Scholastic Roundup: Paris 2024 — the biggest takeaway

August 16, 2024 Andy Furman

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This just might be the biggest takeaway from the 2024 Paris Olympics.

In the middle of an unpretentious working-class neighborhood in Long Beach, California, is a century-old public school with a remarkable claim to fame, according to a report from Max Preps, an authoritative guide to high school sports.

Woodrow Wilson Classical High School churns out Olympians at a pace that other high schools around the country can’t match, the report continues. The last time that Wilson didn’t have an athlete at the Summer Olympics, Harry Truman was the president of the United States, gas cost 26 cents a gallon, and credit cards hadn’t been invented yet.

Alumni of Wilson have competed at every Summer Olympics since 1952, with the exception of the 1980 Games that the U.S. boycotted.

Hanging from the walls of Wilson’s gymnasium are more than just state championship banners or jerseys of athletes whose numbers have been retired, according to Max Preps. There are also an array of banners celebrating the 30-plus alumni who have made the Olympics in everything from track and field, to swimming, to volleyball, to baseball, to rowing to water polo.

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High jumper Rachel Glenn and water polo player Max Irving added to Wilson’s reputation as an Olympic sports powerhouse by qualifying for Paris 2024, Max Preps reported. Glenn, a first-time Olympian, reflected on Wilson’s 72-year streak last Friday after she narrowly missed qualifying for the Olympic high jump final in front of a capacity crowd at Stade de France.

According to Max Preps, Wilson’s Olympic streak began with a self-described “street rat” whose first dives didn’t make headlines but did make the Long Beach police blotter. Pat McCormick would do cannonballs off a Long Beach bridge, splashing the occupants of the boats coming back into the harbor.

As it turned out, McCormick was better at diving than she was cannonballs — a lot better in fact. She swept the Olympic gold medals in women’s springboard and platform diving in Helsinki in 1952 and then did it again in Melbourne in 1956.

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Many of Wilson’s subsequent Olympians have played water polo and other aquatic sports — a byproduct of the school’s proximity to the now-demolished Belmont Plaza Olympic Pool, reports Max Preps. The famed million-gallon masterpiece hosted the U.S. Olympic swim trials in 1968 and 1976, serving as a training site for Los Angeles 1984. It was a place where Michael Phelps, Natalie Coughlin and Aaron Pearsall all once swam.

Max Preps noted that on dry land, Wilson has also emerged as a track and field powerhouse. The school’s most accomplished alumna was once the standard bearer in the women’s 400-meter hurdle before fellow Americans Dalilah Muhammad and Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone redefined what was possible in the event.

Lashinda Demus smashed high school records and world junior records. She won a trophy case full of gold medals at the NCAA, U.S. and World Championships. Last week, reports Max Preps, she was at last awarded the Olympic gold medal from London 2012 after Russian hurdler Natalya Antyukh’s victory was wiped out due to evidence of doping.

“The majority of athletes and the kids there (Wilson) are actually local kids from Long Beach,” Demus told Yahoo Sports. “That makes it even more special.”

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Before Rachel Glenn showed up to Wilson as a freshman in 2016, she told Max Preps, she had barely high jumped before. “I did it at eight years old with no coach,” it was reported. “You know how you do it for fun? I was 8 years old. ‘Let’s go jump over the bar.’” By the time she graduated, she was a state champion in the 400-meter hurdles and high jump. She is now a high school coach in Southern California at Culver City High School.

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It was Jasmine Abu, with three fourth-quarter goals, who powered Fort Hamilton High School to an 8-2 victory over Benjamin Cardozo to win the 1A Public Schools Athletic League (PSAL) girls’ lacrosse title.
The Lady Lions of Frederick Douglass Academy topped Brooklyn Tech, 14-7, to win the PSAL 2A girls’ championship. Florence Sullivan and Aila Woods put together strong fourth-quarters for Tech – Awa Dembele and her sister Adam starred for the winners.

In the 1A boys’ championship, Christopher Columbus High from The Bronx topped Staten Island’s Port Richmond, 9-8. It was David Ramsen with a score from 10-yards out that beat the Port Richmond goalie for the game winner.

Brooklyn’s Midwood High School dropped the 2A championship game to Tottenville of Staten Island, 16-6. Tottenville’s Jessie Lutz scored three first-quarter goals and ended up with six scores in the win.

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Speaking of lacrosse, the Intercollegiate Women’s Lacrosse Coaches Association (IWLCA) selected its 2023-24 Honor Squads and Academic Honor Roll recipients. with the LIU women’s lacrosse earning a team recognition and 15 LIU players being named to the Honor Roll.

To be eligible for the honor, student-athletes must be junior, senior or graduate students and have earned a cumulative GPA of 3.50 or more.

This year’s honorees include Kelly Bergersen, Lily Bilello, Ava Burns, Alexa Cohen, Jennifer Gaffney, Alicia Inkeles, Jenna Lewis, Ryan McAllister, Mylie Norton, Gina Toscano, Pierson Schuchart, Ava Taylor, Brianna Tribble, Armanda Weber and Rachel Weber.

Last year, women’s lacrosse saw nine of its student-athletes earn the same designation, and the 15 honorees are the most since the Sharks had 18 in 2021. The IWLCA has been handing out academic awards since 2009 from a field of more than 500 institutional members whose mission is to lead, serve and honor the game of women’s lacrosse and those who coach it.

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LIU baseball earned recognition from the American Baseball Coaches Association (ABCA) picking up a Team Academic Excellence Award. This is the eighth consecutive year LIU baseball has received the ABCA Team Academic Excellence Award, which has a long tradition of recognizing the achievements of baseball coaches and student-athletes.

Teams from every level of college and high school baseball were honored with this year’s award, which highlights programs coached by ABCA members that posted a GPA of 3.0 or above for the cumulative 2023-24 academic year. Twenty-seven Sharks baseball players also earned student-athlete Spring Academic Honor Roll honors from the Northeast Conference (NEC).

Andy Furman is a Fox Sports Radio national talk show host. Previously, he was a scholastic sports columnist for the Brooklyn Eagle. He may be reached at: [email protected] ; Twitter: @AndyFurmanFSR