[6] In 2009 Sheryll Cashin said in The Failures of Integration: How Race and Class are Undermining the American Dream that Friendly High was one of several mostly black, mostly middle class PG County public high schools that was "decidedly underachieving: fewer than half of the seniors at these schools went on to attend four-year colleges in recent years.

After that they went on to win MD State Championship game beating City College high school of Baltimore, ending the season with a 13–15 record and being known as the Cinderella team of 1998 From 1997 to 2000, the boys' basketball team won back-to-back-to-back county championships led by lefty streaky shooter and Hall of Famer Tony Reid (Virginia State University), under the leadership of Coach Gerald Moore Jr.

Friendly High School has produced an Olympic Champion and World Record Holder, Mark Henderson (swimmer) (class of 1987), NBA and European professional basketball players Dickey Simpkins (Providence), Sam Young (Pitt), Jamal Shivers (Bowie State), Tony Reid (Virginia State University), and more.

That year they lost the County Championship game to a very talented Eleanor Roosevelt high school team.

In 2011, the boys' basketball team made it back to the County 3A/2A/1A title after losing it two years previously to Laurel High School.