Just three miles apart, every year Walt Whitman High School and Bethesda Chevy Chase face off in the “Battle of Bethesda” between the two schools’ soccer teams.
This year, the girls’ soccer JV and Varsity teams channeled their passion for this rivalry into a greater goal: playing for change by raising money and awareness for Soccer Without Borders– an organization that soccer as a vehicle for positive change, providing under-served youth with a toolkit to overcome obstacles to growth, inclusion, and personal success.
WHAT:
For the first time since 2019, the treasured soccer tradition is back: the Battle of Bethesda. This epic soccer game between the girls from Bethesda Chevy Chase HS and Walt Whitman HS is not only a battle for the coveted Bethesda Cup it also brings together the two schools to raise money and awareness for Soccer Without Borders.
Soccer Without Borders is a non-profit that uses soccer as a vehicle for positive change, providing under-served youth with a toolkit to overcome obstacles to growth, inclusion, and personal success. So far the both schools have worked together to raise money by hosting a car wash, dine in nights and setting up a go fund me page. The car wash alone raised nearly $2,000. This is the 9th year that both schools have worked together to raise funds for Soccer Without Borders.
WHEN:
Tuesday, October 12th
JV at 5:30pm followed by Varsity at 7:15pm
WHERE:
Whitman High School
7100 Whittier Blvd, Bethesda, MD 20817
WHO:
Coaches from both Bethesda Chevy Chase HS and Walt Whitman HS
Players
Representatives from Soccer without Borders
Featured photo courtesy of Soccer Without Borders (2015 game)
Tomas Minc, a junior at B-CC High School, is a member of the DMT (Double Mini Trampoline) National Team and will be competing next month , in November, at the 2021 World Trampoline & Tumbling Championship in Baku, Azerbaijan.
Tomas and his partner at that time, won the Synchronized Trampoline competition for their age group (13-14 y.o.) at WAGC (World Age Group Competition) in St Petersburg, Russia in 2018.
Per a 2018 KidsPost article, Tomas practices about 18 to 20 hours a week at the Rockville location of the Dynamite Gymnastics Center. If you’re unfamiliar with DMT, the same article describes it as when “a gymnast races down the runway, bounces on the front part of a trampoline, does a flip and lands on the back part of the trampoline and does another aerial trick.”
Prior to B-CC, he attended Westland Middle School, where he also played soccer.
Earlier this morning, David Simon tweeted that he was excited to be filming in Baltimore. “Alarm just went off. A** up and moving. Today is the first day of filming in Baltimore in more than 14 years. Good to be home.”
The MoCo native graduated from B-CC high school and is perhaps best known for creating one of the most popular HBO series of all-time, The Wire. The reason Simon is in Baltimore is for the filming of his new limited series on HBO, We Own This City, based on the book We Own This City: A True Story of Crime, Cops and Corruption by investigative journalist Justin Fenton.
Simon has brought back a lot of the crew that worked on The Wire, which includes writer/producer George Pelecanos, who graduated from Northwood High School. Simon and Pelecanos have worked together on HBO’s The Wire, Treme, The Deuce, and more.
Beyond Simon and Pelecanos, The Wire had plenty of ties to Montgomery County:
Actor Gbenga Akinnagbe, who played Chris Partlow, graduated from Magruder High School. Delaney Williams, who played Jay Landsman, is a graduate of Blair High School. Darrell Britt-Gibson, who played Darius “O-Dog” Hill, is a graduate of Blake High School. The show even featured Burtonsville in season 3, as the location where “burner” cell phones were purchased.
Featured photo courtesy of AP/Random House Books.
Updated 8/27/21 to include the premiere date of the rebooted series
The Wonder Years Reboot Premieres on September 22nd, Original Had Many MoCo Connections
The Wonder Years had a successful run from 1988-1993. Though the series was set in “Anytown, USA” many elements were pulled from right here in Silver Spring, where series writer/producer Carol Black was raised and graduated from Springbrook High School.
Co-creator Neal Marlens wanted the series to be set in Long Island, so you’ll see protagonist Kevin Arnold wearing a Jets jacket throughout the series, but a town was never mentioned and Black made sure to include as much of her childhood neighborhood as she could.
Now, the series is being rebooted. It will be produced by original star of the series, Fred Savage. The show originally tackled hard-hitting issues like the Vietnam War and the everyday struggles of growing up for teenaged boy in the 70s.
The reboot allows us to experience the same timeframe through the lens of a Black family, this time in Montgomery, Alabama. Executive producer, Lee Daniels, shared the first picture of the stars of the new series on his Instagram.
The show premieres on September 22nd on ABC.
A trailer can be see here:
The reboot will also feature Don Cheadle narrating the series. The original version featured Daniel Stern, who many know as Marv from Home Alone. Stern is also a MoCo native, growing up in Bethesda and attending Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School before leaving a bit early to pursue his acting career.
Original photo courtesy of ABC.
