Maryland is a U.S. state located in the Mid Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware to its east...
. It is located in the unincorporated Wheaton/Glenmont
Wheaton, Maryland
Wheaton is an unincorporated, urbanized area in Montgomery County, Maryland, USA, north of Washington, D.C., northwest of Silver Spring. Wheaton takes its name from Frank Wheaton , a career officer in the United States Army and volunteer from Rhode Island in the Union Army who rose to the rank of...
section of Silver Spring
Silver Spring, Maryland
Silver Spring is an unincorporated area and census-designated place in Montgomery County, Maryland, United States. It had a population of 71,452 at the 2010 census, making it the fourth most populous place in Maryland, after Baltimore, Columbia, and Germantown.The urbanized, oldest, and...
, about 5 miles north of Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
.
The high school is a part of the Montgomery County Public School system
Montgomery County Public Schools
Montgomery County Public Schools ' is a school district that serves Montgomery County, Maryland, USA. It is the largest school district in Maryland. As of the 2009–2010 school year, the district had 11,500 FTE teachers serving 141,777 students at 200 schools.Students in the district score among the...
and a member of its Downcounty Consortium. The school is named for the Wheaton area, which is in turn named for Frank Wheaton
Frank Wheaton
Frank Wheaton was a career military officer in the United States Army during the American Civil War and Indian Wars.-Early life and career:...
(1833-1903), a career officer in the Union Army
Union Army
The Union Army was the land force that fought for the Union during the American Civil War. It was also known as the Federal Army, the U.S. Army, the Northern Army and the National Army...
who rose to the rank of major-general while serving before, during, and after the Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
.
The school is also physically connected to the Thomas Edison High School of Technology
Thomas Edison High School of Technology
Thomas Edison High School of Technology is a public vocational/technical high school located in Wheaton, an unincorporated section of Montgomery County, Maryland. It is connected to Wheaton High School....
, named in honor of the famous American inventor
Thomas Edison
Thomas Alva Edison was an American inventor and businessman. He developed many devices that greatly influenced life around the world, including the phonograph, the motion picture camera, and a long-lasting, practical electric light bulb. In addition, he created the world’s first industrial...
.
Academies
Wheaton High School has four main academies of education: The AcademyAcademy
An academy is an institution of higher learning, research, or honorary membership.The name traces back to Plato's school of philosophy, founded approximately 385 BC at Akademia, a sanctuary of Athena, the goddess of wisdom and skill, north of Athens, Greece. In the western world academia is the...
of Biosciences and Medicine
Medicine
Medicine is the science and art of healing. It encompasses a variety of health care practices evolved to maintain and restore health by the prevention and treatment of illness....
, the Academy
Academy
An academy is an institution of higher learning, research, or honorary membership.The name traces back to Plato's school of philosophy, founded approximately 385 BC at Akademia, a sanctuary of Athena, the goddess of wisdom and skill, north of Athens, Greece. In the western world academia is the...
of Engineering
Engineering
Engineering is the discipline, art, skill and profession of acquiring and applying scientific, mathematical, economic, social, and practical knowledge, in order to design and build structures, machines, devices, systems, materials and processes that safely realize improvements to the lives of...
(voted the top CTE program in Maryland), the Academy
Academy
An academy is an institution of higher learning, research, or honorary membership.The name traces back to Plato's school of philosophy, founded approximately 385 BC at Akademia, a sanctuary of Athena, the goddess of wisdom and skill, north of Athens, Greece. In the western world academia is the...
of Information Technology
Information technology
Information technology is the acquisition, processing, storage and dissemination of vocal, pictorial, textual and numerical information by a microelectronics-based combination of computing and telecommunications...
, and the Academy of International Global and Cultural Studies.
Sports
The school mascot is the Wheaton KnightKnight
A knight was a member of a class of lower nobility in the High Middle Ages.By the Late Middle Ages, the rank had become associated with the ideals of chivalry, a code of conduct for the perfect courtly Christian warrior....
, representative of valor, chivalry
Chivalry
Chivalry is a term related to the medieval institution of knighthood which has an aristocratic military origin of individual training and service to others. Chivalry was also the term used to refer to a group of mounted men-at-arms as well as to martial valour...
, and bravery.
Wheaton's athletic teams have brought home several state championships. The Football Team captured a 2A State Championship in 1996 and were state finalists in 1994. They also were state semi-finalists in 1979 and 1980. The Girls Basketball Team won State Championships in 1985, 1997 and 1998. They were also state finalists in 1976 and 1982.
Wheaton's main rival is John F. Kennedy High School
John F. Kennedy High School (Montgomery County, Maryland)
John F. Kennedy High School is a public high school located in unincorporated Silver Spring in Montgomery County, Maryland.The school is a part of Montgomery County Public Schools.Over 1,550 students are enrolled at Kennedy...
which is located down Randolph Road. The rivalry is fueled by the schools' close proximity to one another. The Wheaton-Kennedy competitive rivalry is one of the oldest in Montgomery County.
Fall sports
- Cross CountryCross country runningCross country running is a sport in which people run a race on open-air courses over natural terrain. The course, typically long, may include surfaces of grass and earth, pass through woodlands and open country, and include hills, flat ground and sometimes gravel road...
- Field HockeyField hockeyField Hockey, or Hockey, is a team sport in which a team of players attempts to score goals by hitting, pushing or flicking a ball into an opposing team's goal using sticks...
- FootballAmerican footballAmerican football is a sport played between two teams of eleven with the objective of scoring points by advancing the ball into the opposing team's end zone. Known in the United States simply as football, it may also be referred to informally as gridiron football. The ball can be advanced by...
- GolfGolfGolf is a precision club and ball sport, in which competing players use many types of clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a golf course using the fewest number of strokes....
- Soccer
- TennisTennisTennis is a sport usually played between two players or between two teams of two players each . Each player uses a racket that is strung to strike a hollow rubber ball covered with felt over a net into the opponent's court. Tennis is an Olympic sport and is played at all levels of society at all...
- VolleyballVolleyballVolleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules.The complete rules are extensive...
- CheerleadingCheerleadingCheerleading is a physical activity, sometimes a competitive sport, based on organized routines, usually ranging from one to three minutes, which contain the components of tumbling, dance, jumps, cheers, and stunting to direct spectators of events to cheer on sports teams at games or to participate...
- Fence Hopping
Winter sports
- BasketballBasketballBasketball is a team sport in which two teams of five players try to score points by throwing or "shooting" a ball through the top of a basketball hoop while following a set of rules...
- SwimmingSwimming (sport)Swimming is a sport governed by the Fédération Internationale de Natation .-History: Competitive swimming in Europe began around 1800 BCE, mostly in the form of the freestyle. In 1873 Steve Bowyer introduced the trudgen to Western swimming competitions, after copying the front crawl used by Native...
and divingDivingDiving is the sport of jumping or falling into water from a platform or springboard, sometimes while performing acrobatics. Diving is an internationally-recognized sport that is part of the Olympic Games. In addition, unstructured and non-competitive diving is a recreational pastime.Diving is one... - Indoor track
- WrestlingWrestlingWrestling is a form of grappling type techniques such as clinch fighting, throws and takedowns, joint locks, pins and other grappling holds. A wrestling bout is a physical competition, between two competitors or sparring partners, who attempt to gain and maintain a superior position...
Wheaton High School has produced several titles in Winter Sports to include multiple boys and girls basketball State Championships and Wrestling State Champions. In Wrestling, Wheaton has the longest running tradition of state qualifiers in the entire state of Maryland that has not been broken since 1970. The next closest in comparison is Damascus High School with a 27 year long run from 1982-2009
Spring sports
- BaseballBaseballBaseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each. The aim is to score runs by hitting a thrown ball with a bat and touching a series of four bases arranged at the corners of a ninety-foot diamond...
- TennisTennisTennis is a sport usually played between two players or between two teams of two players each . Each player uses a racket that is strung to strike a hollow rubber ball covered with felt over a net into the opponent's court. Tennis is an Olympic sport and is played at all levels of society at all...
- LacrosseLacrosseLacrosse is a team sport of Native American origin played using a small rubber ball and a long-handled stick called a crosse or lacrosse stick, mainly played in the United States and Canada. It is a contact sport which requires padding. The head of the lacrosse stick is strung with loose mesh...
- Track and fieldTrack and fieldTrack and field is a sport comprising various competitive athletic contests based around the activities of running, jumping and throwing. The name of the sport derives from the venue for the competitions: a stadium which features an oval running track surrounding a grassy area...
- SoftballSoftballSoftball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of 10 to 14 players. It is a direct descendant of baseball although there are some key differences: softballs are larger than baseballs, and the pitches are thrown underhand rather than overhand...
- VolleyballVolleyballVolleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules.The complete rules are extensive...
Alumni
One notable alumnus of Wheaton High School is rock star Joan JettJoan Jett
Joan Jett is an American rock guitarist, singer, songwriter, producer and actress.She is best known for her work with Joan Jett & the Blackhearts including their hit cover "I Love Rock 'n' Roll", which was #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 from March 20 to May 1, 1982, as well as for their other popular...
who gained fame with her bands, The Runaways
The Runaways
The Runaways were an American all-girl rock band that recorded and performed in the second half of the 1970s. The band released four studio albums and one live set during its run. Among its best known songs: "Cherry Bomb", "Queens of Noise", "Neon Angels On the Road to Ruin", "California Paradise"...
and The Blackhearts. Jett attended Wheaton High School briefly in the early 1970s before moving to L.A. to launch her music career.