Richwoods High School
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Richwoods High School the most northern of the four regular public high schools in Peoria, Illinois. The current principal is Mr. John Meisinger. The principal from 1994-1998 was Mrs. Jeanne Williamson.
Richwoods was originally the high school of Richwoods Township; in the 1960s, the school was annexed into the city of Peoria, causing it to become under the purview of Peoria Public Schools (District 150). A lengthly legal battle ensued, and District 150 was required to allow students from the original school district to attend Richwoods until Peoria Heights High School could be built to replace it. Once PHHS was completed, Richwoods became an exclusively District 150 school.
Richwoods High School is the only school in the Peoria area to offer the International Baccalaureate program to students. Richwoods has forensics, football, ultimate ,and basketball programs, among others.
Feeder middle schools are Mark Bills, Lindbergh, and Rolling Acres Edison.
Richwoods uses an unweighted grade point average system, while they use a weighted class ranking system.
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[edit] Activities
[edit] Forensics Program
Richwoods is also home to a heralded Forensics program, coached by second year teacher Mrs. April Steffeck. The team regularly produces state qualifiers, including Muhammad Safdari in Extemporaneous Speaking from the class of 2006. In 2004, Beverly Chu was a state champion in Radio Speaking. The Richwoods speech team also hosts the Camelot Classic each year at Richwoods High School.
[edit] Marching Band
Richwoods' Marching Band is led by director Marc Jirousek. They play at three concerts a year, at two parades, and at the home football games. They have a large percussion section and the band also plays at the home games of the Boys' Basketball team.
[edit] Operation Snowball
Richwoods High School holds an Operation Snowball event annually. In 2006, the theme was "stayin' Alive in the Seventies" and was led by adult sponsors, JoAnna Moe, and Tracy Ziegenhorn. This fun-filled event promotes awareness for substance abuse, suicide, and healthy relationships.
[edit] WYSE Academic Challenge
Every year, Richwoods sponsors a team for the Worldwide Youth in Science and Engineering Academic Challenge. The Richwoods team is coached by Physics teacher Mr. Bruce Garrison. The WYSE team regularly qualifies for the state tournament. In 2005, the team placed fourth overall at State with three individual medalists.
[edit] Plays and Musicals
Twice a year, the stage is opened and Richwoods High School students perform on the stage. Every fall prior to 2005, Richwoods would put on a fall musical. The last was "Suessical" in 2004. However, with the arrival of Mrs. Steffeck, a new speech coach and debate teacher in the 2005-2006 school year, the fall musical was switched to a fall play. In 2005, RHS put on "The Bad Seed" and in 2006, the play of choice was "Peter Pan." RHS continues to have a spring musical.
SPRING MUSICALS:
- 2002-"Once Upon a Matress"
- 2002-"Kiss Me Kate"
- 2003-"Damn Yankees"
- 2004-"Guys and Dolls"
- 2005-"Fiddler on the Roof"
These performance are usually very well attended, especially the spring musicals.
[edit] Madrigals
Every year, Richwoods has a Madrigal Dinner. It is done in a traditional 16th century style. Much of the singing is done accapella. Along with a core group of Madrigal Singers, there are other musical student groups that participate, including Ladies in Waiting, Men in Tights, a recorder ensemble, and a strings quartet. Along with music, there are a variety of actors involved in the Madrigal Dinners. There is usually a king and queen. However, for the 2005 performance, Ben Small played the king and Mrs. Lane played the mother of the Queen. For 2006, Beth Ann Evers was selected to play the queen, and Daniel Kummar was selected as the king.
[edit] School Dances
RHS hosts 3 dances for the entire school yearly: Homecoming, Vice Versa, and Prom. Homecoming involves
- Spirit Week with dress-up days for the whole school and Class Colors day (freshman-green, sophomores-white, juniors-blue, and seniors-red).
- Pep assembly-Part of the competition for the Spirit Stick and to encourage the football players for their game later that evening.
- Assembly introducing the Homecoming Queen nominees- Since the whole school votes for the Homecoming Queen, the candidates are introduced during a 2nd hour assembly.
- Stunt Show- involves the Olympics (3 point shot contest, wheelbarrow race, tug-of-war) and a skit by each class. Each skit contains 2 dances by dancers from each respective class.
- Homecoming Game- a home game that is usually well-attended.
- Homecoming Dance- takes place in Richwoods' terrazzo area (like a foyer) and lasts until 11 pm.
Vice Versa is not as well attended as Homecoming but there is a theme and the dress is based on that theme. Traditionally, girls asked the boys to Vice Versa, hence the name of the dance. Vice Versa involves:
- Assembly introducing the Vice Versa King nominees during 2nd hour. This assembly usually has more excitement because the candidates have on thematic dress.
- Vice Versa Dance- Couples dress up according to the theme. People vote for Vice Versa King and the dance also ends at 11 pm.
[edit] Sports
Richwoods has a quality athletic program with several state qualifiers and medalists over the years.
[edit] Women's Track
In the past 11 seasons, Richwoods has won 7 conference titles. The most recent was in 2006, when they narrowly defeated Pekin Community High School with 183 points total. The Knights were led by quadruple gold winner Shavantay Thomas, triple gold winner Deja Davis, and double gold winners Donielle Ross and Desiree Luckey. The most exciting races were perhaps the 4x800, where Pekin led by nearly 20-meters, but Desiree Luckey passed the anchor for Pekin in the last 5 meters and the 4x400, with Donielle Ross bringing in the final leg for a victory, and sealing the conference championship. The team sent two relays (4x100, 800 Sprint Medley), a triple jumper, and discus/shot put thrower to state in 2006. Jewel Sanders was the State Champion in Discus. All five of their relays participated in the Peoria JournalStar Honor Roll Meet, and two the five placed first. They have a detailed website that is regularly updated. The head coach of the track team is Rich Thole. The assistant coaches are Mark Rose, Terry Camp, Shad Hickman, and Joe Maier (Coach Maier coached for 30 years before retiring after 2005 season).
[edit] Cross Country
Richwoods has a large cross country program. Memorable teammates include Tyno Carter, Nic Rogers,Matt Peharda, and Amy Guard.
The teams are coached by Todd Hursey, Ed Ricca, and Michelle Allen.
[edit] 2005
In 2005, the girls came in 2nd in the conference with 3 all-conference members: Theresa Smart, Desiree Luckey, and Olivia Coker, with All-Conference Honorable Mention member, Katie Grinstead. There were four all-conference boys: Doug Luebcke, Teddy Voelker, Matt Peharda, and Pete Chambers. They also placed second in the conference. The boys also qualified for Sectionals, while the girls did not for the first time in 24 years.
[edit] 2006
In 2006, the girls came in 2nd with 5 all-conference members: Katie Grinstead, Kim Luebcke, Adrien Clay, Olivia Coker, and Hilary Broms. The boys came in 2nd as well with 3 all-canference memmbers. They were led by conference champion Doug Luebcke, runner-up Teddy Voelker, and Shawn Hoelscher.
[edit] Basketball
Women's Team: In 2005, Richwoods' Women's Basketball Team became the undefeated (38-0) State Champions in Class AA over Bartlett High School.
Men's Team: The 2006 Men's Basketball Team was the IHSA Class AA State runner-up losing to Chicago Simeon on a last second shot on overtime, ending their season with a 27-7 record. This entered the record books as the lowest scoring championship game in IHSA basketball history.
[edit] Tennis
[edit] Football
For the fourth year in a row, Richwoods' team took home the conference championship. They made it to the 2nd round of the play-offs, where they lost to Cahokia.
[edit] The International Baccalaureate Program
In 2005, the first class of International Baccalaureate students graduated from Richwoods High School. Students in the IB Diploma program must take Higher Level Biology, History, and English, and have a good variety of choices as to their Standard Level Classes. The class size of IB has been steadily growing, from 17 in 2006 to 48 in 2007.
[edit] Work Based Learning Program
[edit] Schedule
| Schedule | |
| 7:55-8:55 | 1st Hour |
| 9:00-9:55 | 2nd Hour |
| 10:00-10:55 | 3rd Hour |
| 4th Hour | |
| Lunch Group A | |
| 10:55-11:25 | A Lunch |
| 11:30-12:25 | 4th Hour |
| Lunch Group B | |
| 11:00-11:25 | 4th Hour Part 1 |
| 11:25:11:55 | B Lunch |
| 12:00-12:25 | 4th Hour Part 2 |
| Lunch Group C | |
| 11:00-11:55 | 4th Hour |
| 11:55-12:25 | C Lunch |
| 12:30-1:25 | 5th Hour |
| 1:30-2:25 | 6th Hour |
| 2:25 | Dismissal |
[edit] Trivia
- The school colors are green and white and their mascot is the Knight.
- The dean of students L-Z, Dave Poehls, just recently was dean of students at Peoria High School (Central High School).
- The Richwoods High School speech team is the largest in Illinois south of Chicago.
- The school publishes its own in-school newspaper, The Shield.
- The school's yearbook is called The Excalibur.
