Roxana High School

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Roxana High School is a secondary school in Roxana, Illinois, USA. It is part of the Roxana Community Unit School District #1. The school has a unique mascot, the shell, named for the former Shell Oil (now ConocoPhillips) refinery also located in the town. RHS was founded in 1941.

Roxana High School
Administration Mr. Derek Hacke, Principal
Mr. Cory Breden, Assistant Principal
School type Public (U.S.)
Religious affiliation None
Grade level 9th through 12th Grade
Year founded 1941
Location Roxana, Illinois, USA
Enrollment about 590 students
Campus setting Suburban/Urban rural fringe
Mascot Shell
Mascot image no image added yet
School colors Red, Blue, and Yellow

Contents

[edit] History

The area around Roxana began offering education in 1802 with the construction of Gilham's Pasture School on the northeast corner of what is now 13th Street and Edwardsville Road in Wood River. This is the corner on which you can now find the Dairy Queen. Other general schools opened and closed throughout the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century; these include Brushy Grove School (not to be confused with its later incarnation, Brushey Grove School) from 1858 to 1969, Roxana School from 1918 to 1926, Edison School from 1926 to 1936, and Burbank School starting in 1936. Burbank was built as a WPA project.

The school district did not have a secondary school at that time; Roxana students went to other districts for their education instead, primarily Wood River High School which had opened in 1925. In 1939, though, citizens of Roxana and part of neighboring Wood River voted to form a new school district; the high school itself was built in 1941 and added to throughout its tenure.

The original building had three stories, compromised of twelve classrooms, a main office, a library, and a gymnasium. A larger gym was added in 1954.

Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, the district included four elementary schools -- Central, Rosewood Heights, Burbank and South Roxana. The Junior High School was built adjacent to the high school, and today they are one contiguous building. Central, Rosewood, South Roxana and the Junior High Buildings were all constructed simultaneously with the 1954 erection of the large gymnasium at the high school.

Brushey Grove School was sold at public auction in 1971. U.S. Bank, now stands on the spot previously occupied by Brushey Grove School, and a commemorative marker can be found in their parking lot noting the existence of the old school.

Roxana School was located on Edwardsville Road in Roxana, between Walnut and Tydeman, facing the Standard Oil Refinery fence. After its demolition, the land was sold to a trucking company, and it has been used for that purpose since at least 1970.

Edison School was located at the southwest corner of Tydeman and Central Avenue in Roxana, directly across the street from the First Baptist Church of Roxana. After Edison's demolition in the late 1960s, the Roxana Public Library was built on the site in 1970.

Burbank added an addition in 1966. As enrollment began to decline, however, with the passage of the Post-War baby boom, schools were closed. Burbank, the oldest of the four, closed in 1983 and was sold to a local chiropractor. Rosewood Heights followed in 1989, and the building has since been razed. Following the closure of these two schools, sixth graders were moved to the junior high building, and the remaining two grade schools now service grades K through 5.

[edit] Campus

RHS has grown considerably from its beginnings; the school now contains over twenty-five full classrooms, two gyms, an auditorium, a cafeteria, a weight room, a baseball field, a football field, a cinder track, six tennis courts, a full bus garage, and entire buildings dedicated to science, family and consumer sciences, technology, and automotive education. A junior high school and the school district's administrative offices also adjoin the high school building. Most recently, the entire campus will have air conditioning installed by the 2007-2008 school year.

[edit] Sports

RHS is a part of the Illinois High School Association in the West Division of the South Central Conference, participating in 10 out of 14 sports offered for boys and 10 out of 14 sports offered for girls; they are:

[edit] For boys

[edit] Baseball

[edit] Basketball

The 2006-2007 Shells varsity boys' basketball team is 5-17 as of January 22, 2007.

[edit] Bowling

The 2006-2007 Shells varsity boys' bowling finished the season with a 1-9 record.

[edit] Cross Country

[edit] Football

The 2006 Shells football team finished with a 1-8 record, marking the first win in almost three seasons and snapping a 23-game losing streak. The lone win came September 22, 2006, against the Gillespie Miners. [1] Head coach Nathan Miles, a 1998 Roxana graduate, was able to do what his two predecessors had not -- win a game.

This recent history of futility stands in stark contrast to the rich tradition of winning football at Roxana High. From 1946 through 1962, Coach Earl McLane's Shells racked up a record of 87-47-8 on the gridiron. [2]

Beginning in the fall of 1970, Coach Charles Raich raised the standard even higher. Averaging 7 wins per year for the next 29 years, Coach Raich would compile a record of 187-90-2, retiring after the 1998 season. [3] Declining enrollment would lead to the only four losing seasons of Coach Raich's tenure in 1992, 1993, 1994 and 1996. Raich would lead the football Shells to 13 appearances in the Illinois State High School playoffs, advancing as far as the state semi-finals on 5 occasions. Through most of Raich's tenure at Roxana, the Shells were members of the Mississippi Valley Conference, winning the conference championship on 8 occasions.

Coach Raich led three teams to undefeated regular seasons. The 1973 team finished 8-0-1, but could advance no farther inasmuch as there were no postseason playoffs at the time.

The 1981 team finished the regular season 9-0, recording shutouts in its first 5 games of the season, and allowing a mere 37 points in the 9 regular season games. The 1981 team beat both Rantoul and Murphysboro in the Class 4A playoffs, running their record to 11-0 before falling at home to Geneseo 10-0 in the State Semi-Finals. [4]

In 1987, the Shells again went through the regular season undefeated and untied, and this time made it all the way to the State Class 4A finals in Bloomington before falling, finishing with a 12-1 record. The championship game was lost 14-7 to New Lenox (Providence). [5]

Through the years, Coach Raich was assisted by an excellent corps of assistant coaches including Bill Smith, Jeff Welker, Rich Davis and Joe Huff.

After Coach Raich's retirement, longtime assistant and line coach Bill Smith took over as head coach and reached the playoffs 3 times in 5 years on the job. Coach Smith retired after the 2003 campaign, finishing the season 9-0, the sixth undefeated regular season in school history. [6] The Shells lost in the second round of the playoffs to Mt. Zion, despite being ranked 2nd in the state in Class 4A at the time. The 35-14 home loss prompted some to characterize the 2003 Shells as overrated, pointing to their relatively soft conference schedule. [7] Coach Smith went out with a 10-1 season, finishing his 5 years as head coach with a 31-19 record. Coach Smith was the 2003 Alton Telegraph Small-School Coach of the Year and was named Illinois coach of the year by the St. Louis Metropolitan Football Coaches Association. [8]

Nobody could have predicted it at the time, but the playoff loss to Mt. Zion would be the first of 23 consecutive losses for the Shells, a streak that was not broken until September 22, 2006.

Jeff Welker was named head coach on April 21, 2004, and coached the Shells through a difficult 0-9 season in his one year as head coach. [9] Despite the difficulty that Coach Welker had in that one season, he remains the favorite of many former players with whom he worked through the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s.

2003 marked the last playoff appearance for the Shells. They are 18-15 all-time in the state playoffs, appearing in Class 3A in 1976 and 1997, and in Class 4A in 1978, 1981, 1982, 1983, 1985, 1986, 1987, 1988, 1992, 1993, 2001, 2002 and 2003. [10]

In 1987 Coach Raich was inducted in the Illinois High School Football Coaches Hall of Fame, [11] and a plaque bearing his name is on the brick wall behind the north endzone at Zuppke Field at Memorial Stadium [12]] on the campus of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. On May 17, 2000, his 67th birthday, Coach Raich was inducted into the St. Louis Metropolitan Football Coaches Association Hall of Fame. [13] Including his 4 seasons as coach of Calhoun High School in Hardin, Raich compiled a career record of 202 wins and 118 losses, becoming one of only five coaches to amass 200 wins or more in Illinois history. The football field at Roxana High has been named after him and now is known as Charles Raich Field.

[edit] Golf

The 2006 Shells boys' varsity golf team finished with a 0-13 record.

[edit] Soccer

The 2006 Shells boys' soccer team finished with a 2-14-2 record.

[edit] Tennis

[edit] Track & Field

[edit] Wrestling

The 2006-2007 Shells varsity wrestling team is 1-1 as of January 24, 2007.

[edit] Scholar Bowl

[edit] For girls

[edit] Basketball

The 2006-2007 Shells girls' varsity basketball team is 1-17 as of January 24, 2007.

[edit] Bowling

The 2006-2007 Shells girls' varsity bowling team finished with a 10-5 record.

[edit] Competitive Cheerleading

[edit] Cross Country

[edit] Golf

[edit] Soccer

[edit] Softball

[edit] Tennis

[edit] Track & Field

[edit] Volleyball

The 2006 Shells volleyball team finished with a 0-16-4 record.

[edit] Scholar Bowl

The 2007 Scholar Bowl team advanced to Regionals only to be beaten out by Carlinville. A Junior, Christopher Fincher, attained 2nd team all-conference this season as well.

[edit] Non-IHSA-sanctioned sports

[edit] Ice hockey

The Roxana Shells Varsity and J.V. Ice Hockey Club was started in 1995 when area schools started a high school league at the then-new East Alton Ice Arena. The Shells started their team with students coming from different backgrounds. Under the direction of Coach Larry Thatcher, the Shells developed and soon became a winning team. In the past 6 seasons, the Shells have won 5 division championships and 3 league championships.

The team has gone through many struggles since its conception 12 years ago. One such noticable struggle occurred when one of the hockey cheerleaders, named Heather, died tragically in a car accident. In her honor, players wore a circle with an H in the center of it on their jerseys.

Recently, the hockey team has gone through a distinct overhaul through which the team gathered 3 new coaches and graduated out 12 seniors as well as having retired their head coach of 11 years. These changes set the stage for a rough year for the Shells, ending the 2006-2007 season with a 5-15 record overall, down from a previous 21-1 record in the 2005-2006 season.

You can keep track of the Shells hockey team at their website: http://eteamz.active.com/shells_hockey/

[edit] Weightlifting and Powerlifting

[edit] Other extracurricular organizations

[edit] Notable alumni

[edit] References

[edit] External links

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