Truckin' on the Western Branch

The Annexation In 1962, when cities and counties across the area were reorganizing with mergers and annexations, voters in the former Norfolk County and in the City of South Norfolk approved a political consolidation that created a new city. A few months later, citizens voted for “Chesapeake” as the name of that new city. In 1968 the City of Portsmouth, fearing a land-locked future, annexed Craney Island, West Norfolk, and parts of both the Churchland and the Western Branch sections of the old Norfolk County. Political boundaries were wandering and quixotic—drawn, some older residents say, to accommodate the residency preferences of local government officials. Dr. Henry I. Willett Jr., then assistant superintendent of Norfolk County Schools, remembered racial integration went fairly smoothly. Superintendent Ed Chittum had taken separate but equal at face value, so all the schools were in equally good shape. Integration was voluntary in the beginning for students. We had some parental objections, but we didn’t lose that many students to private schools. It was a gradual integration— more each year. But the annexation of Norfolk County? It was like the Civil War. It was not harmonious. Who knows why lines that were drawn were drawn that way? The annexation meant new schools had to be established in Western Branch. The building that had housed Churchland Junior High went to the city of Chesapeake to become the first Western Branch High School that launched in 1968 with 1,200 students in grades six through twelve. That building now houses Western Branch Junior High. The need for a larger building prompted the present Western Branch High School that opened in 1972 and expanded in 1988, 1997, and 2011. Seniors that first year could choose between Western Branch and Churchland, but athletes living in the Portsmouth section of Churchland could not play for Western Branch High. William J. Peale was the first principal of the school, followed by Arthur V. Brandriff Jr. Brandriff’s 38 years as principal in Western Branch ranked him as the longest-tenured principal in Virginia when he retired in 2008. Earnest “Rabbit” Howard, who had taught and coached basketball at Churchland, was one of 25 educators who opted to move to the new school. Gracie Lee VanDyck also opted for the new school, leaving Churchland after 21 years to teach and coach at Western Branch for 19 more years. They remembered the staff met at Churchland Junior High (soon to be Western Branch High) with the 60 to 70 students who would be the new Western Branch seniors to decide the new school colors, logo, and ring, etc.

Dr. Henry I. Willett Jr. Image by Sheally

Howard taught geography, was the athletic director, and coached basketball at the new school . We couldn’t take any black and orange equipment from Churchland, so we had lots of new equipment. But we had to hide from suppliers like Kessler Sporting Goods—we owed them all money and couldn’t pay.

Only one basketball player from Churchland came over to the new school, so we filled in with boys out of the gym classes for the first season. The night we played Churchland at the Frederick College gym, the guys at Speers restaurant were betting over beers that Western Branch would be wiped out. There was a sold-out crowd in the gym, but we followed a hold the ball strategy and lost by only a basket—17 to 15.

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