Lake Braddock Secondary School
Encyclopedia
Lake Braddock Secondary School is a combined junior-high and high school in Burke, Virginia
Burke, Virginia
-Demographics:As of the census of 2000, there were 57,737 people, 19,215 households, and 15,756 families residing in the community. Burke is the largest community in Virginia recognized by the Census Bureau, other than counties and incorporated cities . The population density was 5,008.0 people per...

, United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

, administered by Fairfax County Public Schools
Fairfax County Public Schools
The Fairfax County Public Schools system is a branch of the Fairfax County government which administers public schools in Fairfax County and the City of Fairfax...

 (FCPS). It is one of four secondary schools in Fairfax County
Fairfax County, Virginia
Fairfax County is a county in Virginia, in the United States. Per the 2010 Census, the population of the county is 1,081,726, making it the most populous jurisdiction in the Commonwealth of Virginia, with 13.5% of Virginia's population...

; the other three are Hayfield
Hayfield Secondary School
Hayfield Secondary School is the oldest secondary school in the Fairfax County Public Schools system of Virginia. It opened its doors in 1968 and graduated its first seniors in 1971.-History:...

, Robinson
Robinson Secondary School
James W. Robinson, Jr. Secondary School, known as Robinson Secondary School, opened in 1971, is a public school in the Commonwealth of Virginia....

, and South County
South County Secondary School
South County Secondary School is a secondary school in Lorton, unincorporated Fairfax County, Virginia, part of the Fairfax County Public Schools system, opened in September 2005...

.
Opened in 1973, Lake Braddock has recently completed an extensive renovation project. Its mascot is the Bruin
Bruin
Bruin or BRUIN may refer to any of the following:* Bruin, the bear in the Reynard cycle fables, whence the word was introduced into English* A bear, especially a Eurasian Brown Bear* Brown University Interactive Language, a programming language...

, and its school colors are purple
Purple
Purple is a range of hues of color occurring between red and blue, and is classified as a secondary color as the colors are required to create the shade....

 and gold
Gold
Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au and an atomic number of 79. Gold is a dense, soft, shiny, malleable and ductile metal. Pure gold has a bright yellow color and luster traditionally considered attractive, which it maintains without oxidizing in air or water. Chemically, gold is a...

.

History

When opened in 1973, adjacent to the namesake reservoir
Lake Braddock
Lake Braddock is a reservoir in the community of Burke in Fairfax County, Virginia, USA. Lake Braddock is created by an impoundment on a tributary stream of Pohick Creek, itself a tributary of the Potomac River....

, Lake Braddock drew its students from nearby Robinson Secondary School
Robinson Secondary School
James W. Robinson, Jr. Secondary School, known as Robinson Secondary School, opened in 1971, is a public school in the Commonwealth of Virginia....

 to the west and West Springfield High School to the south. Lake Braddock was built without walls in most of its educational areas, as it was believed by the administrators of the era that students would learn better in an "open" environment. When school officials realized a school without walls was distracting to teenage students, temporary walls were installed around many classrooms in the late 1970s and early 1980s. This resulted in significant climate control
HVAC
HVAC refers to technology of indoor or automotive environmental comfort. HVAC system design is a major subdiscipline of mechanical engineering, based on the principles of thermodynamics, fluid mechanics, and heat transfer...

 problems throughout the building, which were largely left unfixed until the school was renovated.

Soccer

The Girl's Varsity Soccer team is the only team in Virginia to win two back-to-back AAA state championships in 2006 and 2007. The boy's soccer team has won the state championship several times, including a 5-0 victory over Hilton High in 1988 and another title in 1989.

Football

After a 0-10 season in 2004, Lake Braddock went 6-4 in 2005 marking a turn around for the program. In the 2007 season, the Bruins went on a seven game winning streak after their first-week loss to Robinson; Their only other loss came to Northern Region runner-up West Springfield. The Bruins went 8-3 in the regular season in 2007 and made the playoffs for the first time since 2000. In 2009 the Bruins were the Patriot District and the Northern Region Champions and went 8-2 in the regular seasons.They made into the playoffs where they managed to beat Fairfax, defeat Robinson, Redeem themselves against Woodson and win a thrilling overtime game against Battlefield.They continue on to the State Championship and were defeated by the Thomas Dale Knights 35-21. In the first round of 2010 Division 6 playoff games, Lake Braddock easily defeated Langley, 34-10. In the second round of the 2010 Division 6 playoff games, after a stunning 17-3 first half deficit, the Bruins overcame arch rival Robinson (and the referees) with a 24-23 victory on their road to another Northern Region Championship Game. Although, winning against Robinson 24-23, Robinson has been trying to make a huge come back in future games. Lake Braddock advanced into the state semi-final after a 56-18 win over Chantilly High School. In an exciting rematch of the 2009 state semi-final playoff game, the Battlefield Bobcats, who had been defeated 27-24 in overtime by the Bruins the previous year, hung on to win a close 35-27 victory and advanced to win the state title.

Baseball

The Lake Braddock baseball program has won district and regional championships. With a win in the 2008 regionals, they earned titles in two of the last three regional championships.

Crew

The Lake Braddock Crew team was formed in 2000. The position of head coach is currently held by Tracy Shakespeare. The team of more than one hundred students practices at Bull Run Marina

Tennis

The Lake Braddock Tennis Teams have achieved success in recent years as regional powerhouse Robinson Secondary School moved into the Concorde District. The Boys Team has won three of four district championships since the redistricting . The team has lost only two district matches in that time frame. The team has also won over 55 district matches in a row, over a four year period. This is one of the longest streaks in the school's history.

Cross Country

The Lake Braddock Cross-Country team has astounded many in their past seasons with 9 girls state championships and 1 boys state championship. Both the boys and the girls team won the state title in 1987. The girls team just recently won the state title in 2009 and the boys team received 4th place in the state. This past season, the boys team took back to back patriot district championships and the girls took the northern region championship.

Lake Braddock Theatre

The Lake Braddock Theatre program is currently in its 34th season, having been under the direction of R.L. Mirabal for most of that time. It has participated in the Cappie program since its inception in 1999, garnering 49 nominations and 13 awards. The theatre is represented in the International Thespian Society
International Thespian Society
The International Thespian Society is an honorary organization for high-school and middle-school theatre students located at more than 3,600 affiliated secondary schools across the United States, Canada, and abroad. The International Thespian Society was founded in Fairmont, West Virginia...

 by troupe #4807, and contributes to the ITS festival in Lincoln, Nebraska
Lincoln, Nebraska
The City of Lincoln is the capital and the second-most populous city of the US state of Nebraska. Lincoln is also the county seat of Lancaster County and the home of the University of Nebraska. Lincoln's 2010 Census population was 258,379....

 every summer.

Awards

LBT has won the Virginia High School League Patriot District One-Act Play Championship four times (1996, 2000, 2005, 2011). The most recent Patriot District title was garnered by award-winning star actors Jimmy Day and Luke Esper. They are noted for putting the Championship banner on their backs and doing a victory lap around the theater, much to the dismay of second-place rival West Springfield High School. LBT also received a Cappie Award for Best Play in 2000 for Dracula. The theater was invited to perform at the Fringe Festival
Edinburgh Fringe
The Edinburgh Festival Fringe is the world’s largest arts festival. Established in 1947 as an alternative to the Edinburgh International Festival, it takes place annually in Scotland's capital, in the month of August...

 in Edinburgh
Edinburgh
Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland, the second largest city in Scotland, and the eighth most populous in the United Kingdom. The City of Edinburgh Council governs one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas. The council area includes urban Edinburgh and a rural area...

, Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...

, in 2003. Individual students have also received awards for their performances throughout the years.

Musical accomplishments

The Lake Braddock Music program has had several students who have gone to conservatories and major schools of music, including four students currently attending Juilliard School
Juilliard School
The Juilliard School, located at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New York City, United States, is a performing arts conservatory which was established in 1905...

.

Bands

The Lake Braddock band program consists of four concert ensembles at the high-school level: Symphonic Band, Concert One, Concert Two, and a specialty Jazz band. The high school band program is conducted by Michael Luley and Patrick Smith. Roy Holder announced his retirenment at the end of the 2010-2011 school year, after 30 consecutive years as honor band; every year since the award was created. The Symphonic Band has been awarded 30 consecutive superior ratings at the Virginia Band & Orchestra Association (VBODA) Festival since 1981, when the ratings system was first installed. The Lake Braddock Middle School bands are conducted by Michael Luley, Patrick Smith, and Louis Bean.

Marching Band

The Lake Braddock Marching Band is a subset of Lake Braddock Bands and is combined with the Color Guard, conducted by Michael Luley and assistant Patrick Smith. The band has played the half-time show at Bruin football games for over 15 years. They have received 31 consecutive superior ratings at the VBODA Marching Competition since 1981. When combined with the 30 consecutive superior ratings at Festival mentioned above, this makes Lake Braddock the only high school in the state of Virginia to receive the title of Honor Band every year the competition has existed.

Color Guard

The Color Guard generally has about 20 members. Besides performing with the marching band in the fall, the guard performs an indoor performance in the spring, calling it "Spring Guard".

Orchestras

Six ensembles comprise the Lake Braddock Orchestra program. The middle school groups are Concert Orchestra, String Ensemble, Chamber Orchestra, and the high school groups are Concert Orchestra, String Ensemble, and Symphony Orchestra. The current head instructor is Beth Reed. The former head instructor of 13 years, until 2010, was Stephanie Holmes.

Chorus

The Lake Braddock Chorus consists of 5 different choirs. The five choirs are divided by skill level, as well as by the requirement of audition. The Men's Choir, Women's Vocal Ensemble and the female Freshmen in Bel Canto make up the non-auditioned choirs, and Select Women and Lake Braddock Singers make up the auditioned choirs.

The Lake Braddock Singers (formally known as Symphonic Chorale) is composed of seven Sopranos, eight Altos, four Tenors, five Baritones and four Basses. Each of the female sections is divided into two subsections of three to four singers, and the male sections divide regularly to subsections between two and four people. The choir sings primarily a cappella
A cappella
A cappella music is specifically solo or group singing without instrumental sound, or a piece intended to be performed in this way. It is the opposite of cantata, which is accompanied singing. A cappella was originally intended to differentiate between Renaissance polyphony and Baroque concertato...

music with exception to the major works concert. The group is encouraged, by the director, to be leaders within the full choir and help the non-auditioned choirs with their music.

Select Women is a traditional women's choir of approximately 35 10th-12th graders; this number varies from year to year. It is one of the two auditioned choirs at Lake Braddock. Select Women sings in four parts regularly being Soprano 1, Soprano 2, Alto 1, and Alto 2. Members of this group are expected to be leaders in the Choral program. Select is also expected to help the non-auditioned choirs with their music when performing together during the major works concert.

An A cappella group formed in 2008 inspired by the pop a cappella groups of major colleges, including JMU Madison Project and Blues Tones Organizations that perform yearly for the Choir program at Lake Braddock. The group was founded by students and is managed by students as well.

The choirs have won many awards, including in 2006, winning almost every category they entered in Nashville
Nashville, Tennessee
Nashville is the capital of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the county seat of Davidson County. It is located on the Cumberland River in Davidson County, in the north-central part of the state. The city is a center for the health care, publishing, banking and transportation industries, and is home...

. In 2007, the choir performed in New York City near the site of the former World Trade Center
World Trade Center
The original World Trade Center was a complex with seven buildings featuring landmark twin towers in Lower Manhattan, New York City, United States. The complex opened on April 4, 1973, and was destroyed in 2001 during the September 11 attacks. The site is currently being rebuilt with five new...

 buildings. The choirs also have turned out several highly successful singers, including a quarterfinalist for American Idol, and a several performers in musical theater.

Lake Braddock Secondary School‘s Musical Theatre is a very well known musical theatre in Fairfax County. Every year the Lake Braddock Chorus and the Lake Braddock Theatre programs come together and produce a musical. The musical theatre has been around for over 10 years and has produced shows such as Into the Woods, Guys and Dolls, Oklahoma!, Hello Dolly, The Wizard of Oz, High School Musical, The Sound of Music, and Annie. Auditions are usually held in the fall and rehearsals begin shortly after the end of auditions. Rehearsals then last until the spring when the Show airs to the public. Anyone can audition for a musical at Lake Braddock and you do not have to be enrolled in the chorus or theatre classes in order to audition, although it certainly helps because of the practice you receive in those classes that will help you audition better for the musical.

The director of the High School Chorus Program, Megan Cartwright is in charge of producing the musicals. Megan Cartwright has been the director of the High School Chorus Program for over 6 years. She works with the director of the middle school Chorus Program, Mrs. McCarthy. Mr. Mirabal, the head of the Lake Braddock Theatre Program, is also involved in these performances. The Theatre program is responsible for things in the show including the lighting, sound, set/set changes, etc. Musicals at Lake Braddock Secondary School usually have 4 showings over the course of 2 weeks.

Lake Braddock clubs

Lake Braddock is home to over seventy clubs. The DECA
DECA (organization)
DECA, also known as Collegiate DECA on the college level) is an international association of students and teachers of marketing, management and entrepreneurship in business, finance, hospitality, and marketing sales and service . DECA prepares emerging leaders and entrepreneurs in marketing,...

 Club has sent students to national level competitions. In September 2006, Lake Braddock started a boys volleyball
Volleyball
Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules.The complete rules are extensive...

 team. The Lake Braddock Speech Team was reorganized in 2006 and began to compete in the VHSL. The Lake Braddock Model United Nations
Model United Nations
Model United Nations is an academic simulation of the United Nations that aims to educate participants about current events, topics in international relations, diplomacy and the United Nations agenda....

 Club is an active participant in local and national conferences. The school also has one of the few active high school chapters of Students for a Democratic Society. The school's It's Academic
It's Academic
It's Academic is a televised academic quiz competition for high school students, currently airing on two NBC affiliates in Washington, D.C. and Central Virginia and one CBS affiliate Baltimore, Maryland . The show has been on the air since October 7, 1961, making it the longest...

 team has been featured on WRC-TV
WRC-TV
WRC-TV, channel 4, is an owned and operated television station of the NBC television network, located in the American capital city of Washington, D.C...

 multiple times. Lake Braddock provides Crew (Rowing
Rowing (sport)
Rowing is a sport in which athletes race against each other on rivers, on lakes or on the ocean, depending upon the type of race and the discipline. The boats are propelled by the reaction forces on the oar blades as they are pushed against the water...

) as a club sport. Lake Braddock Crew has medaled in many regattas, including state competitions.

Renovations

The school finished a three-year renovation in the summer of 2007, beginning right after school ended in June 2004. The renovations cost taxpayers around $72 million - a record for Fairfax County Public Schools. Fifty-two classroom trailers were installed on campus to accommodate the construction. Other than expanding the school and refurbishing the building, two main goals of the project were an overhaul of the ventilation system and enclose classrooms with permanent walls. Lake Braddock's renovation is now seen as a model for other renovation projects in Fairfax County, such as the renovation of nearby W.T. Woodson High School.

Notable alumni

  • Yousef Abu-Taleb
    Yousef Abu-Taleb
    Yousef Abu-Taleb is an American actor and producer of half-Arab, one-quarter English, and one-quarter white American heritage...

     (class of 1998), actor
  • Eric Axelson (class of 1989), musician/artist. Bass player for Dismemberment Plan and Maritime.
  • Retesh Bhalla (class of 2000), Professional Wrestler "Sonjay Dutt".
  • Julia Campbell
    Julia Campbell
    Julia Campbell , is an American actress, who is best known for her role as the "mean girl," Christie Masters-Christianson in the feature film Romy and Michele's High School Reunion.-Career:...

     (class of 1979), actress. Has appeared on television shows such as "Friends" and "Seinfeld" as well as many others.
  • Hubert Davis (class of 1988), played 12 seasons in the NBA, now an ESPN college basketball studio analyst. The annual Hubert Davis Tournament of Champions basketball tournament is named in his honor.
  • Chad Sisson
    Chad Dukes (radio personality)
    Chad Dukes is a radio personality co-host of the "The LaVar Arrington show with Chad Dukes" and formerly a co-host of the Big O and Dukes Show on WJFK-FM in Washington, D.C.-Early life:...

     (class of 1997), "Chad Dukes" co-host of "The Lavar Arrington Show" on WJFK 106.7FM in Washington, D.C.

  • Tiffany Dupont
    Tiffany Dupont
    Tiffany Dupont is an American actress, known for playing the lead character, Hadassah, a Jewish girl, who will become the Biblical Esther, Queen of Persia, in the Hollywood film One Night with the King...

     (class of 1999), actress. Former Miss University of Georgia. Principal cast member for "The Bedford Diaries" on The CW. Has also appeared in "Grounded For Life", "Yes, Dear", "Joan of Arcadia", and "Greek".
  • Matthew Continetti
    Matthew Continetti
    Matthew Continetti is a conservative journalist and associate editor at The Weekly Standard.-Biography:He graduated from Columbia University in 2003. While in college he wrote for the Columbia Spectator and the Intercollegiate Studies Institute's magazine, CAMPUS...

     (class of 1999), Author/Journalist. Associate editor at The Weekly Standard magazine; his book, The K-Street Gang, was published in April 2006. Also a frequent contributor on the MSNBC
    MSNBC
    MSNBC is a cable news channel based in the United States available in the US, Germany , South Africa, the Middle East and Canada...

     television show Hardball with Chris Matthews
    Hardball with Chris Matthews
    Hardball with Chris Matthews is a talk show on MSNBC, broadcast weekdays at 5 and 7 PM hosted by Chris Matthews. It originally aired on now-defunct America's Talking and later CNBC. The current title was derived from a book Matthews wrote in 1988, Hardball: How Politics Is Played Told by One Who...

    .
  • Greg Eklund
    Greg Eklund
    Greg Eklund was the American drummer for the rock band, Everclear, until 2003.Eklund attended high school at Lake Braddock Secondary School in Burke, Virginia, graduating in 1988...

      (class of 1988), drummer. Member of the alternative rock band Everclear
    Everclear (band)
    Everclear is a rock band formed in Portland, Oregon in 1992 best known for their radio hits spanning more than a decade. For most of its existence, Everclear has consisted of Art Alexakis , Craig Montoya , and Greg Eklund . Eklund replaced original drummer Scott Cuthbert in 1994...

     1994-2003.
  • Allen Johnson
    Allen Johnson
    Allen Kenneth Johnson is a retired hurdling athlete and won Olympic Gold in the 110 metre high hurdles at the 1996 games in Atlanta, Georgia....

     (class of 1989), track and field
    Track and field
    Track and field is a sport comprising various competitive athletic contests based around the activities of running, jumping and throwing. The name of the sport derives from the venue for the competitions: a stadium which features an oval running track surrounding a grassy area...

     star and Olympic gold medalist for whom the school's track and annual outdoor track and field invitational is named
  • Ed Moses
    Ed Moses (swimmer)
    Glenn Edward Moses, Jr. is an Olympic and former World Record holding breaststroke swimmer from the United States. He swam for the USA at the 2000 Olympics, where he won a gold and silver medal....

     (class of 1998), swimmer and Olympic gold medalist
  • Mia Hamm
    Mia Hamm
    Mariel Margaret "Mia" Hamm is a retired American soccer player. Hamm played many years as a forward for the United States women's national soccer team and was a founding member of the Washington Freedom. Hamm has scored more international goals in her career than any other player, male or female,...

     (class of 1989), professional women's soccer player and Olympic gold medalist
  • Michael Patrick
    Michael Patrick
    Michael Ryan Patrick is an attorney and author and is frequently quoted in the media. Michael Patrick is known for working on intellectual property cases against some of the world's largest companies, including a partial role against Fisher-Price, Inc...

    , Attorney/Author, appeared on CNBC's American Greed and quoted legal analyst
  • Eeric Truumees, MD, Noted Spine Surgeon in Austin, TX, author of several textbooks and dozens of articles.
  • Susan Williams (class of 1987), Olympic bronze medalist in the triathlon 2004
  • Justin Spring
    Justin Spring
    Justin Edward Spring is a retired American gymnast. He is a member of the bronze medal winning U.S. team at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. He was also a top gymnast in NCAA competition, where he represented the University of Illinois....

     (class of 2002), gymnast
    Gymnast
    Gymnasts are people who participate in the sports of either artistic gymnastics, trampolining, or rhythmic gymnastics.See gymnasium for the origin of the word gymnast from gymnastikos.-Female artistic:Australia...

    . Member of United States 2008 Olympic Gymnastics Team.
  • Travis Morrison
    Travis Morrison
    Travis Morrison is an American musician and web developer from the Northern Virginia suburbs of Washington, D.C., United States...

     (class of 1990), founding member and vocalist/guitarist for The Dismemberment Plan
    The Dismemberment Plan
    The Dismemberment Plan is a Washington D.C. based indie rock band formed on January 1, 1993. Also known as D-Plan or The Plan, the name comes from a stray phrase uttered by insurance salesman Ned Ryerson in the popular comedy Groundhog Day. The band members included Eric Axelson , Jason Caddell ,...

    . After the band broke up, he began his solo career, later forming current band, Travis Morrison Hellfighters.
  • Steve Cummings (class of 1988), original drummer and founding member of The Dismemberment Plan
  • Tal Bayer and Tom Goodin, (class of 1988), founding members (singer and guitarist) of the Pietasters
    The Pietasters
    The Pietasters are a seven-piece ska/soul band hailing from Washington, D.C., with additional members from Maryland and Virginia.- History :In 1990, a group of friends were attending college at Virginia Tech in the mountains of Virginia...

  • Ann Marie Calhoun
    Ann Marie Calhoun
    Ann Marie Calhoun is an American violinist.- Personal life :...

    (class of 1997), violinist

External links

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