Gwynn Park

Three interceptions and a botched punt snap cooled the Gwynn Park High School football team's hot start to the 2011 season. Saturday afternoon, the Yellow Jackets dropped to 2-1 as they lost, 14-6, on the road against rival Frederick Douglass in a Prince George's County 3A/2A/1A League game. The Eagles' secondary intercepted Gwynn Park sophomore quarterback Jay Adams three times, and Douglass (2-1) did just enough on offense to notch the victory. "That was something," said Eagles Coach J.C. Pinkney.

Since going 7-10 in his first season at the helm, Bethesda-Chevy Chase baseball Coach John Schmidt has seen his team increase its win total each year. But after losing the middle of his batting lineup as well as his top three pitchers to graduation or transfer, Schmidt braced for his fourth season to be a rebuilding one. Instead, as the Barons enter Friday's playoffs with the No. 2 seed and a first-round bye in the Maryland 4A West region bracket, Schmidt leads what he calls "the best team I've...

Bobby Kmetz didn't know whether Gwynn Park would try to win the game by running right at him, but the Urbana senior defensive tackle decided he would win the game by running at whomever the Yellow Jackets gave the ball. Kmetz burst through the line, and stopped No. 15 Gwynn Park at the 1-yard line on a two-point conversion attempt in overtime to preserve a thrilling 28-27 homecoming victory for the Hawks. "I just wanted to get through the line," Kmetz said. "I didn't know where they were going, but I was going to be there.

On the opening possession of the third quarter in Friday's Maryland 2A South region girls' basketball final against Gwynn Park , Calvert senior Alexis Smith penetrated into the lane and whipped a pass into junior Daijha Thomas 's midsection. The 6-foot-2 forward spun and scored eight seconds into the second half. The eighth-ranked Cavaliers rarely looked inside early in the game, but once Thomas became the primary offensive option, the two-time defending state champions hit their stride in...

With less than two minutes remaining in Gwynn Park's rematch against County 3A/2A/1A League-leading Potomac on Friday night, Yellow Jackets' forward Tion Barnes leaped high toward the basket to connect with teammate Mike Hemsley's underhand lob before completing the alley-oop with an emphatic slam. It was the last of seven dunks from Barnes as his 30-point output paced Gwynn Park to a 96-79 victory against visiting Potomac on Friday. After only scoring five points and admittedly losing his focus during the teams' first meeting, an...

The Frederick Douglass football team's defense kept bending as far as it could during Saturday's 2A South Region title game at Gwynn Park. On five consecutive possessions, the Yellow Jackets drove inside the Douglass 20-yard line. But each time, the Eagles' defense kept Gwynn Park out of the end zone. Those defensive stands lifted Douglass past Gwynn Park, 8-0, and into the 2A semifinals, where the Eagles (10-2) will take on Baltimore's Eastern Tech (11-1) at 7 p.m. Friday at the Community College of...

Friendly boys' Coach Robert Garner accurately predicted what Friday's early-season showdown against Gwynn Park would be like when he said it would be a "rumble. " In an early candidate for game of the year in the County 3A/2A/1A League, Gwynn Park earned a huge win on the road in Fort Washington, edging the Patriots, 68-67. Gwynn Park (3-1) is already battle-tested, having faced two of the area's better Class 3A teams -- Friendly and Potomac (an 81-80 setback Dec. 11) -- on consecutive Fridays.

If he had it his way, Lavaughn Hughes would be lining up in the backfield, taking a handoff and letting his legs do the work. But 20th-ranked Gwynn Park needed a quarterback and, well, the Yellow Jackets already had plenty of options at running back. "I'm not going to say I wasn't going to get any clock [at running back] but I can play quarterback," Hughes said. So Hughes made the position switch and spent last season as a backup at Gwynn Park after transferring from Riverdale Baptist.

After a frenetic first half, the Gwynn Park girls' basketball team was down by two points to Friendly on Tuesday night, but the Yellow Jackets weren't discouraged at trailing a league opponent after 16 minutes for the first time this season. Instead, junior Genesis Lucas said the locker room buzzed with excitement during the intermission to see how much faster they could go in the second half. As the players hoped, Gwynn Park turned up the pace after halftime, using its full-court trapping press to create...

As fifth-ranked River Hill rolled through one of the most impressive regular seasons in Washington area history, the Maryland 2A champion Hawks were aware of the challenges that awaited in the playoffs. Specifically, All-Met running back and defensive back Michael Campanaro acknowledged, River Hill knew that a meeting with Gwynn Park was likely. What nobody knew, however, was that the two high-powered teams would begin their postseason by playing each other tonight in the Maryland 2A South Region semifinals.

Oakland Mills junior Marvin Williams has worked on his dunking all season during practices, but until Thursday night, he'd never dared to attempt to throw one down in a game. When Williams broke into the open court in the third quarter of the Maryland 2A South quarterfinal against Gwynn Park, the timing suddenly seemed too perfect not to go for it. With a Yellow Jacket in close pursuit the layup might have been the high-percentage play, but the guard rose for a right-handed slam that whipped the...

Eleanor Roosevelt senior Malachi Alexander took a backdoor bounce pass from teammate Jesse Ason in stride and squared his shoulders to the basket. With just seconds remaining in Wednesday's Prince George's County championship game against No. 8 Potomac (Md.) , the 6-foot-7 forward's next move would be the difference between a victory celebration and overtime. Alexander didn't have time to think twice. He...

In the immediate days after a home loss to Gwynn Park last month, Friendly senior Chayla Lewis was in no mood to relive the experience. With a flurry of turnovers and squandered layups, the Patriots allowed the rival Yellow Jackets to control the tempo and pull away for an easy victory. Last weekend, the 5-foot-10 guard finally swallowed her pride, asking teammate Danielle Pray to borrow the tape of the game her father had filmed. And so Lewis popped in the DVD at her Fort...

After 11 years as girls' basketball coach at Parkdale, Selina Smith arrived at Crossland last season and quickly laid down her ground rules: Players who aren't serious about defense can expect to receive an earful, and those who don't bother to run the offense get a seat next to her on the bench. Smith switched Prince George's County public schools eager for the challenge of resurrecting a program, and the first step meant a newfound commitment to discipline. The Cavaliers have begun...

Junior Takayla Ellis earned her place in the Gwynn Park girls' basketball team's starting lineup through her work in summer league, showing Coach Michael Strother that she could handle more than the reserve role she had filled late last winter after transferring midseason from Riverdale Baptist . But the 5-foot-6 guard began Tuesday's game at Friendly on the bench next to her coach as punishment for an incident at a recent practice....

Gwynn Park captured the Prince George's County title last winter, regularly employing a rotation that featured seven seniors and a junior. Those seniors have moved on with all seven currently playing in college or prep school, leaving Jalen Harris behind to continue the legacy. "I really looked up to the seniors last year," said Harris, a 6-foot-2 senior guard. "I always listened to them, and I learned a lot. They said this year was going to be my year to pass it on. " Harris leads the Yellow...

Gwynn Park has ruled the Prince George's County 3A/2A/1A baseball league since most of the current players were just beginning elementary school, having won 11 consecutive league titles. This season, though, Gwynn Park might relinquish its hold. Friendly, led by senior first baseman Jason Barnes, entered this week atop the league, with an 11-1 record. The Patriots' only loss was to Surrattsville, and they avenged it with an 11-4 victory last week, with Barnes hitting yet another home run. "These guys have talent, hands...

Gwynn Park's boys' team has five new starters and is relying heavily on a pair of talented sophomores, but a knack for hanging on in close games helped the Yellow Jackets increase their Prince George's County 3A/2A/1A winning streak to 26 games after an 80-75 victory at Fairmont Heights on Monday. Senior guard Keith Thomas scored 22 points, and sophomore guard Brandon Ford added 21 as Gwynn Park (7-3, 6-0) won for the seventh time in eight games. The victory came after a pair of close calls last week: 73-71 over Douglass...

North Point girls' basketball Coach Mike Serpone gathered his team for a postgame huddle Friday night and prepared to scold them for what he considered a lackadaisical effort in their game against archrival Westlake . It turned out he didn't have to. "They were like ‘you don't even have to say anything,' because they knew," Serpone said. "The girls were not satisfied. " The sixth-ranked Eagles are holding themselves to a higher standard this...

Magruder senior J.J. Epps will miss at least a month after undergoing surgery to repair a broken right hand Monday. Coach Dan Harwood said the 5-foot-6 guard dislocated two fingers when a defender stepped on his hand in the lane late in overtime during a 59-55 loss at Springbrook on Dec. 19. Epps, a fourth-team All-Met last season when the Colonels won the Maryland 4A title, will be in a cast for four weeks and Harwood hopes to...