Baldwin High School (Georgia)
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Baldwin High School is located at 155 Highway 49 West in Milledgeville, Georgia. The building, made of brown bricks on the exterior and an outdated brown trim on the interior, opened in 1988 as a combination of Milledgeville's two former high schools, Boddie High School and the original Baldwin High School.
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[edit] Early Days
During the days of segregation, Boddie was the black school and Baldwin was the white school. After schools were integrated in the 1970s, many years after Brown vs. Board of Education, the school board of Baldwin County decided to merge Boddie and Baldwin into one high school, thus the Baldwin High School currently in use was built. The old Baldwin High School became Baldwin Middle School, and Boddie became Boddie Middle School. Around the year 2000, Baldwin Middle and Boddie Middle were closed, and were merged into Oak Hill Middle School, a short distance from Baldwin High. A new condo development and commercial area to be called Baldwin Heights is now being planned for the site of the now-demolished Baldwin Middle School.
[edit] The "New" School
Though Baldwin High is outdated compared to Baldwin County's middle school and four elementary schools, new areas have been added, such as a new 900 hallway and a new ROTC building. A major renovation to the main building is rumored to begin soon, and there are plans in the making for a new Fine Arts Academy building, which will include a new auditorium, band room, and chorus room. A new football stadium was completed just in time for the 2006 season. For all of the 2005 football season, the stadium had only one side of stands constructed. The stadium, called Braves Field after the football team, is replaced the old field at the old Baldwin High School. B.H.S. has a football team, a basketball team, a track team, a cross-country team, a softball team, a soccer team, and numerous others. Its marching band is the Band of the Braves, also called the Baldwin High School Marching Pride.
[edit] Football Team
The Baldwin Braves are the school's football team. Years and years ago, the Baldwin Braves were nothing for many other teams to worry about. But when the current coach, Jesse Hicks, arrived at the school, the team began to improve. In 2005, the Braves made it to the semifinals of the AAAA state playoffs, where they lost against Northside High School from Warner-Robins. There is now somewhat of a rivalry between the Braves and the Northside Eagles, the latter having beaten the Braves again in 2006. Also in 2006, the Braves' record was 10-2, a much better record than the one from 2005, but the team only made it to the second round of the playoffs, losing to Starr's Mill High School from Fayette County. The team has played against and beaten teams such as Jones County High School, Washington County High School, Wilkinson County High School, Laney High School (Augusta), Stockbridge High School, Westside High School (Macon), Dutchtown High School (Henry County), Upson-Lee High School, North Clayton High School, Americus High School, Northeast High School (Macon), Greenbriar High School, Evans High School, Effingham County High School, Wayne County High School, Ware County High School, and Marist High School.
[edit] Band of the Braves
The Baldwin High School Marching Pride, also called the Band of the Braves, is the school's marching band. The band marched in the 2005 Philadelphia Thanksgiving Day Parade.[citation needed] It has also marched in the Atlanta Christmas Parade, the Hollywood Christmas Parade, the Chicago St. Patrick's Day Parade, and the Rose Bowl Parade. The band is slated to return to Hollywood for the 2007 Christmas parade.[citation needed] The band is directed by Clint Raburn and Courtney Pilgrim.
The band attends approximately two competitions each year. They always attend the Heart of Georgia compeition in Warner-Robins as one of them. In 2005, they attended the Sandy Creek Invitational Tournament of Bands (SCITOB) near Peachtree City, at which they scored poorly, though many think that the judges were biased against bands that weren't from the area. In 2006, rather than return to Sandy Creek, the band performed at the Georgia Marble Marching Festival at Pickens County High School in Jasper, Georgia. While they did better than they had at Sandy Creek, the band did not do as well as they normally do, and placed 7th overall. Just as a rivalry occurs between the football teams of Northside and Baldwin, a rivalry also occurs between the bands of Baldwin and Fayette County High School, who won the 2005 SCITOB, the 2006 Georgia Marble Marching Festival, and the 9th Annual Heart of Georgia Marching Festival, also in 2006. At that competition, Baldwin placed 4th overall in both 2005 and 2006.
[edit] Cheerleading
They have a varsity football cheerleading team, a competition cheerleading team, a junior varsity basketball team, and a varsity basketball cheerleading squad. Although the varsity basketball team has not been in any competitions, some say that its cheerleading squad is the best squad at Baldwin High School. The squad dances to upbeat music and often takes popular songs and turns them into cheers. They have been known to rival with cheerleading teams from Wilkinson County High School, Westside High School, and Greenbriar High School's dance team.
