Alhambra High School

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Alhambra High School
Established	1898
Type	Public Secondary
Principal	Maria Elena Sanchez
Students	3337
Grades	9–12
Location	Alhambra, California USA
Colors	Blue and Gold
Mascot	Moor
Newspaper	The Moor
Website	ahs.alhambra.k12.ca.us

This article is about the school in Alhambra. For the school in Martinez, see Alhambra High School (Martinez, California).

Alhambra High School is a secondary school located at 101 South Second Street in Alhambra, California, USA with ZIP Code 91801. It is the largest secondary school in the Alhambra Unified School District. Situated in the downtown area of Alhambra, it has easy access to the public library.

1 Athletics
2 Dance teams
3 Recent controversy
4 Bomb scare
5 Notable alumni
6 External links
7 References

[edit] Athletics

Several Alhambra High School athletic teams are exemplary. The Alhambra wrestling team, under the direction of coach Michael Williams, has been extremely successful. The team consistently sends wrestlers to state, sometimes national, championships, and is always very competitive in the CIF postseason. In 2002 the team ended an undefeated season of (23-0) which culminated in its first C.I.F. championship.

The Alhambra Badminton team is similarly adept and often sends players through CIF and into state championships.

Alhambra High School's football team, lead since 1989 by coach Gil Ruedaflores, is generally very competitive within the Almont league, which is comprised of schools from the Alhambra and Montebello school districts, winning a league championship in 2002 and most recently in 2006. In CIF postseason play, however, the team has not seen much success since the 1980s, although they did managed to reach the semifinals one year. The Alhambra High School basketball team generally meets with similar success, competitive within league play but generally only playing one or two games in the postseason.

Also, in recent years the Alhambra baseball team has been very successful with coach Steve Gewecke at the helm, leading the Moors to back-to-back league championships in 2005 and 2006. The 2006 team was particularly successful finishing with a new school record of 22-4.

[edit] Dance teams

Alhambra High School has one of the premier high school drill and dance teams in the United States since the 1980's. Under the direction of Jan Crawford, the drill team has represented the United States in Miss Drill Team International competitions held around the world, most recently Japan and Australia. In addition, Alhambra dancers often compete in and win solo competitions in Miss Drill Team USA and National Street Dance USA. Alhambra High School itself is home to the Elementary Drill Team USA competition, a Miss Dance Drill Team USA dance/drill team and pep art event.

Alhambra High School also has a competitive All-Male Dance Team, which regularly competes in and around Southern California, in addition to participation in the National Street Dance USA competition. Orchesis, the high school dance club, is also very competitive in Southern California. Competitive dance clubs are quite rare, as they are prone to be less organized than teams that have the advantage of daily class time in addition to other rehearsals. The All-Male Dance Team and Orchesis are testaments to the role of drill and dance as part of Alhambra High School's extracurricular choices.

[edit] Recent controversy

In April 2005, a controversial article was published by The Moor, the school's biweekly newspaper. The article, written by Robin Zhou, titled "Latinos Lag Behind in Academics"^[1], asked why many students in Advanced Placement classes were Asian, and bluntly stated that Asians worked much harder than Hispanic students. Zhou's article attempted to discuss the roots of this phenomenon, although many Latino students and parents were up in arms over his assertion that Asians do better in school because of parental pressure that Latino students do not experience. Please refer to "Model Minority" for more information.'

[edit] Bomb scare

There was a bomb scare at Alhambra High School on Thursday, October 12, 2006. The school was in lockdown while police officers searched the campus for suspicious looking objects. Students were then evacuated and released early from school.

On Wednesday, October 11, 2006, an explosive device was found at about 4:50 p.m. on a sidewalk in the 100th block of Main Street, which borders the north end of campus. Hours later, at about 8:45 p.m., a second, similar 8-inch-long pipe-shaped device was found in the trash can under a stairwell in the south end of campus.

The Los Angeles County sheriff's bomb squad safely removed and disabled both items, and the campus was searched.

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