High Schools of the Week_ From Northside HS to Northwestern HS

Since we last blogged about our high school films, we thought we'd dedicate at least one entry to 'our favorite high schools' in America. I decided not to use my own alma mater of Glenvar High School in Salem, Va., to avoid a conflict of interest. But, we are featuring Huntington High School from Huntington, W.Va., which has the same school nickname: The Highlanders.

And, greeting our blog readers in Croatia (kudos on getting into the European Union), Sweden and Azerbaijan.

We do wonder if any of the high school biology teachers in this respective school is showing the episode of the PBS series "Nature," which illustrated why the Black Mamba snake, found heavily in Swaziland, is among the deadliest reptiles on the planet.

Here are our high schools:

1) Northside High School (pictured top). Nickname: The Vikings. Location: Roanoke, Va. Principal: Frank Dent. The school had 988 students in 2007-08.

2) Clarke Central High School. Nickname: The Gladiators. Location: Athens, Ga. Principal: Dr. Robbie Hooker. Notable alumni: Kim Basinger (class of 1972).

3) Huntington High School. Nickname: The Highlanders. Location: Huntington, W.Va. Principal: Greg Webb. Enrollment: 1,600. Notable alumni: O.J. Mayo of the Dallas Mavericks.

4) Western Alamance High School (pictured center). Nickname: The Warriors. Location: Elon, NC.
Newspaper: "West Side Story." Head football coach: Jeff Snuffer.

5) Walt Whitman High School. Nickname: The Vikings. Location: Bethesda, Md. Principal: Dr. Alan Goodwin. Enrollment: 1,928. Newspaper: "The Black and the White." Notable alumni: Sen. Mark Pryor (D-Ark.), Mark Halperin (news reporter/analyst) and Spike Jonze (film director).

6) Northwestern High School (pictured bottom). Nickname: The Trojans. Location: Rock Hill, SC.
Principal: James Blake. Enrollment: 1,800 Notable alumni: Former NFL and Notre Dame star Jeff Burris. Then-candidate Barack Obama spoke at the school on Oct. 6, 2007.


SIDEBAR: Kudos to Caroline Brailsford of Patrick Henry High School in Roanoke, Va. The volleyball player was named the Girls Athlete of the Year by "The Roanoke Times."

https://www.alumniclass.com/clarkecentral


https://www.alumniclass.com/northsideva

http://www.waltwhitmanhighalumni.com/

https://www.alumniclass.com/northwesternhighschoolsc

http://www.roanoke.com

Greensboro vs. Roanoke- Take Me Out to the Ball Game (Entry 4 of 6)

We have not had an entry in this series since the Fourth of July when we compared two eateries, the Texas Tavern the 24/7 mini-diner in Roanoke and Fincastle's, which is a burger joint in Greensboro.

Ironically, Fincastle's is indeed named for Fincastle, Va., a small town 20 miles north of Roanoke.

Today, we are comparing the cities' two minor leage baseball teams. For those who are not familiar with the Roanoke Valley, Salem, Va., my hometown, is the main 'suburb' of Roanoke. There is actually a 'lemon tree' rivalry between the two cities which is made a bit ridicilous because Roanoke, with a population of 92,000, has a lot more folks than Salem, which has a population of 25,000 (ok, we actually need to confirm that through Wikipedia or the U.S. Census, but I do want to get out of the house today).

So the Salem Red Sox serve as the main baseball team for Roanoke. The team has been called the Salem Avalanche, the Salem Redbirds, the Salem Bucaneers and the Salem Pirates over the years. Former Pittsburgh Pirates great Dave Parker, who helped the team win the 1979 World Series over the Baltimore Orioles, is arguably the best player to play for a Salem team.

The most noteable thing about the Red Sox has to be their mascot Muggsy, a tall dog, which replaced a nut as the team's mascot (yes, we are not making this up) during the Salem Avalanche years.

The Greensboro Grasshoppers, who play in the South Atlantic League, actually play in downtown Greensboro. They were previously the Greeensboro Bats, and Derek Jeter, the current New York Yankees superstar, played for that team.

Greensboro is believed to be the largest city in America with a single-A team, as the city has approximately the same population as Salt Lake City, Utah. They play teams like the Asheville Tourists and the Hickory Crawdads from towns that are much smaller in population. The Minnesota Twins actually considered relocating to Greensboro several years ago.

The 'Hoppers also have bat dogs. They are specially trained to retrieve baseball bats (one is pictured here).

Both teams were in action last night. The Salem Red Sox, who play in the Carolina League, split a home double-header with the Wilmington Blue Rocks (that team is actually from Wilmington, Del., not Wilmington, NC) a night after losing to the Winston-Salme Dash 14-0 in the team's worst loss of the season.

The 'Hoppers scored a road win over the Delmarva Shorebirds in Salisbury, Md., by a
5-4 score. The two teams are slated to play again tonight at 7:05 p.m., but one should expect that Hurricane Irene will probably prevent that game from being played.

If I had to choose one of the teams, it would ultimately be the Salem Red Sox. Yes, it is a hometown bias, but the sox offer one thing that the 'Hoppers do not- free parking!

SIDEBAR ONE: Alas, last night my alma mater Glenvar High School in Salem, Va., lost to another school with GHS initials as Galax High School from Galax, Va., came to Salem and beat the Highlanders by a 17-14 score.

But, Cave Spring High School, the Beverly Hills 90210 high school in the Roanoke Valley (reportedly, some students actually drive BMWs) won their home opener as the Kinght bear the William Byrd Terriers 28-14.

SIDEBAR TWO: I want to take a moment to wish my great aunt Jo of South Carolina a happy 101st birthday. To put that in perspective, when she was born in 1910, William Howard Taft was president.

High School of the Week- Glenvar High School (Salem, Va)

Today, as a farewell to the High School of the Week series, I am profiling Glenvar High School in Salem, Va., which is my own alma mater!

We are also profiling Woodrow Wilson High School in Washington, DC, since we realize that by mentioning high schools from all 50 states, we snubbed our very own nation's capital!

The actual school I mentioned the first time around for Virginia was William Byrd High School in Vinton, which like Glenvar is a Roanoke County school.

As for Woodrow Wilson High School, their famous alumni include Warren Buffet and former Washington DC mayor Adrian Fenty (just lost reelection in November; he graduated in 1988 the same year as me!).

But, for Glenvar High School, aka Highlander High, which had 637 students in 2009, well there aren't many famous alumni. In fact, I was probably the first person of Middle Eastern heritage to graduate until my little sister did in 1992. I suspect no other Turkish-Americans or Arab-Americans have joined us which is certainly not the case at Woodrow Wilson HS which has students from 85 different countries!

However, there is Rick Huddle, a story-teller/entertainer in Portland, Ore., who graduated from GHS in 1987. In fact, we were on the same soccer team in which Rick actually got to play while I sat on the misreable bench.

Huddle has been acclaimed by "The Oregonian" for his 'rubbery face and expressive body language.' And, on his web site rickhuddle.com, the entertainer has this quip from author Marc Acito: "Rick Huddle is the Hoover vacuum of storytellers- he just sucks you right in."

As for my school, the current GHS principal is Joe Hafey. The Wikipedia page for GHS cites Coach Dickie Myers, who taught me earth science in the ninth grade, for his 30 years of teaching and coaching. Among the sports that Myers coached were wrestling, cross country and track.

As for more recent alumni, I heard that Evan DeHart has returned home from a tour of duty (in presumably Afghanistan) with the Marines. We are glad he is back, even if Salem, Va., is only just slightly more hip and happening than Kandahar province. Well, we do have a Starbucks now, oh, I forgot---there are two of them in fact!

SIDEBAR: NPR tweeted today that the community of Hacker Valley, WVa, zip code 2622, is reeling from the loss of their post office as the next closest one is in the town of Diana, which makes for a 40-minute round trip!

SIDEBAR TWO: As I was driving past the Greyhound bus station in Burlington, NC, a few weeks ago, I thought about what would be the longest continental bu strip one could take from there. And, we found out that if the city's mayor Ronnie K. Hall wanted to visit his counterpart Doug Issacson of North Pole, Alaska (whom we profiled a long time ago), it would take 74 hours and four minutes for a total of 4,326.22 miles. Much of the trip would go through western Canada, including Saskatoon and Edmonton. The same trek is a mere 72 hours and 30 minutes from my hometown of Salem, Va.

SIDEBAR THREE: The main Twitter trending words today are Roll Tide, Thanksgiving Dinner, Gobble Gobble, Friday Shopping, Wal-Mart and Leftovers. We hope the mere mention of these words inflates our hit total for today!

Virginia High School Football Roundup

Since I live in an area that gets tv and radio stations from Roanoke, Va., as well as Greensboro and Raleigh in NC, and Friday nights have been a bit slow lately, I have taken to watching high school football highlights.

It is nice to see how my alma mater Glenvar High School in Salem, Va., which defated Auburn High School from the hamlet of Riner, Va., on Friday night, is progressing. It is also see how the Floyd County High School Buffaloes from Floyd, Va., also victors on the girdiron this week are coming along.

I will post the rest of scores from the Roanoke region as well scores from Central Virginia (Lynchburg-Danville), southwest Virginia and even the Shenandoah Valley. Due to time constraints, we can not post scores for the entire state, so my apologies to folks in Norfolk and Richmond.

North Carolina scores will be posted on our other blog (Ragsdale High School from just outside Greensboro won---Yay!).

The team emblem pictured above belongs to Northside High School in Roanoke County. The Vikings won their game over rival William Byrd High School from Vinton, Va., which one of our previous 'High Schools of the Week.'

Here are the rest of the Virginia scores:

Salem 13 Blacksburg 7
Northside 24 William Byrd 0
Floyd County 20 Radford 12
Christiansburg 41 Hidden Valley 14
Franklin County 28 Patrick Henry (Roanoke) 0
Glenvar 42 Auburn 6
EC Glass 27 Heritage 14
GW Danville 34 Halifax Count 19
Dan River 41 Nelson County 20
Alleghany County 35 Lord Botetourt 7
Riverheads 44 Page County 0
Harrisonburg 24 Stuarts Draft 21
Robert E. Lee (Staunton) 23 Turner Ashby 0
Beluefield (WVa) 24 William Fleming (Roanoke) 8
Eastern Montgomery 53 Giles County 27

SIDEBAR: In ACC college football action, the host Virginia Tech dumped Wake Forest 52-21 while my cousin Mike's beloved Clemson won over the University of MAryland by a 31-7 score and Flordia State beat Boston College 24-19.

As for the smart kids, The University of Pennsylvania beat Columbia 27-13 in the Ivy League.

SIDEBAR: One has to feel for the Turkish soccer team Kasimpasha as they were literally kicked in the arse by Trabzonspor from the Black Sea port of Trabzon by a
7-0 score! Traditional Istanbul powerhouse was upset by Manisaspor by a score of 3-2.

Silly Photo to Fill Space- Celeb Couples

None of us like to publicly profess it, but let's face it_ we all love celebrity couples. They seem to have it all don't they? Good looks. Good fashion. Great talent. Good lawyers.

Today, we focus on celeb couple numero uno Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes. Yes, we wonder how they can stand each other even though of a lot of people (not us, of course!) can't stand them.

Tom is best known for blockbuster films from "Risky Business" to "A Few Good Men." While, Katie is an alum of "Dawson's Creek" who has made some cute films here and there, but none of us here at the office in Bridgeport, Conn. (not where we really are) can't remember a single title of any of them!

SIDEBAR: This week's semi-official High School of the Week is Brandywine High School in Wilmington, Del., a state which is seeing a surprisingly interesting U.S. Senate race between Christine "I'm Not a Witch" O'Donnell, who seems to be the Katie Holmes of the Tea Party movement, and Chris Coons. According to "The Christian Science Monitor," Coons is substantially ahead (editorial comment: YAY!).

As for Brandywine HS, the school's famous alum includes none other than rocker George Thorogood who is best known for the song "Bad to the Bone," which seems to be our pet cat's theme song these days.

My own alma mater Glenvar High School from Salem, Va., lost a home game to Giles County High School by a 20-17 score last week. But, the UNC Tarheels beat Clemson so I get to jeer my cousin Mike, a rabid Clemson fan, even though I only root for the Tarheels when they are winning!

SIDEBAR TWO: We have now passed 150,000 hits...hooray!

Quote of the Week_ Jean-Luc Godard

Yes, we usually run Quotes of the Week on Mondays, but we are pressed for time today so we will go ahead and quip French New Wave legend Jean-Luc Godard who will turn 80 on Dec. 3 as we features quotes from famous film directors this month:

"One of the most striking signs of the decay of art is when we see separate forms jumbled together."

SIDEBAR: We were saddened to learn of the death of another great film director Arthur Penn who died a short of his 88th birthday this week. Penn will be best known for directing "Bonnie and Clyde" in 1968, but he leaves behind a strong legacy of other films including "Alice's Restaurant" and "Mickey One," which was one of Warren Beatty's first big films. I had a chance to meet Penn at the Virginia Film Festival in Charlottesville several years ago. He was a class act, and he will be missed.

SIDEBAR TWO: My alma mater Glenvar High School did not have a good night on Friday as they lost a road game to Rural Retreat High School by a 27-20 margin. The late photographer O. Winston Link actually made Rural Retreat, Va., briefly famous when he took one of his famed train photographs there. Other high schools from the Roanoke, Va., area last night include Salem High School winning 27-21 over William Fleming; the Northside Vikings beating Hidden Valley HS 13-10, and Christiansburg HS trumped Patrick Henry HS of Roanoke by a 40-6 score.

My Alma Mater GHS Wins Homecoming Game

We diligently tried to come up with game stats and find articles about how many touchdowns were thrown by the Glenvar High School (Salem, VA) quarterback, whose name I don't know. But, my GHS classmate Barry Hurley did the duties in the fall of 1987 when (I believe) we lost to the Covington High School Cougars.

But, the times have changed and Covington High School from Covington, Va., near the West Virginia border in the lower Shenandoah Valley (a town that really smells!) was a powerhouse then. Today, they are apparently a bit of a doormat.

So, in short, my alma mater The Glenvar Highlanders beat Covington 35-14 in their homecoming game. GHS is now undefeated at 4-0!

The other area team Salem High School, which is a football powerhouse (GHS has had good years and bad years), beat Northside High School from Roanoke County by a 17-13. The Spartans' victory ended the Vikings' 17 game winning streak.

Alas, our beloved Floyd County Buffaloes from Floyd, Va. (we love their mascot) lost a very close game to Forth Chiswell High School near Wytheville, Va., by a 22-21 margin. Ironically, Floyd County HS hosts GHS on Nov. 9.

And, lastly, kudos to the Strasburg High School Rams from Strasburg, Va., in the northern Shenandoah Valley for beating Page County High School 36-22. We imagine everyone in the stands was a Republican (it's a VERY conservative area where some folks are to the right of Pat Boone_, but we still hope they had a good time.

As for on-going games in college football this p.m. At last report from Twitter, Virginia Tech was winning 16-0 over Boston College and the North Carolina State Wolfpack were beating the favored Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets by a 31-14 margin.

We also fully expect that UVA is winning their home game over VMI, but then again JMU did beat Virginia Tech 21-16 in Blacksburg just two weeks ago!

SIDEBAR: My friend Ali Arikan of Istanbul, Turkey, tweeted that a Hooters is opening up there! As he put it so well in his tweet: "The joke makes itself!" Personally, I think that's a very bad idea.......at least, we hope they don't serve pork!

Today, We Celebrate Five Years of Blogging!

It was on Sept. 18, 2005, when we started with the original version of "Politics, Culture and Other Wastes of Time," a blog which is still active (hmm....free time is beginning to become much like Kuwaiti oil, a thing which once seemed plentiful, but now much less so!).

Today, I run both the new version of that blog and this crazy thing called "The Daily Vampire," which is actually an in-joke about my twisted sleep cycle, but perhaps because of the "Twiligt" film and book series as well as "True Blood," this blog gets about 12 times as many hits per day as "Politics...," yet we seldom post anything about vampires here!

I want to take a moment to recognize my alma mater Glenvar High School's remarkable 3-0 start to their high school football season. Last night, the Highlanders won a home game over the Grayson County Blue Devils by a 27-7 score.

My other favorite high school in Virginia, Floyd County High School, which ironically hosts Glenvar on Nov. 9, won a road game against George Wythe High School by a 17-7 score.

And, of course, I'm equally proud of both the American and Turkish men's basketball teams. The U.S. Team, which featured NBA phenom Kevin Durant and was coached by Coach K from Duke University, won the final game over a very impressive Turkish team which was lead by standout Hedo Turkoglu, who will now play for the Phoenix Suns, in Istanbul last week.

My late father Mehmet Gokbudak hailed from Turkey, and if he were alive today (he would actually be 89 years old!), I'm sure he'd still be telling me to do my math homework even though it's been 22 since I graduated from high school!

PS- I also want to extend my kudos to the NC St. football team. Though I sort of made fun of them earlier in the week, they did win their home game over the Cincy Bearcats on Thursday night by a 30-19 score.

High School of the Week- Bluefield HS (West Virginia)

Initially, we were going to choose Big Creek High School in War, W.Va., which is where former NASA researcher Homer Hickam (whose memoir 'Rocket Boys' was turned into the film 'October Sky') went to school. But, we found out that the school whose nickname was The Owls closed earlier this year!

So, as a result, our High School of the Week is Bluefield High School in the bordertown of Bluefield, W.Va., which happens to be where the famous mathematician John Nash (subject of the film "A Beautiful Mind") went to school. Bluefield is about an hour away from War in the southern part of West Virginia.

BHS was founded in 1953. The school nickname is The Beavers (note: the image about is not the school's logo). There are about 650 students attending school at BHS, where the principal is Joe Turner.

BHS won the state high school football championship last year. This past weekend, they defeated rival school Princeton HS 17-0.

The school newspaper is "The Beaver Voice," and it is published online.

SIDEBAR: Our kudos go out to Floyd County High School in Floyd, Va., as The Buffaloes beat Rural Retreat High School 48-20 in football on Friday night. The Buffs' are division rivals with my alma mater Glenvar High School (Salem, Va.) which came from behind in a home win over James River High School from Buchanan.

SIDEBAR TWO: It appears that Idaho will not be a favored vacation destination for clients of travel agents in Roanoke, Va., since nearby Virginia Tech lost their season opener in college football by a 33-30 margin against Boise State, in a game that was played on the Washington Redskins' home field in Maryland.

But, for those of you who are now Hokies alum (I went to nearby Radford University), you may want to check out The Idaho Potato Museum in the town of Blackfoot. Conversely, those of you visiting Virginia may want to check out another nifty roadside attraction in The Natural Bridge Zoo, which is near Lexington, Va. Interestingly enough, there is a Virginia Tech alumni chapter in Idaho!