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.

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[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 and 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 CIF championship.

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

Alhambra High School's football team, led 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 manage to reach the semifinals one year. The Alhambra High School basketball team generally meets with similar success, competitive within league play but usually playing only 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 had one of the premier high school drill and dance teams in the United States since the 1980s. 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 in Japan and Australia. 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 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.

[2] [3] [4]


[edit] Campus organizations

Numerous clubs, all overseen by the ASB are established within the school campus.

[edit] Executive

ASB Executive is a 13-member council which oversees all activities of Alhambra High School. Each member is a representative of a department in the school, such as boys' athletics, fine arts, or visual and performing arts. Two members are presidents of the Girls League and Boys Federation, clubs which organize most of the school's events. Members are elected at the end of each semester. The president and vice president run separately, although it is most likely for the two to both win; rarely has there been a situation where a candidate's running mate did not win.

[edit] Service clubs

An old club tradition in AHS was to interview prospective members who were interested in a particular club. For years, this has caused mixed reactions from students, club members and teachers, even leading to the point where members who interviewed accepted only those they personally favored.

However in 2006, after an inspection of the campus, the WASC committee struck down the rule of interviewing on the grounds of wanting particular students in a service club, and diversity (about 85% of service club members were Asian). This caused a mixed reaction from each member of their respective class, many of whom were opposed to the interview tradition. Service club members have countered by saying that with many applicants, the club cannot handle too many members who are either undedicated or are just in for the sake of being in an actual club.

There are currently ten service clubs on campus, some of which are branches of larger service organizations.

  • Key Club (Affiliated with Kiwanis)
  • LEO (Affiliated with Lions International)
  • Campus (The school's oldest club, not to be confused with the actual Campus Club)
  • Interact (Affiliated with Rotary International)
  • Las Moras (Translated as Lady Moors in Spanish, exclusively for women)
  • Pequenitas (Previously excluded to women, recently started accepting men)
  • EMEGA (No affliations)
  • Junior Civitan (Affiliated with Civitan International)
  • Kaibigan (Translated as Friends in Tagalog, no affliations)
  • Kokua Lima (No affliations)

[edit] Tri-Hi-Y clubs

Tri-Hi-Y clubs, also infamously known as "social clubs" by students, have also caused controversy within AHS. Tri-Hi-Y clubs are affiliated with the YMCA, therefore they are not a part of the ASB club system, even if the club is situated on the campus itself. Thus, Tri-Hi-Y clubs do not get financial support from the ASB. Tri-Hi-Y clubs have also faced accusations of hazing prospectives, and being too biased during the selection process. Currently, they still use the traditional interview process.

There are currently nine which are associated with the Tri-Hi-Y system.

  • Lanakila
  • Le Aikanes
  • Na Al'ii
  • Sonzai Eikyo
  • Laule'a
  • Domus Magnus
  • Nous Retrouvons
  • Les Petites Amies
  • Ohana Hui

[edit] Other organizations

  • Academic Decathalon
  • Academy of Future Educators
  • All Male Dance Team
  • AHS Choir
  • AP Biology Club (Previously Biofizzle APdizzle)
  • Boys Federation
  • BLIA-YAD AHS Sub-Chapter
  • Christmas Committee
  • Club De Las Americas
  • FHA-HERO
  • Cornerstone Christian Club
  • Clean Campus Committee
  • Debate
  • Drama Club
  • Election Committee
  • Film Society
  • French Club
  • FBLA
  • Girls League
  • Kidshare
  • MEChA
  • MESA
  • Moor Buddies
  • Mighty Moor Marching Band
  • The Moor Newspaper
  • Otaku! Anime Club
  • Orchesis
  • Peace Club
  • Pride Alliance
  • Rubik's 3 (Read as "cubed")
  • Science Olympiad
  • Smashizzle
  • 1UP club
  • The Mushroom Kingdom (Postponed, still looking for a new location)
  • VSA
  • VISA
  • The Alhambran Yearbook
  • Freshman, Sophmore, Junior and Senior Councils

[edit] Notable alumni

[edit] In television

  • Alhambra High School will play host to one of the cooking challenges for Season Three of Hell's Kitchen.

[edit] External links

[edit] References

  1. ^ Latinos Lag Behind in Academics - Los Angeles Times
  2. ^ http://www.pasadenastarnews.com/ci_4485422
  3. ^ http://abclocal.go.com/kabc/story?section=local&id=4654357
  4. ^ http://ktla.trb.com/news/ktla-alhambra,0,4560606.story?coll=ktla-news-1
  5. ^ http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0677514/
  6. ^ http://www.databasefootball.com/players/playerpage.htm?ilkid=CARROLEO01
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