Sports and Athletics

1946  -  

 Before a 45-year coaching career, James “Jimmy” Lewis, III was an All-state basketball player on Parker-Gray’s 1963 VIA Group II State runner-up. In 1964 he transferred to Fairfax County’s newly integrated Groveton High and was selected as a Washington Post All-Met player. Upon graduation in 1964 he was the first African-American to receive a basketball scholarship at West Virginia University. He played on a Southern Conference Championship Team in 1967 and graduated with a degree in Journalism in 1968. He began his coaching career as an assistant coach with men's programs at Tennessee State (1969) and Gannon College (1970). In 1971 he was hired as the first African American assistant basketball coach at Duke University. He has coached at two high schools, eight colleges or universities and four Women’s Basketball Association (WNBA) teams. He had 20 years as a collegiate head coach in women’s basketball. At George Mason University, he coached for 14 seasons (1984-1997) and won more games than any other coach compiling a record of 201-177. He was head coach at Fordham University from 2001-2006. He was the first head coach of the WNBA’s Washington Mystics (1997-1998). He has been a television analyst for games broadcast by ESPN and Home Team Sports. He was appointed to the 1996 USA Basketball Committee to select the Women’s Olympic Team for that year.

(From the VIA Heritage Association)

1963  -  

Adrian Francis Branch is a retired American professional basketball player.  He was drafted into the NBA in the second round by the Chicago Bulls in 1985. He played a reserve role with the Los Angeles Lakers when they won the NBA Championship in 1987.   A 6'7" guard/forward out of DeMatha High School, Branch starred at the University of Maryland from 1981 to 1985. He was an All-ACC second team selection twice. In 1984 Branch led the Terrapins to the ACC Championship.  In 2004, Branch became a television color analyst for the NBA's Charlotte Bobcats games. He joined ESPN in 2007 as a college basketball analyst. Adrian Branch was inducted into the University of Maryland Athletics Hall of Fame in the 2018 class. 

1968  -  

Vanessa Blair-Lewis is the Head Coach of the George Mason University women's basketball team. For eleven seasons she was the Head Coach of a Bethune-Cookman University women's basketball program, and in 2018 became the first Women's Head Coach in MEAC history to win the Conference Coach of the Year award three consecutive years and four times overall.  A two-time NEC Player of the Year, was inducted into the Mount St. Mary’s Sports Hall of Fame in 2002 and NEC Hall of Fame in 2013. Her number 24 was retired at Mount St. Mary's on January 26, 2019.  In the 2018-19 season, Coach Vanessa Blair-Lewis led Bethune-Cookman to the MEAC Tournament Championship and first NCAA Tournament berth in program history.  

1971 -  

Theodore “Ted” Jeffries (TJ, to family) is a University of Virginia Alum with a Bachelor’s in Rhetoric and Communications. He was a two-year varsity basketball letterman at DeMatha Catholic High School under the late legendary Basketball Hall of Fame Coach Morgan Wootten. At 6'9", Ted lettered four times for the Virginia Cavaliers from 1989 to 1993, and was team captain in his senior year. He still ranks eighth on Virginia's career rebounding list with 787.  Ted played professionally for eight years in Spain, Japan, Poland, Latvia, Germany, Turkey, Portugal, Taiwan, Venezuela and twice in the CBA with the Shreveport (LA) Storm and the Yakima (WA) Sun Kings. After his playing career ended, Ted was a D-1 assistant basketball coach at Coastal Carolina University in Conway, SC and at the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, VA. Ted was part of the Virginia Men’s Basketball radio broadcast team as a Color Analyst from 2011 to 2017. For more than 16 years Ted has worked in institutional advancement as a Major Gifts Fundraising Officer, including 7 years with the University of Virginia Alumni Association, and 3 years with the Virginia Athletics Foundation.  

1999  -  

Samantha M. Quander-Mosley (Majerle, to family) began playing soccer at age 4 with St. Jerome’s Catholic School in the Archdiocese of Washington Catholic Youth Organization (CYO). She was a CYO, All Star in 2013. She played club soccer for Maryland United FC (formerly Freestate) starting at age 11.  After graduating from St. Jerome’s, Majerle attended the all-girl, Catholic, Elizabeth Seton High School in Bladensburg, MD where she made the Varsity Soccar team as a freshman and was a four-year starter. She was selected team captain of the Seton Varsity Soccer team in her junior and senior year. 

Majerle made the US Olympic Development Soccer Team in 2014 and was selected to the Region I Soccer Team that same year.  She competed at the highest club level with the Maryland United FC ECNL Team, traveling the country to compete against the top women soccer players in the county.

Majerle was selected to the Washington Catholic Athletic Conference (WCAC) All Conference Team all four years of high school, and she was selected to the Prince George's County All-County Team in 2017.  In her senior year, Majerle was awarded the Roadrunner Award at Elizabeth Seton (awarded to two students each year) for her outstanding student leadership on and off the field.

Majerle excelled on the field and in the classroom at Elizabeth Seton, and graduated in the top 5% of her class in 2017.  She went on to study mechanical and bioengineering at the University of Maryland College Park, and continued her soccer career playing for the Maryland Club Soccer Team.