Iowa City West High School

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Iowa City West High School
Established	1968
Type	Public
Affiliation	Mississippi Valley Conference
Principal	Dr. Jerry Arganbright
Students	approx. 1838
Grades	9-12
Location	2901 Melrose Avenue Iowa City, Iowa USA
Colors	Forest Green and Gold
Mascot	Trojans/Women of Troy
Website	http://www.iowa-city.k12.ia.us/Schools/West/

Iowa City West High School is a public high school in Iowa City, Iowa. It is currently home to over 1838 students, in grades 9 through 12, and 190 teachers, administration, and support staff. All boys' athletic teams are "The Trojans," while all girls' teams are named "The Women of Troy."

West High opened its doors for the first time in the fall of 1968, its construction relieving the enrollment requirements of a growing city. The first principal was Edwin K. Barker. The first student council president was Tom Karson. Gina Gelman, a senior in the first graduating class of 1969, composed the new school's fight song. The school's newspaper was named the "West Side Story" and yearbooks were named the "Epic." When it opened, the high school handled grades 10 through 12, with the 9th grade students remaining in the local school district's Junior High Schools.

Recently, West High School's enrollment has reached its maximum capacity of over 1800 students. Because of this, incoming students from non-"feeder schools" (such as Northwest Junior High or North Central Junior High) are required to attend West High's cross-town rival, Iowa City High School.

West High School provides many musical opportunities to its students. There are multiple classes for band, choir, and orchestra. Extracurricular musical activities include select choirs, show choir, jazz band, musicals, and others. West is known to have an outstanding music program.

West High Forensics The West High Speech and Debate team also has many participants. The team was created in 1999 by coach J. Scott Wunn, who is now the Executive Secretary of the National Forensics League. West High Forensics is a member of the National Forensics League, the Iowa High School Forensics Association and the Iowa High School Speech Association. The team has placed either first or second in the state for the past nine years, and is primarily rivaled by Dowling Catholic High School of West Des Moines.

Then junior Nick Kanellis won the National Tournament in Humorous Interpretation in 2002. Nick Kanellis was captain of the team during the 2002-2003 season.

2003-2004: The team has received much national recognition including being named a Schwan's School of Excellence at the National Tournament in 2004. The team was captained by Rob Keech and coached by Amie Ohlmann, Cyndy Woodhouse and Tyson Smith.

2004-2005: The 2004-2005 season brought much success as well. Fourteen students qualified to the National Tournament in Philadelphia, where Kathleen Hession and Brian Britigan finaled in Duo Interpreation and performed for a final round crowd of over 2,500 people. Kate Rice semi-finaled in U.S. Extemporaneous Speaking and Brian Stewart octafinaled in Original Oratory. At The Crestian in Ft. Lauderdale, Kathleen Hession/Brian Britigan finaled in Duo Interpretation, Kathleen Hession finaled in Humorous Interpretation, Brian Stewart finaled in Oratory, and Molly Schintler finaled in Oral Interpretation. The debate team qualified 8 competitors to the Tournament of Champions. Both the speech and debate teams were state champions, the third consecutive year for speech. The team was captained by Kathleen Hession and coached by Amie Ohlmann, Cyndy Woodhouse and Tyson Smith.

2005-2006: The team qualified nine competitors to the National Tournament in Dallas, Texas. Brian Britigan took third place in Humorous Interpretation. Senior Brian Britigan also won the Harvard Invitation in Humorous Interpretation, the second largest tournament other than Nationals. Juniors Allie Panther was an octafinalist in Original Oratory and Brian Stewart was a quarterfinalist in Original Oratory in Harvard. Brian Britigan finished 3rd in Humorous Interpretation at the Glenbrooks in Chicago, Brian Stewart was a semifinalist in Original Oratory and Alyssa Levitz was a quarterfinalist in Oratory. The speech team took second place at State. The team was captained by Brian Britigan and coached by Amie Ohlmann and Cyndy Woodhouse.

2006-2007: Successes for this season will be updated shortly. The team was captained by Brian Stewart and Allie Panther, and was coached by Cyndy Woodhouse.

Many West High teams, including academics and sports, have won state championships.

The West High Math Club has won state titles in the past.

West High School students are noted for excellence in academics. A vast majority of the students that take Advanced Placement exams receive college credit for those classes and West High traditionally is one of the leading schools in the state in terms of National Merit Scholars.

Prominent alumni include Nate Kaeding, current All-Pro place kicker for the San Diego Chargers and Bart Watson, one time star of the Stanford University ultimate frisbee team and player on the USA team fielded in the world ultimate frisbee championship [1]^{[citation needed]}