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Organization History
The General's Highway Athletic Association, Inc. (also sometimes referred to as GHAA) came into existence in 1997. Prior to this time there were a number of athletic organizations named after the Rolling Knolls community, including baseball, girls lacrosse and soccer. These organizations banded together under the General's Highway banner in order to better serve the emerging communities along and around MD-178, which is better known as General's Highway. The earliest of the Rolling Knolls organizations is girls lacrosse, founded in 1985 with the first season in 1986, and therefore General's Highway roots go back to this time.
General's Highway is a non-profit organization registered with the State of Maryland and the US Government. While continuing to solely make sure the lacrosse fields at Rolling Knolls elementary are playable, the organization also works with the Anne Arundel County Recreation & Parks department to maintain General's Highway Corridor Park on Crownsville Road. The lacrosse, soccer and baseball organizations make use of the fields at this location.
The first President of General's Highway was Dale Dandy who also happened to be the Commissioner for Rolling Knolls Baseball at the time. He was President for at most two years. The next President was in the position for a number of years but had to be forced out in 2003 due to a series of problems in the last couple of years of her tenure. The Vice President at that time walked away from his duty which aggravated the situation, even going so far as attemptiing to undermine the entire organization because of petulance and ego. Jeanne Ward stepped forward as a breath of fresh air to rebuild the reputation of the organization and get it back on a sound footing.
Jeanne had been Vice President at the beginning of the previous President's tenure but had not been with the organization during the recent troubling times. Jeanne did a tremendous job in cleaning up the situation and getting everything back in order. We thank her for the outstanding effort.
By the end of 2004 Jeanne could no longer continue in the role and Greg Whitley became President. Greg picked up where Jeanne left off and continued to ensure the viability of the organization. His most notable accomplishment was fostering an environment where the organization would act as one and consistent uniform branding could occur. At the end of 2006, Joe Weiss took over as President of General's Highway. Previously Joe had been Vice President of the organization since late 2003 working with Jeanne. As Joe took over as President, Robin Machande became Vice President and Secretary with Jim Denora as Treasurer. Later on Robin retired from the organization and Jim became Vice President and Treasurer while Joe picked up the role of Secretary to go along with being President.
The organization had launched the Annapolis Open® in 2006 but had done it as a one-time event. With new leadership in place the event was made to be an intimate part of the structure and mission and still carries forward today, increasing and expanding in scope.
In the last couple of years the organization has been placed on sound financial footing and has put forward a unified image. At the same time there has been substantial growth both in membership and the number of sports offered by the organization.
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