West Virginia School Has Strong Upper Marlboro Connection

Jesse Robertson of Upper Marlboro may be hard pressed to match the season he had last year at the Division II college level.

A graduate of , junior linebacker Robertson led West Virginia Wesleyan with 58.5 tackles in 11 games last season.

Seven of his tackles were for losses, and he had three fumble recoveries and three sacks for a team that was 9-2 overall.

Two other Upper Marlboro residents on the team last year included a pair of Gywnn Park High School graduates: wide receiver Lavaughn Hughes and strong safety Corey Williams. Both are on the team this year; Hughes is a junior and Williams is a sophomore, according to athletic spokesman Philip Fetty.

Hughes was third on the team with 43 catches in 11 games. He averaged 11.2 yards per catch and had two touchdowns.

West Virginia Wesleyan, under interim head coach Jonas Jackson, begins this season at home Sept. 3 against Millersville (PA) University.

"Jesse is the first kid that I recruited here," Jackson told Patch on Wednesday. "He is just an outstandingyoung man. He was a captain as a sophomore. He really cares."

Jackson added that Hughes injured his ACL in the spring and hopes to return by the end of the season. "That is a huge loss for us," theinterim head coach said.

The Terps have several local players

The pre-season roster of the University of Maryland football team includes several local players, including Upper Marlboro residents Andre Monroe, Chris Pressley and Titus Till.

Monroe is a freshman defensive lineman who played at St. John's High School in Washington, D.C. Pressley is a freshman offensive lineman from Forestville Military Academy and . Till, a redshirt freshman defensive back, is a graduate of Dr. Henry A. Wise, Jr. High.

The Terps' roster also includes Rahsaan Moore, a freshman redshirt running back from Wise High. He could see action this year at fullback, coach Randy Edsall told reporters in April, while Monroe could also be a key player for the Terps and Till could also see action in the defensive backfield.

Maryland begins the season at home Sept. 5 against Miami.

Winegardner with Orioles' team

is playing shortstop for the Gulf Coast League Orioles, a minor league team of Baltimore based in Florida.

In games through Tuesday, he was hitting .185 in 135 at bats with three doubles, four steals and 11 RBIs. He was signed as a non-drafted free agent earlier this summer after playing college ball this spring for a team in Tennessee, Cumberland.

"The pitchers are a lot more consistent" than in college, Winegardner told Patch about facing pitchers in the Gulf Coast League.

"We needed a middle infielder for the Gulf Coast League, someone we thought could play good defense. He was the first one I thought of," Dean Albany, a scout for the Orioles, said of the former Riverdale Baptist standout.

No word on Wise athletic director

Wise High has not announced the new athletic director to take over for , even though school began on Monday. A school spokesman, the secretary for the principal, said Wednesday morning that information has not been released yet, if indeed a new AD is in place.

Johnson left the school in the spring to take a job as a basketball coach at St. Albans School, a private school in Washington, D.C. Prince George's County students did not attend class on Wednesday due to the Tuesday earthquake.

Largo High football scrimmage called off

The Largo High junior varsity football team was to have a scrimmage on Tuesday against Northwestern. The game was not played, but it was not due to the Tuesday afternoon earthquake that hit the East Coast.

"The Largo JV did not have a team ready," Bryan Pierre, the head varsity coach at Northwestern, told Patch on Wednesday morning. "A lot of teams in the county are struggling to have a JV team ready."

Bey got her start at Douglass

Drewana Bey, the new principal at Bowie High School, played basketball at Frederick Douglass High and in college at Division I Charlotte in North Carolina. In the late 1990s, she became the 14th player in Charlotte history to score 500 points and grab 500 rebounds in one season.

Smith with JMU Dukes

DeAndre' Smith, a 2011 graduate of Wise High, is a freshman wideout on the pre-season roster of the James Madison University football team.

The Dukes are ranked in the top 16 in two national polls at the Division I-AA level. JMU opens the season Sept. 3 at North Carolina.