Alicia Cain Wheeling is one of John Handley High School’s most successful female student athletes.
Named the Winchester Star’s Girls Track and Field Athlete of the Year in 1997, Alicia earned All-State honors in shot put and discus on six occasions and held the school record in the shot put for 25 years. A Dean’s List student at Marshall University, she set school records in the weights and hammer throws and became a member of the Marshall University Black Legends Hall of Fame.
Alicia holds a Bachelor’s degree in Elementary Education and Special Education from Marshall University and a Master’s degree in Administration from Shenandoah University. She is currently a Multi-Classroom Leader for the Math Department and 7th grade Team Leader at Daniel Morgan Middle School.
During her 20 year career at Daniel Morgan, she has been named “Teacher of the Year”, received the Winchester Hiram Lodge Community Cornerstone Award and coached basketball and track. She has also coached track and field at Handley.
Alicia is a 2019 inductee into the Hunter Maddox Hall of Fame. She is a Judges Athletic Association Board member and a member of the Hunter Maddox Hall of Fame Committee.
Alicia and her husband, Joey, have three sons Tristan, Nicholas, and Jonathan. In addition, they have been foster parents for young people from Winchester and surrounding areas.
Elyus Wallace has dedicated his life to impacting the youth of Winchester through coaching, mentorships, and his professional career at the juvenile detention center.
As a young high school student, Elyus did a “ride along” with members of the Friendship Fire Company. He later volunteered, trained hard, and became a certified firefighter at the age of 16. He started lifting weights at the fire station to improve his strength as a firefighter and as a Handley football player. Police Sgt.. Ricky Timbrook became his mentor and got him into a weight lifting program during his junior year.
Elyus became a first team All Region defensive lineman his senior year. Coach Todd Hill described him as the emotional leader of the 1999 football team.
Elyus has been a volunteer Firefighter/Emergency Medical Technician for over 20 years and has served on the Board of Directors for Friendship Fire Company. He has also served on the Winchester Social Services Advisory Board and has participated on the Substance Abuse Coalition as a member of the Northern Shenandoah Valley Prevention and Outreach Team.
Elyus experienced the importance of community first-hand as a young person and strives to give back by serving as a role model and mentor.
He completed Crisis Intervention Training and now serves as a Crisis Intervention Training Instructor. He helps to prepare others to navigate difficult situations and achieve the best possible outcome.
He has been an assistant football coach for Daniel Morgan Middle School.
He has worked with both children and adults with special needs. He is currently a Detention Specialist at the Northwestern Regional Juvenile Detention Center where he strives to inspire and instill a sense of hope by guiding troubled youth toward a better future.
He is committed to the community’s betterment. He actively addresses needs and, by collaborating with community leaders, champions for positive change.
Elyus currently serves on the Winchester City School Board, advocating for education and youth development. He hopes to inspire the young members of our community and supports the tradition of “learning for all, whatever it takes.”
Andy Vipperman was the SCA Student Body President, Fellowship of Christian Athletes member of the year, recipient of the Judges Athletic Association’s Ron Rice Award for Leadership and recipient of the Winchester Star Leadership Award. The only Handley football player ever selected as Defensive Player of the State, he was first team All-State in Football, All-State in Track and Number 4 all-time for shot put at Handley.
He continued his football career at Hampden-Sydney College where he earned his B.A in Psychology in 1999. He served in the Student Senate, the NCAA Advisory Board, and Student Admissions Committee. He was a founding member of the Tiger Athletic Club.
Andy was hired as a Police Officer at the Winchester Police Department in 1999. He created “Kids and Cops”, a summer camp for the community focused on interaction with police officers. He was named Police Officer of the Year in 2006.
He was Winchester’s first special victims crimes detective. He served on the Board of Directors for the Children’s Advocacy Center and received the inaugural “Man of Vision” award given by the Laurel Center to honor a man who works against domestic and sexual violence.
A graduate of the John O. Marsh Institute for Government and Public Policy at Shenandoah University, he earned an M.A in Human and Organizational Studies at George Washington University in 2006.
Recruited and hired by the Department of State in 2007, he currently serves as a Foreign Affairs Officer. He is completing his Ph.D in Organizational Leadership at Shenandoah University.
In 2016, along with Handley alumnus Jayden Sibert (Class of 2000), Andy founded LegacySynthesis, a human and technology capability company. At LegacySynthesis, they established the Legacy Charity Fund that has facilitated over $100,000 in fundraising and donations to local non-profit organizations since 2017.
A recipient of the Eddie Manuel Award for Distinguished Service to the Judges Athletic Association, Andy currently chairs the Hunter Maddex Hall of Fame and Edwin Barksdale Wing committee. He serves as a board member for the Youth Development Center and on the board of directors for Opportunity Scholars.
Andy chairs the Communication and Alumni Relations committee as a member of the Handley 100th Steering Committee.
Andy lives in Winchester with his wife, Lynne. Their daughter, Madison, is a member of the Handley Class of 2023- the 100th Class- and son, Elijah, is a member of the Class of 2026.
“Being honored as a Handley Notable is personally humbling. I simply endeavor to be a good community servant. My greatest privilege is to live and serve in my hometown with my lifelong friends and neighbors. The opportunity to do that is noteworthy and is all the recognition I desire.”
Sabra fell in love with John Handley High School and took advantage of the experiences it provided. She was a member of the National Honor Society and the National Art Honor Society. She was a member of the band drill team and earned a JAA scholarship as a three-sport athlete competing in basketball, volleyball and track.
She worked on the school newspaper, The Gavel, and the yearbook, The Handlian. She was a member of the Booster Club and participated in the Junior Variety Show and the Senior Play.
Sabra was the president of the Distributive Education Club of America (DECA). One of her fondest memories was her part time job as a costumed delivery person. Her favorite was the chicken.
She was class secretary both junior and senior year. Sabra was named “Best Dressed” senior by her classmates which led her to earn a Fashion Merchandising degree from Shepherd University. She continued her athletic career playing volleyball for the Rams.
Sabra is currently the Business Development Manager for Real Property Management Elevation.
As in high school, Sabra has been very active in the Winchester community. A Past President of the Winchester Host Lions Club, she has served on the board of the Friends of the Handley Library, the Judges Athletic Association, TV3 student / athlete board, and the Wayside Theatre. She has worked on committees with the Top of Virginia Chamber of Commerce, the Northwestern Workshop and the Opequon Presbyterian Church.
She has been an assistant volleyball coach at Shenandoah University and a volleyball referee for the Virginia High School League.
Sabra is currently a Vice President of the Shenandoah Apple Blossom Festival.
Sabra and her husband, Les, have three children who graduated from Handley. Cassidy, Class of 2013, is a Marketing Manager; Callie, Class of 2015, is a Security Operations Investigator; and Cameron, Class or 2017, is a Systems Engineer.
Sabra expressed appreciation to the One Handley Committee for all they are doing to carry on Judge Handley’s wishes for the Winchester community and to her parents for giving her the greatest gift anyone could give another person: They believed in her!
Delve into the Handley of the present and future. What is Handley like today? What motivates Handley students? What do they study in school? What extracurricular activities inspire them? How do they like to spend free time? What do they see in their futures?
We’ve invited a contingent of current students to share perspectives and answer questions on Thursday, May 9 from 6:30 to 7:45 p.m. at the Handley Library auditorium. Come meet the students of Handley’s next century. Facilitated by Valerie O’Keeffe, Handley theater teacher. Free and open to all.
An Iowa native, Gaylen Strunce earned his BA at the University of Northern Iowa and his MM at the University of Michigan. He came to Virginia in 1937 and taught in Buchanan County schools and neighboring Botetourt County schools. In 1940, he moved to Charlottesville where he organized the Lane High School band.
In June 1941, he was called for active duty with the Virginia National Guard. When the United States entered World War II, he became part of the 29th Infantry Division and served 36 months overseas before being discharged in June 1945.
William H. McIlwee was the director of the first Handley High School band. The band had 14 members and functioned as part of the cadet battalion using surplus World War I band instruments. As one of the first high school bands in Virginia, the Handley band participated in the inauguration of President Herbert Hoover in 1929.
“Professor” McIlwee died during the summer of 1945 after 20 years with the Handley bands. Gaylen Strunce, just returned from the European theater, was hired as his replacement. The concert band had 32 members when he arrived.
Gaylen worked to expand the instrumental music programs in Winchester Public Schools. He was so successful that Mary Jo Sweeney joined the faculty as the assistant director to teach instrumental music in the elementary schools in 1955. The bands had 27 performances in 1959 with the junior band, the marching band, the concert band, and the Hi Notes dance band under Gaylen’s direction.
There were 300 students in 5th through 12th grades involved with the band programs in 1975 when the Handley band celebrated its 50th anniversary.
Gaylen raised the performance level of the band to Grade VI, the most difficult of graded music, in 1969 and received superior or excellent ratings. The band participated in exchange programs with Orangeville, Ontario and East Freetown, Massachusetts with 73 traveling members during the mid-1970’s.
While at Handley, Gaylen was President of the Winchester Educational Association, President of Virginia Band and Orchestra Directors Association, a board member of the Virginia Music Educators Association, and an adjudicator for band festivals in Virginia and Maryland.
Gaylen did not limit has musical talents to the Handley band. By 1948, he was the director of the Winchester Municipal Band that often performed at the bandstand in the City Recreation Park. He performed as a member of the Shenandoah Symphony Orchestra. His swing band, The Gay Notes, performed for the 1963 Shenandoah Apple Blossom Festival’s Queen’s Ball at the Winchester Armory with his wife, Martha Babb Strunce, performing vocally.
As a teacher, he patiently developed his students’ performance skills and their life long appreciation for music. His students exposed every Handley student as well as the community to a wide variety of quality music through their performances. For 33 years, Gaylen Strunce brought music to Winchester.
Maria was born in Rio Piedras, Puerto Rico and started her college education at Radford College in 1951. She spoke limited English at the time and recently said she still has an accent. She earned her masters degree at Madison College.
Maria’s love for teaching started when she observed her mother, a first grade teacher, in the classroom. Maria came to Winchester Public Schools to teach Spanish at Daniel Morgan Middle School in 1973.
Maria pushed her students to achieve at the highest level possible. Her 8th grade Spanish I classes competed in the National Spanish Exam against regional high school students. In 1977, her Daniel Morgan students took the first 5 places in the region. Her students earned 10 of the top 12 places the following year and the top 6 places in 1979. She started teaching at Handley in the early 1980’s.
Maria considered herself to be a very strict teacher. One of her students, Polly Nesselrodt, said that her no-nonsense approach involved extensive nightly homework, writing out stories first in Spanish, then in English, and rigorous oral tests. Showing up unprepared for Mrs. Tederick’s class was just never an option.
She set the bar in foreign language pedagogy, professionalism and dignity.
Despite her serious demeanor about teaching, she talked to her students about life on the island of Puerto Rico and all sorts of anecdotal stories that would connect with the class lesson for the day. Maria said she would talk to students about things teachers cannot talk about today. For instance, before prom, she would tell the boys in her class to open the doors for their dates and to ask permission before pinning on a corsage.
She made sure her class was not boring and, by capturing the students’ interest, she ignited their interest in Spanish.
Maria met her husband, Mitch, in college while he was a cadet at VPI. They raised their four sons in Front Royal. After retiring in 1996, she and Mitch built and ran the Apple Country Store in Linden and she operated a women’s boutique called Mela’s, her nickname, at Creekside.
Always a teacher, she recently said, “One’s greatest treasure is knowledge. Pass it along.”
Bart Stewart has been the Athletic Trainer at John Handley High School for 20 years.
A 1998 graduate of Hampshire High School in Romney, West Virginia, Bart was a three sport athlete in football, basketball, and baseball. He completed his undergraduate studies at the University of New England in Henniker, New Hampshire where he was a Dean’s List student athlete competing as a guard in basketball.
Bart earned his Masters Degree in Athletic Training and Sports Medicine at Shenandoah University. He has been a Clinical Instructor for the graduate students at Shenandoah University for 18 years.
Athletic Trainers assist coaches in planning the training program for the conditioning of athletes. They develop programs to assist in the prevention, treatment, and reduction of injuries and in the rehabilitation of athletes who have been injured.
Bart has helped mentor countless students. He has worked with student athletes from every sport at John Handley High School.
Following an injury, a trainer and the athlete work together to develop a program of exercises and drills to recover range of motion and develop strength. Rehabilitation can be painful and grueling for the athlete. Bart has worked to help Handley student athletes recover their strength and also to help restore their confidence.
Reed Prosser, Director of Student Activities at Handley, has stated, “While the training room is not a classroom, Bart has positively impacted 350 kids a year for the last 20 years. His worth to our kids is immeasurable.”
Bart wrote, “The staff and community members associated with Handley are a big reason why this place is so special. It is a pleasure to work with the student athletes and watch their success both in the sport and hear their success stories beyond Handley High School.”
