Category Archives: Videos

Videos, WUSA 9

Championing a chance: Football league gives opportunity to kids with disabilities

On Saturdays at Battlefield High School, touchdowns are a thrill, regardless of who scores them. Tackles are fun for the tackler and the player meeting the grass. Smiles are a’plenty.

Jared Van Acker, head football coach at Battlefield High School, and Maureen Buckley, outreach coordinator for the Down Syndrome Association of Northern Virginia, are united in their commitment to making football a reality for kids with down syndrome. Maureen, the founder and director of the Champions League of Northern Virginia, began the program five years ago. The inspiration? Her daughter Lauren. Lauren runs from end zone to end zone, sporting long blonde hair, a pair of glasses, and white knit jersey with her own name decorating the back.

“We get to help out kids, give them the opportunity to play football. This is one way we can give back to the community and also to special needs kids,” Van Acker explained.

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Videos, WUSA 9

‘Spiking’ Interest: WT Woodson Boys Volleyball

635817174715367187-WT-Woodson-cover-photoVolleyball…not only for girls.

One senior at WT Woodson High School participates in multiple sports for which the trail has already been blazed. But, he put in some serious elbow grease to introduce the Cavaliers to his favorite sport of all.

“I’m captain of crew right now, I play football…none of them are as fun as volleyball. Even if we get out on the court and lose, it’s still a lot of fun,” said senior Val Jack.

Val, enjoying his final year at Woodson, has taken a liking to volleyball for years now. Because the sport has never been available for boys at his own school, he played his freshman year with the Lake Braddock squad. But competing with another team’s colors on his jersey eventually felt, as he described it, “wrong.” That feeling inspired him to build a team at his school. While he knew for certain a couple peers would be in on the idea, he had no idea exactly how much interest the concept would garner.

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Videos, WUSA 9

Wilson Crew: Dear to the old and the new

As the sun says hello and goodnight to D.C. each day, you can be guaranteed the Wilson Tigers will be immersed in the great outdoors to catch it. But they won’t be gazing; they’ll be working.

This fall, over one-hundred student-athletes meet daily on the Potomac for crew practice. The only public high school rowing program in D.C. has provided kids with another unique option when it comes in the world of sports.

“I’ve met some of my best friends on this team and knowing that they’re gonna be there at 5:15 in the morning…it’s what gets me out of bed. When I look back at my pillow and the alarm’s going off, I just know they’re gonna be there and ready to pull hard,” said senior captain Sam Snedden.

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