Lew Jenkins Coach	Rix Mills Class of 1962	Ann Weaver Pelle Class of 1971

Lew Jenkins

COACH LEW JENKINS.  Coach Jenkins is truly a coaching legend, not just at Surrattsville, but also at St. Mary's College of Maryland (where he has been the head baseball coach for the last 16 years) and in the entire Maryland-DC area.  Coach Jenkins' extraordinary career at Surrattsville included the following highlights:

In Baseball:  326 wins and 128 losses over a 25-year career.  Retiring with more wins than any Maryland high school coach.  11 Prince George's County championships, with six championships in the period 1978-1984.  18 years' consecutive playoff appearances after the State baseball playoff system took effect.  Induction into the Maryland State Association of Baseball Coaches Hall of Fame.

In Wrestling:  84 wins and 23 losses over a nine-year career.  Prince George's County dual meet champions 1968, 1969, 1972 and 1973.  Regional champions 1968, 1969 and 1973.  26 consecutive dual meet wins from 1968 – 1970.  Coach Jenkins' Hornets were ranked the number one wrestling team in Maryland by the Baltimore Sun in 1968.  Induction into the Maryland State Wrestling Hall of Fame in 1994.

At SMCM, Coach Jenkins is the program's all-time winningest coach with 262 wins, three consecutive 20-win seasons, and numerous other achievements.  (Despite that extraordinary and on-going career at SMCM, the SMCM athletics web site states that "Jenkins is probably best known for his 25 years as the head baseball coach of Surrattsville High School in Clinton"!)

In addition to the above, Coach Jenkins has served as an assistant baseball coach at Georgetown and GW Universities (where he coached several players who went on to play professionally), has served as a scout for several major league teams, and has coached youth baseball at the national and international levels, including mentoring the U.S. Junior National Team for four years.

In addition to Coach Jenkins' unmatched record of coaching successes, he is universally revered by the athletes he coached who praise his communication and teaching skills, his emphasis on academics and sportsmanship, and his tireless dedication to his teams, his athletes and his schools.  Here is a typical comment from one of the large group of Coach Jenkins' former players who nominated Coach Jenkins for this year's Achievement Award: "Next to my parents, Lew Jenkins taught me more about baseball, and life, than anyone else."

Rix Mills

RIX MILLS (62).  From 2007 – 2009, Rix worked for Civilian Police International as an International Advisor Counter Narcotics Advisory Team member in Kandahar and Mazar-e-Sharif, Afghanistan.  The organization's efforts were to eliminate poppy growth and educate the populace on alternatives to illicit drug cultivation and production.  He developed community outreach programs to all sectors of the society, including drug treament facility support and prison clinics to treat addicted inmates.
While in Afghanistan, Rix organized an effort to provide school supplies, clothing, cooking utensils, blankets, sporting equipment and much more to needy families who had little or no resources to cope with basic daily living.  With the help of many people from the Surrattsville community, he was able to distribute a large volume of notebooks, pencils, rulers and the like to school children who had none of these vital supplies.  He also supported a US-funded orphanage with food, clothing, computers and musical instruments to help the children cope with the harsh realities of life without parents.   

Prior to his work in Afghanistan, Rix served for 18 years in the Defense Intelligence Agency as a Senior Subject Expert and Senior Supervisor. His work at the DIA primarily focused on counter-narcotics, counter-terrorism, current intelligence and liasion duties with two national-level counter-narcotics organizations. 

After graduating from Surrattsville in 1962, Rix attended the University of Maryland (BA Honors) and was commissioned a 2nd Lieutenant out of the Air Force ROTC program.  At Maryland, Rix was a Distinguished Air Science Student and the Commandant of Cadets.  He also attended graduate school at Creighton University (MA), the Joint Military Intelligence College (MS), and the Inter-American Defense College (Certificate in Hemispheric Studies).  Rix's 20-year career in the Air Force ended with his retirement in 1986 as a Lieutenant Colonel.

Currently, Rix is the owner of a private English language institute in Puerto Montt, Chile that provides both private and public English courses ranging from basic to advanced, specifically focused on the fishery and tourism industries of Southern Chile.

 
Ann Weaver Pelle

ANN WEAVER PELLE (71).  Ann is an extraordinary community "activist," in the strictest sense of the word.  In her adopted town of The Villages, Florida, Ann has rallied her neighbors to refuse to participate in the phenomenon called "aging," and to remain active and involved in their community by participating in The Villages Twirlers (thevillagestwirlers.com).  The Twirlers, ages 56 to 82, are baton twirlers many of whom had given up their sport decades previously.  They perform at events both locally and around the world, on land and at sea.

Ann founded The Twirlers in 2003 with a core group of eight twirlers who formed a class at The Villages Lifelong Learning College.  The Twirlers now have 96 members, including twirlers, drummers and a flag corps.  The Twirlers only rule is that they will accept anyone into their ranks, even those who have never twirled, drummed or flagged before.

Ann not only serves as director of The Twirlers' Show Team, Parade Team, Banner Team, Flag Corps, Drum Corps and Ribbon Girls, but also handles all of the public relations, choreography, bookings and costuming.

Some of The Twirlers' most memorable events have been Twirlmania at Disneyland, the USTA 50th Anniversary held in Daytona Beach, Fl, the Pro Bowl in Hawaii, and the "Rockin the Caribbean Cruise."

Ann is especially proud that The Twirlers work regularly with younger twirlers in the area, and of the fact that The Twirlers have served as the inspiration for other more mature twirlers to start teams and get back into the sport of twirling.The Twirlers have won numerous awards and competitions, and The Villages Daily Sun has recognized Ann as a resident who truly makes a difference in the lives of the residents of that growing community.