Perhaps one of the most successful Wildcat athletes was Tommy Smith, technically a dual-sport athlete, something rarely seen today. He played baseball and basketball at WJ alongside ESPN analyst Tim Kurkjian, with whom he graduated in 1974.

“[WJ] was a great school because it was new, but it had a lot of history and talented athletes,” Smith said. “Back then, the school was basically just farmland with about four houses around it. I used to play baseball, basketball and even wiffleball in the street with Tim [Kurkjian] and his brother Matty, and we were crazy competitive.”

After his mother passed away when he was nine years old, Smith swore he would be the best baseball player in the world. He formed a connection with a local scout and the Washington Senators’ equipment manager, who got him in the dugout as a ball and bat-boy. These connections later came in handy, as when that equipment manager moved to Texas, Smith was drafted by the Texas Rangers straight out of WJ in 1974.

“Scouts start watching you in ninth grade and they used to even take you out to lunch and talk to you about where you wanted to go to school,” he said. “We had a very tight group of people at WJ that played baseball, and a lot of guys went to the pros. I publicized myself because you can’t stand there and wait for someone to pick you up. There were a lot of good players at the Rangers and they still had Senators equipment when I was there.”

However, he only played three seasons for the Rangers’ minor league affiliate team. Smith’s real success, however, was in rugby, a career he started by playing for the Washington RFC from 1974 until 1978. He also got involved with the US national rugby team, which took him on a tour to South Africa, after which he knew he wanted to quit baseball.

“After a while, [the Rangers] wanted me to sit on the bench because other guys got paid more than me, but I thought I was better than them,” he said. “So, at that point, I decided to go back to Montgomery College to play football, and a few guys on that team eventually got me into rugby. I started to practice with the Washington Rugby Club, and it was fun and it just seemed to work out. I’m lucky enough to have gotten to travel and tour all over the world, and I got my master’s [degree] from writing papers on every city we went to.”

After being recommended to by a teammate, Smith moved cross-country to California to play for Santa Monica Rugby Club, where he continued to play and coach periodically until 2011. He became the first American to get a scholarship for rugby at UCLA, thanks to the school’s rugby and soccer coach, Dennis Storer, whom he also knew from the US national rugby team. Smith spent a decade playing and coaching for the Bruins from 1980 to 1990, earning him an induction into the school’s rugby hall of fame in 2018.

“I played rugby a little differently because I think Americans should play the game that suits us based on the variety of sports that we play,” Smith said. “I threw a lot of overhand passes, which come from American football, and I did some trick passes and plays, which came from basketball and street football. Other teams would have no idea what we were doing because they weren’t exposed to such a wide variety of sports growing up.”

More importantly, during that time, he played and coached for the US national rugby team in both 15s and sevens, earning him an induction into the US Rugby Hall of Fame in 2017. In sevens in particular, he made 45 appearances for the US Eagles and captained the team 19 times, in the process winning the “Best and Fairest Player” award at the 1986 Hong Kong sevens tournament, an award which he is still the only American to have won.

“It was a task,” he said. “I had to be ready and there was no messing around. It was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and I had to be my best and set an example for everyone around me. I probably could’ve done better with the career that I had, but I guess that’s just the way it is. That award just came from being a good person and seeming to get along with everybody.”

Smith has more or less followed in the footsteps of Jay Hanson, also a WJ graduate and the first to play for the US national rugby team. Smith also coached the team from 1998 to 2001 and led it to its first international tournament championship in over 75 years. He now lives in Redondo Beach outside of Los Angeles, CA, where he manages a restaurant and coaches high school rugby and baseball.

“The restaurant has been here in Redondo Beach since 1952 and I try to do everything for them that I can,” Smith said. “It’s a great place, it’s on the beach and it’s just down the street from where I live. I still play and coach baseball, and I’ve been coaching every sport I’ve learned, because your knowledge and how you can help people is key. Baseball is a fundamental sport, and repetition is a huge part of it, just like other parts of life.”

From undefeated seasons to playoff heartbreaks, WJ’s boys’ and girls’ soccer programs have experienced numerous ups and downs throughout the last decade or so. However, the one thing that has stayed constant during that time is the numerous collegiate and even professional players that the program has produced.

WJ’s most high-profile soccer alumnus is Jeremy Ebobisse, who was born in Paris, France but moved to the WJ area when he was two. In his freshman year, the striker played a pivotal role in the Wildcats’ undefeated regular season and playoff push to the state finals.

After graduating in 2014, Ebobisse played collegiately at Duke for two seasons and signed a contract with the MLS in 2016. However, seeing as he was not drafted until the Portland Timbers selected him with the fourth overall pick in 2017, Ebobisse played with DC United’s under-23 team and USL Championship side Charleston Battery in the meantime.

Ebobisse scored 26 goals in 88 appearances for the Timbers, with one such appearance being in their loss in the 2018 MLS Cup Final. He was traded to the San Jose Earthquakes in 2021, for whom he scored 34 goals in 110 appearances. He was then signed by LAFC for the 2025 season, where he produced three goals in 18 appearances.

Even though he was born in France and has heritage from Cameroon and Madagascar, Ebobisse has only ever represented the US internationally, most notably at the 2017 FIFA U-20 World Cup and once for the senior team, along with a couple of call-ups in 2019.

Coincidentally, one of Ebobisse’s freshman teammates during that year, Gedion Zelalem, has also gone on to play professionally, albeit with a much more interesting career path. Zelalem was similarly born in Europe with African heritage, this time in Berlin, Germany, to Ethiopian parents. After playing for a couple of different youth teams and academies in Berlin, Zelalem moved to the WJ area with his father in 2006, where he played an equally crucial role in that undefeated season and the playoff run that followed.

Zelalem was scouted by English Premier League giants Arsenal at a youth tournament in 2013 and was there to stay after training with the Gunners’ youth academy over that summer. He played for Arsenal’s youth teams for most of his time there but did make two appearances for the first team against Coventry in the FA Cup and against Galatasaray in the UEFA Champions League.

Despite being touted as a “wonderkid” and showing promise in Arsenal’s youth and senior teams, Zelalem was loaned to Scottish giants Rangers for the 2015-16 season and then to Dutch second-tier side VVV-Venlo in 2017, who were promoted in the latter half of that season.

After not getting a sniff back at Arsenal, Zelalem signed on a free transfer for MLS side Sporting Kansas City in 2019 and then for New York City FC in 2020, who won the MLS Cup the year after in 2021. After not being re-signed by NYCFC, Zelalem returned to the Dutch second division to play for FC Den Bosch for the 2023-24 season. In 2025, Zelalem again made his way back to the US to play in the aforementioned USL Championship for New Mexico United.

Zelalem also played in the US’s youth setup, both for the U20 and U23 teams in 2015, but experienced complications in doing so, as he and his father were not yet US citizens after emigrating from Germany, whose youth national teams he also featured for around 2012 and 2013.

The most recent Wildcat to technically make it pro is Bardia Hormozi, who graduated in 2023. Nicknamed “Bardinho” during his WJ playing days, the striker scored bucketloads of goals and, in the process, earned honors such as All-American, first team All-State and County Player of the Year in his junior year.

“I remember the good times I had with friends, going to class, being in class, PE soccer with Mr. Worden and just always having a good time around, and obviously WJ soccer was a fun time,” he said. “I haven’t been back in a while, but it seems like there are a lot more people and the school has definitely gotten much bigger. I remember when I was there, people were starting to talk about the school getting really big, but now it’s actually at that scale.”

His impressive high school goalscoring record, combined with a State Cup victory with his club, Bethesda SC, culminated in his commitment to Princeton University in 2023. Currently in his junior year with the Tigers, he racked up six goals and two assists this past fall season and has transitioned from a striker to somewhat of an attacking midfielder.

“College soccer’s been a really fun experience, and WJ really helped me get to that,” he said. “We won the Ivy League and the Ivy League tournament this year, which is amazing. We were ranked third in the country, which is awesome, and I was lucky enough to get drafted.”

After an impressive three years at the Ivy League school, Hormozi was highly ranked and sought-after by several teams, both domestically and internationally. In the end, it was Minnesota United who selected him with the 53rd pick in the second round of the MLS draft.

“[Minnesota] called me 10 minutes before it got announced that they drafted me, so it was pretty cool,” he said. “It was between a couple of teams that I knew I were going to draft me, but I didn’t know if Minnesota was going to or not, and they did, which kind of surprised me. I’m definitely going back to Princeton this semester, but we’ll see what happens after that.”

Looking forward, Hormozi will at least finish out this spring semester at Princeton before heading to the Twin Cities to prove himself. As he’s only 21, Hormozi still has a long way to go in his career, but has taken valuable lessons from it thus far.

“You just gotta put your head down and keep working,” he said. “Don’t worry about what’s going on around you, and whatever you trust to come for you comes for you. Spend as much time as you can with the ball and make it your best friend, watch and be around the game as much as you can and keep those fitness levels high, because they have to be.”

The final Wildcat to have made it pro is Caroline Miller, who, similar to Hormozi, broke numerous goalscoring records and won a few honors during her prolific time at WJ. After graduating in 2009 and being highly sought after by top college programs, she committed to the University of Virginia. She also played for the US’s U16, U17 and U20 youth national teams.

After again breaking numerous goalscoring records and winning various honors for the Cavaliers, Miller was drafted by the Washington Spirit for the inaugural National Women’s Soccer League 2013 season. However, after just seven games, Miller started to get plagued by numerous ankle problems that saw her get limited appearances and minutes for her hometown side. She was mutually waived by the Spirit in 2015 and then signed for Östersunds DFF in Sweden, where she scored four goals. Additional information about her career was unable to be found.

Whether it be his expert analysis on the World Series for decades now or MLB players impersonating him, Tim Kurkjian is a voice and face that many baseball fans and even players can distinctly make out. However, most don’t know or are quick to forget that he was once a WJ student, athlete and writer, and might not be doing what he is today without his time as a Wildcat.

Born in Bethesda, Kurkjian has been obsessed with baseball since he was a little kid. He played baseball, collected baseball cards, played tabletop baseball games and read anything baseball-related he could get his hands on. Additionally, his father, a mathematician, loved the sport, and his two older brothers played baseball collegiately, although Kurkjian would never follow suit.

“I’ve loved baseball my entire life and it was the primary language spoken in my house growing up,” he said. “My dad had a great feel for the game and he gave his three boys that same feel and love for the game. When it comes to hobbies or anything else, baseball has always been number one on my list. And here it is 45 years later, and I’m still doing what I love to do, and that makes me a very, very lucky guy.”

Kurkjian played basketball and baseball for WJ and wrote for The Pitch in his last two years, where he was a “really, really bad” writer — so much so that one of his coaches once told him, ‘I hope you’re not planning on making this your life’s work,’ because Kurkjian had written the worst story he’d ever read.

“That was kind of an eye opener that, all right, maybe I’m not any good at this and I should get better,” he said. “Like anything else, if you practice, you’re gonna get better. So, I wrote a lot more, I got better and eventually I kind of figured it out. And fortunately,
I did end up making it my life’s work.”

After graduating from WJ in 1974, Kurkjian attended the University of Maryland and its Philip Merrill College of Journalism. After graduating from UMD in 1978, he started covering baseball and worked for a few smaller newspapers in the DMV, a couple of which folded. He started to develop connections with players like Cal Ripken Jr. and worked at Sports Illustrated as a senior writer from 1989 to 1997, where he covered basketball for six months at the end of his tenure. He accepted a position at ESPN in 1998 and has been there ever since, going on-air for programs like SportsCenter and Baseball Tonight.

“When you write a story for a newspaper, which I did for years, you’d have to wait the next morning to see your work. When I worked at Sports Illustrated for eight years, you’d have to wait a whole week to see your work. Now you can cover a World Series game, and you’re talking about it right after the game,” Kurkjian said.
”The immediacy and spontaneity of TV is what really draws me to it, but of course, I’ve never stopped writing. I’ve gotten to do some really cool things and met some amazing people while at ESPN, so I couldn’t ask for much more from my nearly three decades there.”

Those three decades culminated in Kurkjian covering what is now considered by many, including him, to be the best World Series in history, that being the most recent 2025 installment in which the Los Angeles Dodgers edged out the Toronto Blue Jays in a record-breaking seven-game thriller.

“I am 69 years old, this was my 45th World Series, and I’m not one for exaggeration, but that was the best World Series I’ve ever covered,” Kurkjian said. ”That’s given all the storylines and when you add up games three, which went 18 innings, game six, which was one of the craziest finishes to a postseason game that I’ve ever seen and the best game seven I’ve ever covered. I thought nothing could beat 1991 between the Braves and the Twins or 2001 between the Diamondbacks and Yankees, but this one did, which is why I still do what I do.”

Even though he has built up an extremely successful career, Kurkjian still has love for his alma mater, as he tries to go to watch one WJ basketball game per year and return to the gym that he still adorns. More significantly, he has come back three times to deliver commencement speeches for WJ graduation ceremonies, most recently in 2023.

“The first time I spoke at graduation in the late ‘90s, I was so nervous that I almost had to pull off to the side of the road on the way there because I really thought I was gonna throw up. But, I got through it, and everything turned out okay,” he said. “Then, I spoke at the 50th anniversary of the school, because I was born in 1956, the year the school opened, so there’s a certain symmetry to that. The last time I spoke in 2023, we didn’t even have time to shake everybody’s hand walking across the stage because there were so many kids, which just goes to show how much WJ has grown in volume.”

On top of being an analyst, Kurkjian has published three books on his love for baseball and has passed that love down to his son Jeff, with whom he co-hosts a podcast. Heading into his 29th year at ESPN, Kurkjian will continue to cover baseball and remain the voice of WJ for the foreseeable future until he can’t anymore.

It’s no secret that sports make up a massive part of Wildcat culture. Whether it’s half the school showing out for the homecoming football game, numerous teams squeezing in practices after school, or just a PE class messing around, sports are everywhere at WJ.

That being said, the odds are often stacked against most athletes, first to even make their sport’s high school team in the first place. While some sports like pickleball might be less competitive, others like soccer have over a hundred people competing for less than half the roster spots. Once they make their teams, athletes will want to be involved as much as possible; starting, getting minutes, performing at meets, and contributing to their team’s success.

Along with all the other decisions that come with senior year, student-athletes must then decide whether they want to continue their athletic careers in college, quit altogether, or even search directly for opportunities to play past the collegiate level. And once again, if athletes do want to continue playing sports, the odds are even less in their favor.

However, there are a handful of WJ athletes who have beaten those odds and then some, as they have gone on to play and even coach professionally in their sports. While no Wildcat has featured in the traditional “big four” American sports leagues — the NFL, NBA, NHL, or MLB — they have in other leagues in other sports, which, while maybe not seeming as grand of an accomplishment, is still exactly that, as they surpassed all expectations and went on to play pro.

A more recent Wildcat to have gone professional is volleyball player Francesco Sani. Actually born in California, Sani grew up bouncing between Italy and the US and eventually settled in the WJ area. His mother, a former volleyball player, introduced him to the sport and coached him herself.

Sani enjoyed an illustrious career at WJ, as the six-foot-eight outside hitter guided the Cats to a state championship and, in the process, earned the MoCo Player of the Year award twice in a row and a student scholar award. Named number two in the recruiting class of 2020 by Volleyballmag.com, Sani took his talents to UC Irvine, which simultaneously made him the first to go D1 from his club team, the St. James.

Sani had a great four years and won numerous honors with the Anteaters and garnered some experience with the US’s U19 and U21 youth national volleyball teams in the process. Sani signed his first professional contract with Verona in Italy in 2023, thanks to his registration as an Italian. He made his debut with the Italian national volleyball team last year, helping them win the Men’s World Volleyball Championship.