Mayor Jim Loper: "This team has won our school’s first national relay title."
By John Tredrea
The four girls who won a national indoor track title for Hopewell Valley Central High School in Landover, Md., on March 12 were honored by Pennington Borough Council Monday night.
"This is the first national scholastic title for a Hopewell Valley athletic unit in over 30 years," said borough Mayor Jim Loper.
Mr. Loper, who taught social studies and coached several sports for over 20 years at Central High School before retiring a few years ago, presented the members of the sprint medley with framed copies of mayor’s proclamations in their honor during the council meeting.
The members of the team are Miriam Khan, Jackie Barrett, Natalie Mapp and Emily Sherrard. Attending the council meeting along with the team was their coach Aaron Oldfield and HoVal Athletic Director Kiki Enderle.
Introducing the team to council, Mayor Loper said, "I was a coach for 23 years and still consider myself a coach, although I am not actively coaching now. One of the things I was happiest about at Hopewell Valley was the success of both the boys and girls athletic programs. As a coach, nothing was more important to me than winning championships particularly a state championship, which is quite an accomplishment. Recently, we’ve had a group that went even beyond that. This team has won our school’s first national relay title."
"Thank you very much," Coach Oldfield said as the mayor gave the girls their framed proclamations.

