During the coming summer, MCPS will reveal their full redistricting plans. The opening of Crown High School will have a direct impact on this community, as it will pull from this and neighboring schools including Quince Orchard, Richard Montgomery and Northwest.
These district changes will have a big effect on MCPS athletics, as students will be pulled from this school to Crown. These changes will take effect beginning in the fall of 2027. Along with the redistricting, a new athletic schedule, county divisions and playoff regions will shift and change the landscape of county athletics. ”This will pull much of our Gaithersburg contingent away from Wootton, but I am not sure how the boundaries for Wootton will expand/shrink. What I can tell you is that it will impact a lot of schools, but I’m not sure that there are really powerhouse teams other than QO football,” Athletic Director Alton Lightsey said.
The areas of this school being evaluated for relocation to Crown include those closest to Dufief, Travillah, and Stone Mill Elementary Schools. Quince Orchard will also be losing a number of students, which may affect their star-studded football team. Walter Johnson and Whitman are also set to lose students with the reopening of Woodward on Old Georgetown Road, which will affect their baseball programs. “As the new boundaries update, Crown High School will take talent away from the already deprived baseball team, just like private schools and Churchill already do. This will affect the team’s morale, giving them less and less hope for the future,” freshman baseball player Brooks Greenberg said.
Overall, athletic talent around the county is going to be spread out. Football, soccer, volleyball, baseball, field hockey and lacrosse programs around the county will have to adapt. Neighborhoods of talent will either be leaving their schools, or in the cases of Crown and Woodward, talent will be added and could create new competitive rivalries and matchups as QO will be down the road from Crown and Walter Johnson will be a mile from Woodward. Underpopulation is also a factor, as 3A and 4A schools will be moving up or down. “I think Wootton is already underpopulated and taking students is just adding to the problem. I think that the taking of students will change the dynamic of who the powerhouses are in the county. I think that this could create new rivals between schools and Crown, but I think overall the classic matchups like Churchill and Wootton will stay the same,” sophomore basketball and lacrosse player Adam Epstein said.
The two most recent MCPS high schools that opened were James Hubert Blake and Northwest, which opened in the fall of 1998. Northwest has had success winning state titles since its creation. Northwest also has a heated rivalry with QO in all sports. Blake has also been good after a slow start in the ‘90s and 2000s, but now is on track as their basketball and football teams are consistently performing.
