T. C. Williams High School

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T. C. Williams High School is a public high school in Alexandria, Virginia, USA, named after former superintendent T.C. Williams of Alexandria City Public Schools who served from the mid-1930s to the mid-1960s. It is located near the geographic center of the city, at 3330 King Street; and is referred to informally as "T.C." (rather than "Williams") by students, faculty and locals. Approximately 2,100 students from grades 10-12 are enrolled at T.C.. Ninth graders have classes at the nearby Minnie Howard campus and participate in T.C. Williams sports and extracurricular activities. T.C. Williams is part of Alexandria City Public Schools.

The school offers numerous Advanced Placement courses for its students. Every year, dozens of graduates go on to elite colleges, and T.C. Williams has won statewide academic and scientific competitions^{[clarification needed]}

T.C. has a Junior ROTC program, and the T.C. Marching Band travels to competitions up and down the East Coast.

History

T.C. Williams, a four year high school, initially opened its doors to freshmen and sophomores in 1965, graduating its first class in June 1967. When it was created, it was Alexandria's fourth public high school. Although, soon after students from Alexandria's only black high school, Parker-Gray [1], were moved to GWHS, when the school was converted to a middle school in 1965, leaving only the three high schools.

In 1971, TC Williams became the city's only public senior high school, serving 11th and 12th graders, after a federal city-wide desegregation order. Freshman and sophomores then attended the two other schools, FC Hammond and George Washington. Currently, "T.C." serves 10th through 12th grades, with two middle schools, Francis C. Hammond Middle School, and George Washington Middle School, serving the city's 6th through 8th grade students. 9th graders go to TC Williams, Minnie Howard Campus, located a few blocks away from the main building.

Increasing enrollment prompted plans for a new school. In January 2004. The Alexandria School Board approved a plan to build an entirely new school building at the existing location to provide more space. The new building opened on September 4, 2007. The original T.C. Williams building was demolished in January 2008.[2] The new T.C. Williams campus was certified LEED Gold by the U.S. Green Building Council in 2009. [3].

The gym of the original T.C. Williams building was named after Gerry Bertier, a member of the Titans' 1971 state championship football team who was paralyzed in a car crash and died 10 years later from an unrelated second auto accident near Charlottesville, VA. The newly-constructed basketball court was named in honor of Earl Lloyd on December 1, 2007. Lloyd attended Parker-Gray High School, which was Alexandria's all-black high school at the time. Lloyd was the first African-American to play in the NBA.[4]

During the 2008 Democratic Nomination race, President Barack Obama held a rally at T.C. Williams on Sunday, February 10, 2008.

Demographics

T. C. Williams High School's student body is 43% African American, 27% Hispanic, 21% White, 7% Asian/Pacific Islander and American Indian and 2% Unspecified. Like many public schools in Washington D.C's urban areas, T.C. Williams has a large share of students from families with low socioeconomic status. ^[1]

The school's diversity is exemplified by the dozens of flags in the lobby of the original T.C. Williams High School, representing the nationality of each student at the school.

Academics

The Alexandria School District pays for its students to take Advanced Placement Exams, at a cost of more than $70,000 per year. T.C. Williams offers more than a dozen different AP courses, including a course in organic chemistry. It has been ranked by the 2006 Washington Post/Newsweek "Challenge Index" with an index of 1.494. Under the leadership of Dr. Manu Patel, T.C. was the first Virginia high school to defeat Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology in Fairfax County, Virginia at the Science Bowl.

Test scores

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The average SAT score in 2006 for T. C. Williams High School was 1,530 (509 in Math; 512 in Critical Reading; 509 in Writing). The Critical Reading and Math combined score was a 1,021, which is a 58 point increase from T.C.'s 2005 average, which occurred in a year where SAT scores on average dropped throughout the United States.

Laptop initiative

T.C. offers laptops to all of its students. The laptop initiative, which began in the 2004–2005 school year, provides every student with their own personal computer as well as campus-wide wireless internet access. The program has been designed to allow all students to gain a basic knowledge of computers.

Wireless access is only available at the school, during daytime hours and also in the evenings at the school's library. Students are also able to remotely connect to the school network through a dial-up connection for two hours each evening.

Internet access is restricted and blocks download sites, entertainment sites, and others that could distract students from their work during class. Access is allowed to websites provided by text books companies that offer additional activities or study guides.

Athletics

T.C. teams play in the AAA Patriot District of the AAA Northern Region. The mascot is a Titan. The Titans are best known for their boys and girls basketball programs, as well their rowing team which has won state and national championships. T.C. has also won state championships in basketball, football, cross country, indoor and outdoor track. Along with numerous state and regional track titles, they were also nationally recognized in 1993 when they became the first ever U.S. high school 4x100 meter relay team to defeat the Jamaicans at Penn Relays. Another team of note was the 1992 boys cross country team, who won states in dramatic fashion. The TC Williams boys then went on to win indoor and outdoor states titles that year, followed by another 3 state titles in cross country, indoor and outdoor track (respectively) in 1993. In more recent athletic achievement, the T.C. lacrosse team captured the district title in 2006, only five years after the team was created. In 2007 the Boys Tennis Team won the district title. T.C. Williams Varsity Boys Basketball Team holds the 2008 VA State Basketball Championship title, won on March 14, 2008.

Because T.C. is the only public high school in Alexandria City, and the only non-Fairfax County high school in the Patriot District, the Titans do not have a sole rival school. The Titans have developed rivalries against Hayfield Secondary School in recent years due to the success of both schools' basketball teams, as well as West Potomac High School and Edison High School, which are also located rather close to Alexandria.

Football and Remember The Titans

T.C. and its former football coaches, Herman Boone and Bill Yoast, were featured in the 2000 motion picture Remember the Titans, starring Denzel Washington and Will Patton. The movie was dramatized from a Washington Post series about the consolidation (and indirectly, integration) of Alexandria's three public high schools into one in the fall of 1971. (The city's public schools were legally desegregated in 1959, but the three high schools had become racially imbalanced during the 1960s due to housing patterns.) That year, the city of Alexandria consolidated three four-year high schools into a single two-year school, teaching solely juniors and seniors.^[2]As a result, the best of the varsity football squads at George Washington High School (converted to a middle school), Hammond High School (converted to a middle school) and T.C Williams High School united in what amounted to an all-city, all-star team at T.C. Williams. T.C. continued to be a district football power throughout the 1970s and 1980's, winning two more AAA football titles in 1984 and 1987.

The climax of the movie is the fictionalized 1971 AAA state championship football game between T.C. Williams and George C. Marshall High School. The dramatic license taken in the movie was to convert what was actually a regular-season matchup between T.C. Williams and Marshall into a made-for-Hollywood state championship. In reality, the Marshall game was the toughest game T.C. Williams played all year and the actual state championship (against Andrew Lewis High School of the Roanoke Valley) was a 27-0 blowout. As depicted in the movie, the Titans actually did win the Marshall game on a fourth down come-from-behind play at the very end of the game.

T.C. Williams was referenced in the "My No Good Reason" episode of the television show Scrubs. Three actors wearing T.C. Williams letter jackets appear towards the end of the episode. Donald Faison, who plays Dr. Turk on the sitcom, also starred in Remember the Titans as Petey Jones.

Rowing

T.C. is known for its nationally and internationally competitive rowing program, which has its own boathouse on the Alexandria bank of the Potomac River. T.C. Crew has claimed state, national, and international championships. The program has produced several Olympic athletes, most recently Nick Peterson and Linda Miller who represented the United States at the 2000 Summer Games in Sydney, Australia.

Alumni of Note

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Famous graduates of T.C. Williams include:

• Diedrich Bader - actor, The Drew Carey Show, Office Space
• Gerry Bertier - captain of former senior football team which won the state championships. He also earned gold medals in Paralympics shotput and discus.
• Katherine Boo - Award-winning journalist for the Washington Post and the New Yorker, recipient of the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service in 2000, awarded MacArthur Fellowship in 2002.
• Daniel Boyd - also known as Saifullah, is an American jihadist, who, as a teenager, waged Jihad against the Soviets and Afghan communists, and in July 2009, was arrested and accused of leading a jihadist terrorist cell in North Carolina. (Class of 1988)
• David Bray - IT Chief for the Bioterrorism Program at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 2000-2005
• Keith Burns - former NFL linebacker, Denver Broncos, Chicago Bears, Tampa Bay Buccaneers. College linebacker at Oklahoma State University (graduated 1994). (Class of 1990)
• Julius Campbell - All-American and former vice captain of varsity football team which won the state championships (Class of 1973)
• Carl Carr - former NFL linebacker, Detroit Lions
• Mike Davis - University of Illinois men's basketball star, one of the leading scorers in sophomore season
• Bill Dawes - comedian, actor, and writer
• John Gardner Ford known as "Jack"- Second son of U.S. President Gerald Ford Co-founder of Outside Magazine. (Class of 1970)
• Steven Meigs Ford - actor and motivational speaker. Third son of U.S. President Gerald Ford (Class of 1974)
• Rob Love music promoter hs basketball star (class of 84)
• Cathy Grimes - lawyer and former All-American basketball player at the University of Virginia (graduated 1985); attended University of Virginia School of Law (graduated 1988); TCW Class of 1981.
• Rahman "Rock" Harper - former executive chef at Terra Verde Italian Restaurant, Green Valley Ranch (2007-2008) (Las Vegas, NV), Hell's Kitchen season 3 winner (2007.) Chef at Ben's Next Door, 1211 U St, NW, Washington DC (February 2009)
• Nahum "J. Holiday" Grimes - R&B singer
• Tony Hunt - former Philadelphia Eagles running back
• Alexander Kerr - concertmaster of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra
• Rob McCarthy - actor. (Class of 1974)
• Dean Muhtadi - University of Maryland football star. First Team All Academic ACC Team. 2009 NFL Draft Prospect
• Dermot Mulroney - actor, My Best Friend's Wedding, Friends
• Kieran Mulroney - actor
• Rick Nowlin - martial artist, actor
• Janet Peyton - Attorney
• Donnell Rawlings - comedian, Chappelle's Show castmember
• Carl Stanton - celebrity chef
• Ratcliff Thomas - former NFL linebacker, Indianapolis Colts
• Casey Wilson - comedian, actress, former cast member of NBC TVs Saturday Night Live. Class of 1998.
• Sharam Tayebi - 1/2 of DJ duo Deep Dish
• Virginia Coalition- rock/folk band from Alexandria, Virginia. All three members graduated from T.C. Williams in the 1990's.
• Edward Wong - Journalist and foreign correspondent for The New York Times and recipient of the 2005 Livingston Award for International Reporting. T.C. Williams Class of 1991.

References

External links

• Official website
• 1971 Original Titans Virginia state champions in football
• Virginia State SOL test results
• TC Williams Commemorative Publications
• Del Ray Sun Coverage of TC Sports
• Francis C. Hammond High School Alumni Association
• George Washington High School Alumni Association
• T.C. Williams Debate Society