Western Guilford High School

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Western Guilford High School is located in Greensboro, North Carolina, and is part of the Guilford County School system. The school has 1440 students and its sports teams are the Fighting Hornets.

In September 2002, Western Guilford was renovated via public bond. The design of the new addition integrates different components of the campus by introducing new circulation patterns. A new entry gallery at the front entry to the school was designed; along with art and classroom additions form an internal courtyard. The addition consists of four basic elements: Classroom addition to the vocational building, a cafeteria expansion and gym, a 2 story classroom addition and a single story art addition.

The school's mascot is the Fighting Hornet and the school colors are Black and Gold. Western is a member of the Triad 3A Conference. The principal, as of 2006-2007, is Richard Armstrong who replaced the former principal, Dr. Randy Shaver. The school now operates on a "Traditional Schedule," which uses 6 classes per day (all year long) as opposed to the old "Block Schedule" of 4 classes a day (for only one semester).

The change was brought on by local schools, who were on the traditional schedule, sending failing juniors and seniors to Western Guilford so they could take advantage of the extra classes to graduate. In effect, Western's test scores dropped. The Guilford County School Board and the principal at the time, Dr. Randy Shaver, made the change to Traditional Scheduling, much to the dismay of parents, students, and staff.

[edit] Western Guilford Marching Band

The Western Guilford Marching Hornets Band is a fairly new band that consists of roughly 55 volunteer members as of the 2006 season. They have only been competing for two years. In 2005, their show was called "Fuego" (with three movements: Corrado, Perfidia, and Flight of the Condor). In 2006, the Marching Hornets (now under the direction of new band director, Nathan Street and drum majors Jamie Carter (senior) and Kendall Tetsworth (junior)) are competing with the show "Mask of Zorro" by James Horner which has three movements: Mask of Zorro, Diego's Goodbye, and Mask of Zorro - Finale.

The Western band program has received local notoriety after many instruments were stolen from the lockers in the band room, with the cost of instruments totalling about $10,000.

[edit] Western Guilford Lacrosse

Western Guilford's Lacrosse program was started in 2002 by a group of students that had seen the sport and wanted to play. They petitioned the school for a team in the spring of 2001 and convinced the school to field a team in for the spring of 2002. the school then set out to find a coach and soon settled upon coach Dirk Lambertson, formerly of Greensboro Day School. While the team struggled through its first season and finished with a record of 3-17, the team has been rapidly improving, and has played in the State Championship game for the last two years (2005 and 2006 seasons). The team is currently 7-0 and hoping to finally win the State Championship