Washington Becomes a Bobcat 

James Quinn
MDVarsity.com Staff

Gwynn Park's outstanding senior All-County guard Harold Washington verbally committed to Quinnipiac College on March 21.

Harold Washington

Quinnipiac is a Division I-A college located in Hamden, Connecticut. The Bobcats play in the Northeast Conference (NEC), which was represented in the NCAA Tournament by Mount St. Mary's College.

The 6-foot-1 Washington averaged 19 points, five rebounds, two steals and four assists for Gwynn Park as a senior. He it 35 percent of his three-point field goal attempts and had a single game high of 34 points this season.

Washington was First team All-County in Prince George's County this year and received All-Met Honors. Washington has also been selected to play in the Capital Classic Preliminary game in April.

Quinnipiac has increasingly recruited the Washington D.C. and Baltimore area in the last few years and landing Washington, an athletic wing guard with tremendous shooting range, is a major coup for the Bobcats.

Throughout the course of this season, a large number of local prep basketball players in the D.C. area mentioned Quinnipiac as a college that they were considering. Quinnipiac head coach Tom Moore, a former assistant coach at UConn, already has several former D.C. area prep hoops products on the current Bobcat roster.

Washington, along with backcourt mate Sean Thomas, who was recently chosen First Team All-Met by the Washington Post, led Gwynn Park to a 25-2 record this year. The Yellow Jackets had a tremendous run through Prince George's County this season, including a pair of convincing wins over eventual Maryland 3A Champion Largo, before losing to Winters Mill, 58-56, on a buzzer beater in the 2A Semifinals at the Comcast Center.

The Yellow Jackets were ranked No. 8 in the Washington Post's Final Top Twenty Rankings. Thomas is expected to commit to a Division I college very soon, as well.

Yellow Jacket coach Mike Glick, who previously built private school hoops powers at Catholic Schools Pallotti and Archbishop Spalding before arriving at Gwynn Park two years ago told MdVarsity.com.,

"He picked a perfect school in Quinnipiac," Yellow Jacket head coach Mike Glick said. "He is a great fit for the school and the basketball program. Coach Moore is going to do a great job up there. He recruited Rudy Gay (now in the NBA after two stellar years at UConn) to UConn when I had Rudy at Spalding. Coach Moore recruited Harold as a two, which is Harold's natural position. He is kind of an undersized two guard, but he has enough size to be a wing guard in that league. Harold still has a lot of upside. Like I said, I think he'll do great there – I couldn't be happier for him."

Glick added that Washington is a full academic qualifier for college freshman eligibility. Washington ultimately chose Quinnipiac over Hampton University and Morgan State, two fast rising MEAC programs.

"Harold also had some interest from some larger colleges, like George Mason," Glick said. "If he had decided to prep for a year to see if he could get a little more college exposure with a prep year, some other colleges definitely would have come in and recruited him, but Harold was (academically) qualified and Quinnipiac was a great fit."

Loyola College also recruited Washington and reportedly would have recruited him in 2008-2009 if he had gone to prep school.

"They (Quinnipiac) are going to be a very good program in the Northeast Conference, said Glick. "And I think that Harold can be a part of their success. I think he has a chance to help them some right away."

EDITOR'S NOTE: MDVarsity.com's James Quinn went In the Gym early this year to profile the 2007-2008 Gwynn Park team and did separate profiles on coach Mike Glick's outstanding senior guards Sean Thomas and Harold Washington. Both the Yellow Jacket team and their stellar backcourt lived up to their advance billing as Gwynn Park went 25-2 and advanced to the Maryland State 2A Semifinals at the Comcast Center in mid-March.

Posted at 2:15 PM ET, 03/21/2008

Gwynn Park Guard to Quinnipiac

From Josh Barr:

Gwynn Park guard Harold Washington took an unofficial visit and committed this morning to play for Quinnipiac, Gwynn Park Coach Mike Glick reports. Quinnipiac is coached by Tom Moore, who recruited Rudy Gay to Connecticut. Gay played for Glick at Spalding.

Quinnipiac Scores A Pair
DeAndre Bynum		By Dave Telep National Recruiting Director Posted Mar 23, 2008 Tom Moore's Quinnipiac program scored a pair of commitments this weekend. One of them was former Memphis standout DeAndre Bynum, a 6-foot-5 senior.
The crew from Quinnipiac struck twice this weekend. DeAndre Bynum, a wing, and Harold Washington, a combo guard, both committed to Tom Moore’s program from the Class of 2008. Bynum, a former Memphis (Tenn.) White Station standout, transferred to Camp Hills (Md.) Progressive Christian this season. Washington, who will play in the Capital Classic all-star game, averaged 19 points a game at Gwynn Park High School. Hampton offered Washington and George Mason was said to be taking a peek. Regardless, Moore’s program appealed the most to Washington. “It’s a beautiful facility,” Washington said. “I loved the coach’s plan for the program. It’s a program that is going somewhere. It seems like the school is putting a lot of money into the basketball program and the coaches are looking for players to build the program.” Washington knew of Bynum before the pair verballed but it’s been a while since he’s seen him play. “I saw him on the AAU circuit but other than that I don’t really know him. He told me that he felt the same way I did about the school.”