West Central Area Schools
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| West Central Area Secondary School | |
| Established | 1993 |
|---|---|
| School type | Public |
| Principal | Nels Onstad |
| Location | Barrett, Minnesota, USA |
| Students | < 600 |
| Mascot | Knights |
| Colors | Silver, Red, and Black |
| Website | West Central Area Schools |
The West Central Area School District (#2342) is located in the west central part of Minnesota. It consists of the towns of Farwell, Kensington, Hoffman, Barrett, Elbow Lake, and Wendell. There are also students from Herman, Donnelly, Ashby, Evansville, Fergus Falls, Nashua, and Campbell.
The district has two elementary schools consisting of grades K-6. WCA South is located in Kensington, and WCA North is located in Elbow Lake. The secondary school is located in Barrett. Grades 7-12 attend here. The secondary school has a football field, two baseball fields, two softball fields, four tennis courts, a 499 capacity auditorium, and a 1700 capacity gymnasium. The building occupies 63 acres. It is 130,000 square feet with a capacity for 600 students. The building is heated by a geothermal heat system. There are 288 wells, each 200 ft. deep using over 21 miles of pipe. A heat pump, controlled by a computer system, heats or cools each classroom. The system has a backup generator. The mechanical room includes a 400 gallon hot water storage tank.
The West Central Area mascot is a Knight. The Knights have a football team, volleyball team, girls tennis team, boys and girls basketball, wrestling, baseball, softball, boys and girls golf, boys and girls track and field, and cheerleading for football and basketball. The Knight's organizations include: speech, Future Farmers of America, mock trial, choir, band, Knowledge Bowl, one act play, student counsel, and musicals. West Central Area is a member of the Minnesota State High School League.
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[edit] History
The West Central Area school district was created in 1993 when the West Central school district of Wendell, Elbow Lake, and Barrett, joined with the Hoffman-Kensington school district due to declining enrollment. However, consolidation had started long before that. Wendell, Elbow Lake, Barrett, Hoffman, Kensington, and Farwell all used to be their own districts, but kept consolidating with each other until they all finally became one, large district. Declining enrollment continues to be the districts largest problem today. Class sizes in the high school are down to around 68 people per class.
[edit] Accomplishments In the Arts
West Central Area is known for its choir and musicals. The school's A Capella choir has made a reputation for itself in recent years as being one of the finest singing groups in the area. Many of WCA's students have been chosen for the North Dakota State University Honor Choir as well as the University of Minnesota, Morris honor choir. WCA has received an Outstanding Performance Award every year at the state music festival since 2004. Its A Capella choir sings category I music and has received an excellent rating or higher since 2003.
2002
- Production of the Musical "Cinderella"
2003
- Section 2nd Place (One Act Play)
- Sub-section Champs (One Act Play)
2004
- Outstanding Performance Award at State, Men's Vocal Ensemble of "Little Liza Jane"
- Production of the Musical "The Wizard of Oz"
- Sub-section 2nd Place (One Act Play "Comedy of Errors")
- Outstanding Performance at Sections, Lindsey Kloose (One Act Play)
- Outstanding Performance at Sections, Patrick Ellise (One Act Play)
- Outstanding Performance at Sections, Peter Ray (One Act Play)
- Sub-section 2nd Place (Speech)
2005
- Outstanding Performance Award at State, Men's Vocal Quintet of "Ride the Chariot"
- Outstanding Performance Award at State, Women's Vocal Ensemble of "The Lord's Prayer"
- Outstanding Performance Award at Sub-sections, Men's Vocal Ensemble of "The Prayer of the Children"
- Production of the musical "Footloose"
- Sub-section 2nd place (Speech)
- Outstanding Performance at Jazz Fest, Patrick Ellis (Saxophone - Jazz Band)
- Outstanding Performance at Jazz Fest, Mitch Johnson (Bass - Jazz Band)
- Outstanding Performance at Jazz Fest, Luke Arnquist (Bass Trombone - Jazz Band)
2006
- Outstanding Performance Award at State, Vocal Solo by Katie Lohse
- Outstanding Performance Award at State, Trombone Solo by Leah Johnson
- Production of the musical "Copacabana"
- Section 3rd Place (One Act Play "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead")
- Sub-section 2nd Place (One Act Play "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead")
- Outstanding Performance at Sections, Patrick Ellis (One Act Play)
- Outstanding Performance at Sections, Luke Arnquist (One Act Play)
- Sub-section 2nd place (Speech)
- Section Champ, Patrick Ellis (Speech, Humerus)
2007
- Sub-section Champs (One Act Play "Willie and the Harry Man")
[edit] Athletic Accomplishments
Often when people think WCA sports, they think football. As of the 2006 season, the Knights have an overall record of 93 wins to 49 losses. They have not had a losing record since 2001 when they went 3-6. They have been to the playoffs every year except 1997. The Knights went to the state playoffs in 1995 and again in 1999 where they were the state runners-up. The most recent successful playoff action occurred in 2005 when the Knights made it to the Fargodome where they won section runners-up honors.
West Central Area has been a wrestling powerhouse since it formed in 1993. The team wrestled their way to state runners up in 1996. The team has had five 150 win wrestlers and has sent 24 to state. Most recently, Brady Schneeberger became the first athletic state champion at WCA when he won in 2006. The team merged with Ashby public school's wrestling program in 2002 because neither team could find someone to wrestle at every weight.
Special Olympics at West Central Area are taken very seriously. WCA has sent many students to the state meet in Swimming, Skiing, and Basketball. Kyle Haack and Kyle Backman came home as State Champs.
1993
- Park Region Conference Runner-up (Football)
- Section 4B Runner-up (Football)
- State Academic Champions (Football)
1994
- WC Conference Runner-up (Football)
1995
- WC Conference Champions (Football)
- Section 4B Champions (Football)
- State Quarterfinals (Football)
- Paul Winter, WC Conference MVP (Football)
- Miah Ulrich, State Participant (Wrestling)
- Micah Wales, State Participant (Wrestling)
1996
- State Runners-up in Class A (Wrestling)
- Micah Wales, State 5th Place (Wrestling)
- Shane Wevely, State 4th Place (Wrestling)
- Chad Lohse, State Participant (Wrestling)
- Todd Eysted, State Participant (Wrestling)
- Kyle Christians, State Participant (Wrestling)
1997
- Kurt Werk, State 2nd Place (Wrestling)
- Billy Morgan, State 6th Place (Wrestling)
1998
- Billy Morgan, State 2nd Place (Wrestling)
- Terry Schmidt, State Participant (Wrestling)
- Adam Bertram, State Participant (Wrestling)
1999
- Heart O' Lakes Conference Champs (Football)
- Section 6AA Champs (Football)
- State Runner-up (Football)
- Chad Davison, HOL Conference Overall MVP (Football)
- Billy Morgan, State 3rd Place (Wrestling)
- Adam Bertram, State 4th Place (Wrestling)
- Eric Wevely, State Participant (Wrestling)
- Joey Lohse, State Participant (Wrestling)
- Dallas Koplin, State Participant (Wrestling)
- Josh Hammer, State Participant (Wrestling)
2000
- HOL Conference Runner-up (Football)
- Billy Morgan, State 2nd Place (Wrestling)
- Adam Bertram, State 4th Place (Wrestling)
- Dallas Koplin, State Participant (Wrestling)
- Josh Hammer, State Participant (Wrestling)
- Dusting Schneeberger, State Participant (Wrestling)
- Chad Davison, MN Basketball News ALL-STATE TEAM (Boys Basketball)
2001
- Adam Bertram, State 6th Place (Wrestling)
- Josh Hammer, State Participant (Wrestling)
- Adam Koplin, State Participant (Wrestling)
- David Drexler, MN Basketball News ALL-STATE TEAM (Boys Basketball)
- Kasey Maier & Nikki Maier, State Participant (Girls Tenis, Doubles)
2002
- HOL Conference Champs (Football)
- Adam Johnson, HOL Most Valuable Player (Football)
- Adam Bertram, State 4th Place (Wrestling)
- Phillip Beaumia, State 6th Place (Wrestling)
- Dylan Soberg, State Participant (Wrestling)
- Brady Schneeberger, State Participant (Wrestling)
- Sub-section Champs (Girls Tenis)
- Section Runner-ups (Girls Tenis)
- Kasey Maier, State Participant (Girls Tenis, Singles)
- Megan Shuck & Megan Clark, State Participant (Girls Tenis, Doubles)
2003
- Phillip Beaumia, State 2nd Place (Wrestling)
- Tommy Lohse, State Participant (Wrestling)
- Morgan Taylor, State Participant (Wrestling)
- Brady Schneeberger, State Participant (Wrestling)
- State Academic Champs (Girls Tenis)
- Sub-section Champs (Girls Tenis)
- Section Runner-ups (Girls Tenis)
- Kristel Anderson, State Participant (Girls Tenis, Singles)
- Kasey Maier & Megan Shuck, State Participant (Girls Tenis, Doubles)
2004
- Brady Schneeberger, State 2nd Place (Wrestling)
- Matt Anderson, State 4th Place (Wrestling)
- Morgan Taylor, State Participant (Wrestling)
- Section Academic Champs (Girls Tenis)
- Sub-section Champs (Girls Tenis)
- Section Champs (Girls Tenis)
- State 4th Place (Girls Tenis)
- Kristel Anderson, State Participant (Girls Tenis, Singles)
2005
- HOL Conf. Runner-up (Football)
- Section 6AA Runner-up (Football)
- Blake Olson, Conference Overall MVP (Football)
- Brady Schneeberger, State 2nd Place (Wrestling)
2006
- HOL Conference Champs (Football)
- Kolten Lee, Conference Overall MVP (Football)
- Brady Schneeberger, State Champ (Wrestling)
- Nathan Long, State Participant (Wrestling)
[edit] Other Accomplishments
The most successful organization in West Central Area history has been the school's Mock Trial team, taking the section title nine times in the past 11 years. The Destination Imagination team has been to the world championships twice and took 9th there the last time they went. The Knights have fielded a national championship qualifying team in the televised Academic Challenge (national). West Central (Elbow Lake - Barrett- Wendel) was one of the eight inaugural knowledge bowl teams in the state of Minnesota back in 1979. It was then under the direction of Dick Boyack. Now, almost every district in the state has a knowledge bowl team. In 2006, in Dick Boyack's last year as coach of knowledge bowl, he finely lead a team consisting of Patrick Ellis, Luke Arnquist, Leah Johnson, and Dan Mahoney to the state meet.
1995
- National Championship Participant (Academic Challenge)
1996
- Section Champs (Mock Trial)
1997
- Section Champs (Mock Trial)
1998
- Section Champs (Mock Trial)
1999
- Section Champs (Mock Trial)
2000
- Section Champs (Mock Trial)
2001
- World Finalist (Destination Imagination)
- Section Champs (Mock Trial)
2003
- World Finalist (Destination Imagination)
- Section Champs (Mock Trial)
2004
- Section Champs (Mock Trial)
- Outstanding Performance at State, Patrick Ellis (Mock Trial)
2005
- Section Champs (Mock Trial)
- Outstanding Performance at State, Dan Mahoney (Mock Trial)
2006
- State Participant (Knowledge Bowl)
- Academic Challenge Participant
- Apollo Meet 2nd Place (Mock Trial)
- Luke Arnquist, Sub-section 21 Champion (Arts, Athletics, Academics Award)
