# Wilde Lake High School

Wilde Lake High School is a secondary school located at the village of Wilde Lake in Columbia, Maryland, United States. It is one of the 13 public high schools in Howard County.
The school is centrally located in Howard County, and its district borders that of River Hill High School, Marriotts Ridge High School, Centennial High School, Howard High School, Oakland Mills High School, and Atholton High School.

## History

Bids were requested by January 1970 for a 1,350-seat school to be built for an estimated US$2.6 million. Opened in 1971 as a model school for the nation, it was Columbia's first high school. It had an open doughnut-shaped design with "open classrooms," and was a model school for new teaching settings.
In 1994, the original 910-student building, which did not meet current safety standards, was demolished. A new $20 million 1,200-seat building with a more traditional style was reconstructed on the same site by Cochran, Stephenson and Donkevoet. The new building, which opened in 1996, replicates the open design, with a central "main street", and halls surrounding it and a bridge across the second floor.

## Students

Student population :
| 1990 | 1991 | 1992 | 1993 | 1994 | 1995 | 1996 | 1997 | 1998 | 1999 |
| unk. | unk. | unk. | 822 | 848 | 1,037 | 1,228 | 1,342 | 1,418 | 1,452 |
| 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 |
| 1,414 | 1,480 | 1,567 | 1,489 | 1,440 | 1,392 | 1,434 | 1,373 | 1,351 | 1,370 |
| 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2020 |
| 1,335 | 1,324 | 1,277 | 1,271 | 1,242 | 1,234 | 1,236 | 1,225 | 1,276 | 1,379 |
The racial makeup of the population during the 2017–2018 school year was 26.7% White, 43.8% Black or African American, 7.2% Asian, 14.6% Hispanic or Latino, 0% Native American, 0.4% Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander, and 7.4% two or more races.

## Jim Rouse Theatre

Wilde Lake has a modern 750-seat theater named for Columbia founder James Rouse, who went by "Jim". The theatre has its own separate entrance and is used by both school and community groups. The 12,500-square-foot performance space is also used for community meetings, sales rallies, exhibitions, and business training sessions. The theatre has a total of 739 seats and eight handicapped accessible locations. Coincidentally, Rouse’s grandson Edward graduated from Wilde Lake in 1987.

## Athletics

Wilde Lake High School has a number of sports teams for each season of the academic year, including football, soccer, golf, volleyball, basketball, and cross country. The school has won the following state championships:

### Cross country

* 1971 – Boys' cross country
* 1996 – Girls' cross country
* 1996 – Boys' cross country
* 2005 – Boys' cross country
* 2006 – Boys' cross country
* 2007 – Boys' cross country

### Football

* 1985 – Football
* 1990 – Football
* 1991 – Football
* 1992 – Football
* 1997 – Football
* 2010 – Football

### Soccer

* 1976 – Boys' soccer
* 1981 – Boys' soccer
* 1982 – Boys' soccer
* 1983 – Boys' soccer
* 1984 – Boys' soccer
* 1991 – Boys' soccer
* 1997 – Boys' soccer
* 2019 – Boys' soccer

### Basketball

* 1985 – Boys' basketball
* 1994 – Boys' basketball State Finalist
* 1995 – Girls' basketball

### Ice hockey

* 2008 – State Finalist
Wilde lake no longer fields an independent ice hockey team. From 2011–2018, a co-op team with players from Oakland Mills and Hammond High Schools was formed, known as the “WHO”. In 2018, Centennial and Long Reach High Schools joined the WHO to form the Wolves.

### Tennis

* 1985 – Boys' tennis doubles
* 1986 – Mixed doubles
* 2001 – Mixed doubles
* 2006 – Boys' tennis singles

### Track and field

* 1975 – Boys' track and field
In 2015, Carol Satterwhite, a physical education teacher at the Wilde Lake High School was selected for the National Interscholastic Athletic Administrators Association Hall of Fame.

## Band program

The school has a band program consisting of groups including the marching band and wind ensemble.

## The Paw Print

The Paw Print is an independent publication of Wilde Lake High School.

## Accommodations

Wilde Lake has a special education program. In addition to its programs for the disabled, Wilde Lake accommodates teen mothers through their in school daycare center.

## Notable alumni

Notable alumni include actors Edward Norton (1987), Carly Hughes (2000), Sara Lindsey (2007), and Adria Tennor (1988). Alumni also include the authors and journalists Laura Lippman (1977), Robert Kolker (1987), and National Public Radio diplomatic correspondent Michele Kelemen (1985). David Bentley Hart (1982) is another writer, theologian, and cultural critic.
Wilde Lake alumni lawyers of note include national security and human rights attorney Jesselyn Radack (1988), who has represented constitutional lawyer Bruce Fein and whistleblowers Edward Snowden, Thomas Drake, John Kiriakou, and Daniel Hale. Maria L. Oesterreicher (1986) became the first female Circuit Court Judge in Carroll County Maryland and Donna Hill Staton (1976) became the first African-American judge in Howard County.https://msa.maryland.gov/megafile/msa/speccol/sc3500/sc3520/012300/012376/html/12376extbio.html
Wilde Lake also produced a number of prominent athletes, including Olympic gymnast Elise Ray (2000), Major League Baseball player Jim Traber (1979), and football players Zach Brown and Isaiah Coulter, who attended freshman through junior year.
Politicians of note include Manhattan borough president Mark D. Levine (1987) and Dr. Terri L. Hill (1977), Maryland State Delegate, District 12
Notable musicians include Lo-Fang (2002) and Greg Saunier (1987).
Former child prodigies who graduated from Wilde Lake High include John Overdeck (1986), a billionaire hedge fund manager and philanthropist. Another is Curtis Yarvin (1988), a computer scientist, political philosopher, and neoreactionary thinker