Summit High School (New Jersey)

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Summit High School is a four-year public high school in Summit, New Jersey and is operated by the Summit Board of Education as a part of the Summit Public Schools. The school was opened in 1888 due an increased need for a publicly-operated secondary school within the City of Summit. The school's athletic teams are referred to as the Hilltoppers, though the school's actual mascot is a mountain goat wearing a Summit High School athletic jersey. The school's colors are maroon and gold. The Hilltoppers participate in the twenty-member Iron Hills Conference.

1 Facilities
- 1.1 Athletic Facilities
2 Academic reputation
3 Athletic reputation
- 3.1 Men's Tennis
4 Trivia
5 References
6 External links

[edit] Facilities

The school was originally located on Maple Street near downtown Summit and shared this facility with the Junior High School until 1962. (This building is currently used to house Lawton C. Johnson Summit Middle School and the Board of Education offices.) In 1962, the high school relocated to a larger, more modern facility located at 125 Kent Place Boulevard, slightly outside of downtown Summit and within the Washington Elementary School district. In the late 1990s a push was made to renovate the extremely outdated high school. From 2000 until 2003 the high school building underwent a series of renovations including a new media center, cafeteria, gymnasium, and science laboratories. Special attention was also paid to upgrading the building's existing facilities with special attention being paid to increasing information technology capacities of classrooms.

[edit] Athletic Facilities

The Tatlock Sports Complex, located on Butler Parkway (a short distance from the high school), is utilized as Summit High School's main venue for football, men's lacrosse, and track and field. The field was recently converted to FieldTurf due to frequent problems with poor field conditions. A generous grant was made by the Metro Homes Corporation, and the football stadium has been renamed Metro Homes Field. Tatlock also includes a field house with locker room facilities and practice fields adjacent to Washington Elementary School. Junior varsity and middle school tennis practices at the four tennis courts adjacent to the track complex.
Memorial Field, located a short drive from the high school on Larned Road near the Brayton School this large public field (currently operated by the Board of Recreation) is utilized for men's and women's soccer, cross country, baseball and softball. This field complex is also used extensively by Summit's youth sports programs. Varsity and junior varisty tennis matches are played at the six court complex next to the Brayton School.
Warinaco Rink, located in Warinaco Park in Union Township is shared by Summit High School, Westfield High School, Arthur Johnson High School in Clark, and Cranford High School as a home hockey venue. The Summit High School hockey team also utilizes several other local rinks for practice and has hosted home games at the newer, smaller Union Sports Arena, also located in Union Township.
Summit High School Gymnasium, the high school's main gymnasium is used to host men's and women's basketball as well as volleyball. The high school's second (newer) gymnasium used primarily as a practice facility.
Summit High School Lower Field, located directly behind the high school this field is used for field hockey, women's lacrosse, and physical education classes.
Buntin and Hurst Pools, located at the Summit YMCA in downtown Summit, these facilities are utilized by the men's and women's swimming teams.

[edit] Academic reputation

Summit High School was recently ranked as Number 149 in Newsweek magazine's recent listing of "America's Best High Schools" in the August 5, 2005 issue^[1].

Summit High School was the 20th-ranked public high school in New Jersey out of 316 schools statewide, in New Jersey Monthly magazine's September 2006 cover story on the state's Top Public High Schools^[2]

Summit High School has consistently been ranked among the best public high schools by New Jersey Monthly. Summit High School students have an average SAT score which is considerably higher than the national average and frequently are admitted to the nation's most competitive colleges and universities.

[edit] Athletic reputation

Despite the fact that Summit High School faces many of the challenges that small, suburban public high schools are plagued by — most notably, competition with private school recruitment, a small student-athlete base, and frequent turnover due to graduation — Summit High School's athletic teams have a long and proud tradition. For more information on Summit High School sports please see [1].

Summit High School is one of twenty high schools that participate in the Iron Hills Conference.

[edit] Men's Tennis

Coached by Bob McNutt, a teacher at Governor Livingston High School, and Peter Tierney, a history teacher at Summit, the team has won, or shared, the conference or county title many years in a row. This includes a group one state championship in 2003.

[edit] Trivia

In 1965, A band of New York City musicians then called The Warlocks (one of several bands, including The Grateful Dead, to use that name) played their debut show together at Summit High. The band went on to replace one of its members and rename itself The Velvet Underground.