Committee formed to explore naming Sherwood gym after Warren Crutchfield –

by Terri Hogan

Senior Staff Writer

An effort is underway to name Sherwood High School’s gymnasium after Warren Gordon Crutchfield, a man who served as a teacher and coach at the school for 32 years, leaving a lasting impact on many.

Crutchfield died of a heart attack in July at age 82.

On Nov. 20, Principal Dr. Eric Minus sent a letter to the school community, stating he had received a petition to name the gym for Crutchfield.

Pursuant to Montgomery County Public Schools regulations, he wrote, a committee will be formed to review the issue and collect input from the community. The committee will be comprised of two students, two teachers, three people from the community and Minus, who will serve as the non-voting chairman.

Crutchfield’s daughter, La Shane Crutchfield, said that it would be an honor for her family to have the gym named after her father.

“He was a person who wanted to make in a difference in lives of the youth,” she said. “His former athletes and students would say that he was a teacher of life, not just classroom. He made everyone he met feel special.”

Crutchfield taught at Sherwood and coached basketball and track and field. He attended Carver High School in Rockville during segregation and made it to the Olympic Trials in track and field. In 1960, he was drafted by the U.S. Army.

He coached Sherwood’s girls’ basketball to state titles in 1974 and 1976. As a varsity coach, he had more than 400 wins.

Crutchfield was the first African-American head coach of a major high school sport in Montgomery County.

He was a member of the inaugural class of the Sherwood Athletic Hall of Fame, inducted in 2010.

Comments, feedback and support for naming the gym after Crutchfield should be sent to Minus at [email protected] by Dec. 19.