Oakland Mills High

THE OAKLAND Mills High School team was trailing for the entire match. The crowd was nervous. The band and cheerleaders sat quietly in the stands awaiting the final score. Then the team pulled it out at the last second and won the game. The crowd went crazy, the coach was so excited he could barely contain himself, the band played and the cheerleaders cheered. But the game wasn't a sports event. It was the taping of It's Academic, a high school quiz show that will be aired on WJZ-TV, Channel 13, Feb. 1. The game was played and taped for television the last weekend in November.

ANDY WALKER is a natural when it comes to the game of golf, said Bob Baker, director of Special Olympics Howard County. While some things may be difficult for the Oakland Mills High School junior, golf is a game where he can shine. "Every time Andy goes out to play a tournament, I look forward to him coming back and telling me how well he did," said Brad Howell, Andy's special education teacher at Oakland Mills High. Last month, Andy took fourth place in the second-highest level of play at the National Special Olympics Golf Tournament, held in Port St. Lucie, Fla. The contest featured 159 athletes from 27 states.

Students, teachers and coaches at Oakland Mills High School hoped they could play basketball, paint faces, auction Orioles' tickets and bake enough brownies to raise $25,000 for Rayna DuBose, the 18-year-old freshman at Virginia Tech University who is recovering from meningitis and amputation of her hands and feet. At a recent school fair-turned-fund-raiser, hundreds of members of the Oakland Mills community helped make the $25,000 goal, and added nearly another $25,000. Maxine Beale, an academic mentor at Oakland Mills who is organizing much of the fund-raising effort to help DuBose and her parents, said the total from the "Evening for Rayna" affair was more than $49,000.

Skin glistening in the sun, and lips red from Sno Cones, hundreds of people wanting to help 18-year-old Rayna DuBose braved yesterday's heat, converging on Oakland Mills High School to walk, run, jump, dance and - most of all - to put their money where their hearts were. "I'm here just to show support for Rayna," said Oakland Mills junior Whitney Jones, who spent her 16th birthday yesterday shooting hoops in a three-point shoot-out competition to raise money for DuBose, a 2001 graduate and former star basketball player who was a freshman at Virginia Tech this year.

When she was going to school in Howard County, Rayna DuBose loved playing basketball, being around people and having a good time. So how better to get her friends, family and neighbors together in her honor than to hold a barbecue, basketball game and shoot-out contest in the Columbia community she still calls home: Oakland Mills. That's what members of the Oakland Mills High School community thought when they imagined the perfect fund-raiser for the 2001 graduate and former star basketball player who went to Virginia Tech last fall on the high tide of a promising future but was hit hard by unexpected tragedy.

THE UNITED Nations - what better place is there for high school students to learn firsthand about cultural diversity and the breaking down of cultural stereotypes? That is why about 40 students from the Oakland Mills High School Human Relations Club and the Long Reach High School International Student Organization traveled to New York together to visit the United Nations and Ground Zero. The trip coincided with International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination last month. "We wanted to tie in the dichotomy of the United Nations working toward peace with the tragedy of Sept.

Howard County school officials have changed the time of Oakland Mills High School's graduation to accommodate students whose religious practices might have conflicted with the original schedule. Oakland Mills had planned to graduate its Class of 2002 at 8 p.m. May 31. But after learning from numerous community members that Jewish and Seventh-day Adventist students would be unable to attend, administrators set a precedent by juggling graduation rehearsals and event times to ensure that all students have a chance to walk across the stage.

A student leaving a night program at Oakland Mills High School in Columbia was robbed of money and his tennis shoes by three young men about 7:40 p.m. Wednesday, Howard County police said. Robert Charles Logan, 18, and Joseph Edward Fletcher, 20, both of the 9300 block of Reader Lane in Columbia, were charged yesterday in connection with the crime. Police said they arrested a juvenile male Wednesday night who fit the description of the third suspect. His name was not released because he is a minor.

The student: Reesa Phillips, 17 School: Oakland Mills High Special achievement: As a result of her exceptional grade point average, Reesa is the No. 1 student in her senior class. A student in gifted-and-talented and advanced placement classes, Reesa is French club treasurer, historian for her school's National Honor Society chapter and a member of the math team. She is also a member of the spirit club, a peer mediator and a safe peer leader to fifth-graders. She plays soccer, participates in track and field and sings in the girls' choir.