In northeast Cobb County, Georgia, there’s an area that doesn’t get nearly as much attention as it should. Wheeler High School has been open quietly since 1965. It is located about 15 miles northwest of downtown Atlanta, on the edge of Marietta. A quiet way to do something until you see who came out of it.
A Boston Celtics forward named Jaylen Brown won Most Valuable Player of the 2024 NBA Finals. Brown graduated from Wheeler in 2015. Tope Awotona, who turned Calendly into a $1bn business, walked those halls. He still holds the world record in the 110-meter hurdles, which he won gold in at the 2012 Olympics. Sharingef Abdur-Rahim also won an Olympic gold medal in the early 2000s. There is an NBA player, an MLB player, a Chief Justice of the Georgia Supreme Court, and an engineer who works for both NASA and Boeing. At some point, you can’t help but notice that this isn’t a coincidence.
There is no doubt that the school’s Center for Advanced Studies in Science, Math, and Technology plays a role in the story. The STEM magnet program has been around since 1999, and each year it takes in about 150 freshmen. By the eleventh grade, students are taking classes at the college level. By twelve, a lot of them are working as interns at nearby companies. The school got STEM certification from TAG-Ed, a STEM group based in Georgia, in 2014. It is also a member of the National Consortium for Specialized Secondary Schools of Mathematics, Science, and Technology. That kind of school infrastructure is important. Sexy students and teachers go there, and the culture probably spreads to every part of the building.
Still, academic programs don’t fully explain what happens in sports. Wheeler has turned out so many professional basketball, football, baseball, tennis, and track athletes that college admissions officers at big schools would take notice. Someone or something seems to push people there—maybe the competition, maybe the coaching, or maybe the community in Cobb County as a whole. It’s possible that the STEM culture and the sports culture help each other in ways that are hard to measure but clear from the results.
Things can get tricky at the school, though. There was a petition going around in the summer of 2020 that asked Wheeler’s name to be changed. Joseph Wheeler was a military leader in the Confederacy and later a politician and military figure in the United States during the Spanish-American War. The school is named after him. People in the community, among others, and former students pushed for the change. Jaylen Brown was one of the well-known people who spoke out in support. Members of the school board had different ideas about how to handle it. Some said it was because Wheeler served in the American military after the Civil War, while others said it was because he was connected to the Confederacy. The question was still open in early 2021. It’s not clear if the matter has been officially settled since then.
That unresolved tension seems to go against everything else Wheeler stands for. It is a unique American story that the school has produced world record holders, billionaires, and NBA champions while still debating the name on its front wall. It is complicated, unfinished, and worth your time.
In July 2025, the school was in the news for a totally different reason. The gym was packed with people before school started again, but President Trump went there to talk about his plan for a Trump Accounts program for young investors. There were state and national leaders there. Protesters did the same. Wheeler was chosen as the venue, which was interesting in and of itself. Seems like that school always finds itself in the middle of things, whether it wants to be or not.
The school’s record speaks for itself, no matter what the name on the door ends up being. After 60 years, Wheeler High School still graduates people who go on to do great things.
