George C. Marshall High School

Accreditation

During the 2014-2015 school year, the vast majority of Marshall students passed the end-of-year exams.

Demographics

Below are the demographics as presented during the 2015-2016 school year at Marshall High School:

18.04%, or 367 students, were eligible for free or reduced lunch in the 2014-15 school year.

Athletics

Marshall's teams are nicknamed the Statesmen, their mascot is the griffin (a half lion, half eagle creature), and their teams play in the AAA Liberty District and Northern Region of the Virginia High School League. While Marshall's enrollment had been at the AA level, and the school had needed to petition to play in AAA to the VHSL to maintain rivalries with local schools, the school's enrollment had increased to over 1900 students by the fall of 2014.

In the 2005-2006 school year, the field hockey team and the boys basketball teams advanced to the AAA tournaments.

Marshall girls basketball won the Liberty District tournament back to back in 2006 and 2007. The girls tennis team placed first in the Liberty District in 2009 and second (to Thomas Jefferson) at the regional tournament.

George C Marshall High School's new school motto "Small School Big Heart" was started during what is called the Cinderella season on the 05-06 Varsity Men's Basketball who advanced to the semi finals of the state tournament.

In 2013, the Men's Varsity Basketball team won the Liberty District. In 2014, the Men's Varsity Football team broke a losing streak stretching back to 2011 with victories over Thomas Jefferson and JEB Stuart.

State team championships and runner-up finishes

Marshall has three state championships, which are:

Marshall has five runner up finishes, which are:

Individual state champions

The following Marshall students have won state AAA (IA before 1971) individual titles:

| Bryce Shelton|| Boys Diving|| 2012, 2013, 2015

Music and the Arts

Marshall has a growing orchestra, band, choir, and theatre program. They take part in numerous competitions annually such as the District Performance Assessment, and the Music Heritage Festival.

Orchestra

The Marshall Orchestra Program consists of four orchestras: The Marshall Concert Orchestra, Symphonic Orchestra, Philharmonic Orchestra, and Statesmen Sinfonia. During the 2014-2015 school year, it has grown to include more than 120 members. The first three orchestras have received straight superior ratings at the District Performance Assessment for the past three years, and have also received a gold rating along with an adjudicator's award for their performance during the 2011 Music Heritage Festival. Statesmen Sinfonia is a new ensemble introduced in the 2014-2015 school year due to the growing number of members. The orchestra is currently being led by director Catherine Bond.

Band

The Marshall Band Program is composed of two subgroups: Concert Band and Wind Symphony. The band program is currently being led by director Paul Vesilind, who was named George C. Marshall High School Teacher of the Year in Spring 2015. The Marshall Band has held the Honor Band title for three years consecutively.

Marshall has many extracurricular bands, including Marshall's "Marching Statesmen", which have come in 1st place at multiple competitions. They went to the marching band states competition for the first time in October 2015. There is also a Marshall Jazz Band, which performs at school and community events. The band offerings at Marshall also include indoor drumline, percussion ensemble, flute choir, and IB music. The percussion ensemble, which was led by Frank Gonzalez at the time, has also been recognized for their achievement. They were invited to the Music for All National Percussion Festival in Indianapolis, held in March 2009. The event is part of the Bands of America National Convert Festival.

For more information, please go to the Marshall Band website.

Theatre

Marshall High School is also home to an award-winning theater program. Under the direction of Mark Krikstan, they won the District level competition nine years running, and won the championship at the AAA State Finals of the Virginia High School League One-Act Festival five times (2000, 2001, 2003, 2005, 2007), which is the record for most wins among all Virginia high schools. Furthermore, the department is known for allowing students to perform shows with more adult themes, such as uncensored versions of Company and Chicago. The theater program is currently under the direction of Jason Tamborini, and most recently placed fourth among the AAA Ensemble Groups at the 2012-2013 Virginia High School League State Theater Festival.

Extracurriculars

Marshall High School has over 30 extracurricular activities available for its students, and over 10 honor societies available for high achieving students.

Cyber Patriot

The Cyber Patriot Program is sponsored by the Air Force Association. Competitors are given virtual machines, which are like computers inside of computers, with vulnerabilities in them. In the allotted amount of time, they must correctly identify and rectify all of the vulnerabilities, usually including viruses, while maintaining critical services. At the national finals, the competitors also have to complete networking and digital forensics challenges.

Beginnings

Marshall started its Cyber Patriot Program during the 2011-2012 school year. A non-affiliated company, Terrawi, provided most of the resources and training materials to help adequately prepare the teams for competition. The original two teams, which consisted of twelve members, placed 7th in the nation during the final round of competition.

2012-2013 School Year

The club has grown to include more than 40 members during the 2012-2013 school year. Of the original three teams, the Marshall Cyber Patriot Program sent two teams to the Cyber Patriot National Finals, held on March 15, 2013 at the Gaylord Hotel in Maryland. Both teams finished in the top 3 of the open division, along with their state rival, Chantilly High School, which placed top in the nation. Following the competition, the team is expected to compete in several competitions against other schools. Several other high schools in Fairfax County have asked the Marshall Cyber Patriot Program to help start up Cyber Patriot Programs in their own school.

Future Problem Solving

Marshall High School started its Future Problem Solving Club during the 2012-2013 school year. Cheryl Gannaway was the primary sponsor and coach for the club. During its first year, the club consisted of four members, who competed as a single team. The team passed through the Regional Competition, being one of two teams to represent Fairfax County at the State Bowl. At the state bowl, the Marshall team was a finalist in the middle division and received first place in the action plan presentation for their humorous portrayal of Romeo and Juliet.

Model United Nations

Marshall High School has a growing Model United Nations club, which has grown to include more than 100 members during the 2016-17 school year. The club competes in notable tournaments annually, such as VAMUN, William and Mary MUN, and HenMUN. The club is sponsored by Ilsa Tinkelman and Matthew Hanlon, two teachers at Marshall High School. Marshall High School organizes My First MUN every September, to prepare new MUN delegates for future MUN conferences. Additionally, Marshall students collaborated with language teachers Matthew Hanlon and David Barkley to hold the first ever CIMUNE conference in January 2015, a Model UN conference completely in Spanish.

Current Completed Projects

From 2011 to 2014, Marshall High School underwent a renovation done by Samaha Associates, PC. Changes included:

School Shooting

On February 27, 1998 at 12:20pm, David Albrecht, a 17-year-old student at Pimmit Hills Alternative High School, drove his Chevrolet Monte Carlo into Marshall's rear parking lot. With him in the car was a former student who had recently quit school. Right behind him was a dark-colored sports utility vehicle. The SUV pulled up alongside of David's Monte Carlo and the driver pulled out a .22-caliber rifle. Two to three shots were fired before the SUV left the parking lot. David, 17, was struck in the head and died from his wounds. His passenger, an 18-year-old, had escaped injury by ducking down. Police were later able to confirm that this shooting was done by members of the Tiny Rascals Asian youth gang.

Discrimination case

During the 2011-2012 School Year at George C. Marshall High School, a dispute occurred between a teacher and a student. A teacher asked an African American student to read a Langston Hughes poem in a "blacker" way. Marshall administrators immediately launched an investigation into the alleged incident.

Remember the Titans

In the movie Remember the Titans (2000), the climax of the movie comes at the end of the 1971 AAA state championship football game between T.C. Williams High School and George Marshall High School. The movie was dramatized from a Washington Post series about race relations in the high school football fishbowl of 1971, as the Hollywood-underdog T.C. Williams Titans took on the powerful Marshall Statesmen (coached by Ed Henry). The most notable dramatic license taken in the movie was to convert what was actually a regular-season matchup between Marshall and T.C. Williams into a made-for-Hollywood state championship. In reality, the Marshall game was the toughest game T.C. Williams played all year and the actual state championship (against Andrew Lewis High School of the Roanoke Valley) was a 27-0 blowout. The Titans actually did win the Marshall game on a fourth down come-from-behind play at the very end of the game. In addition to the added drama of the Marshall game, there were apparently some legal issues concerning the use of Andrew Lewis High School's name in the movie.

In 1971, the city of Alexandria consolidated three four-year high schools into a single two-year school, with only juniors and seniors. As a result, the best of the varsity football squads at George Washington High School (converted to a middle school), Hammond High School (converted to a middle school) and T.C Williams High School united in what amounted to a mixture of different strengths and weaknesses at T.C. Williams.

The legendary Ed Henry was the head coach at Marshall for six seasons, from 1969–74, and is portrayed in the movie. In 1997, Coach Henry was inducted into the Virginia High School League Hall of Fame.