Manatee High School

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Manatee High School
Name

The Manatee High School
Location

902 - 33rd St. Ct., West, Bradenton, Florida 34205
Established

1897
Type

Public secondary
Students

2300
Grades

9 to 12
Accreditation

Southern Association
District

Manatee County School District
Mascot

The Hurricanes (Billy Blow Hard)
Colors

Red, White, and Blue
Principal

Robert Gagnon
Website

The Manatee High School is a public high school in Bradenton, Florida operated by the Manatee County School District[1].

Contents

[edit] History

What is now Manatee High School has had at least four names over the years and has had several different grade configurations during that time. [2]

[edit] 1897-1930

What is now MHS began in 1897 as Braidentown High School in a building located on the northwest corner of 9th Avenue and 14th Street, West, where the city shuffleboard courts were later located. (The "i" had been put into Bradentown's name earlier because visitors couldn't seem to pronounce the name correctly. The "i" and "w" were later dropped to produce the present name Bradenton.) It is not known had many grades there were originally since the 12th grade was not required for high school graduation in many Southern states until the 1940s. Most certainly, though, the original high school did have grades 9 through 11, with grades 7 and 8 being transferred later from grade school.

In 1912, a new high school building was built on the south side of Manatee Avenue west of 1st Street, just east of where the school district offices are now located. Sometime before 1915, students from Palmetto were added and the school became Manatee County High School for the first time. The 1915 MCHS football team gained fame for never losing a game as well as never being scored upon. Sometime in the 1920s MCHS became Bradenton High School (BHS) when Palmetto students once again had their own high school to attend.[3]

[edit] 1930-1947

In 1930, the Manatee Avenue building was closed and BHS was moved to the red brick building at 1000 32nd Street, West, which had been built in 1926 as the Biltmore Grade School, but had been closed after less than a year's use because of the collapse of the Florida Land Boom. This building is now called the Davis Building in memory of longtime principal, Paul F. Davis. In 1938 the old building on Manatee Avenue was opened as Bradenton Junior High School with grades 7 through 9.[4]

[edit] 1947-1958

In 1947, Florida adopted the present system of having a single school district for each county and as a result Palmetto High School was merged back into Bradenton High School and the school's name again became Manatee County High School, which required changes in many school traditions. The school colors became red, white and blue by taking red from Palmetto's "red and black" and blue from Bradenton's "blue and gold" and adding white. BHS's teams had been the Golden Wave, but that was replaced by the Hurricanes. Palmetto's year book had been the Palmetto Leaves, so the new one got the incongruous name of Manatee Leaves. The school newspaper became the MaCoHi or Macohi.

1955 was another year of change for MCHS. The three junior high schools south of the Manatee River, Bradenton, Manatee and Oneco were consolidated into a brand new school, Walker Junior High School, which was built across 11th Avenue, West from the high school. Walker had state of the art music facilities which were used by MCHS's orchestra, chorus and band.

The MCHS graduating class of 1958 was the last one to have students from both sides of the river, since Palmetto High School had been phased back in beginning in 1956. During the summer of 1958. the school's name was shortened to the present Manatee High School to reflect the fact that it no longer drew students from the entire county. Student and public opinion was overwhelmingly in favor of keeping the name Manatee instead of reverting it to Bradenton High School.[5]

[edit] 1958 to date

Since 1958 many other changes have happened at Manatee High School, including:[6]

  • Integration when the school district ended racial segregation in all schools.
  • The addition of the 9th grade when the school district converted its junior high schools (grades 7-9) into middle schools (grades 6-8}.
  • The Manatee Leaves became the Cane Echo.
  • The annexation of the Walker school campus;
  • The demolition of the old Walker Building and the old Science building on 9th Avenue.
  • The completion of new buildings, such as the Science and Technology Building (1996).
  • The possible demolition of the Davis Building due to mold (2008).

[edit] Alumni

In 1996, MHS had alumni in all 50 states, Washington, DC, Guam, Puerto Rico, U.S. Virgin Islands and 22 foreign countries. Florida had the largest number of alumni followed by Georgia. Of the foreign countries, Canada with 18 alumni had the most followed by Australia with 9.[7]

[edit] Academics

Manatee High School currently offers an academic curriculum known as the AP+ Program. The AP+ Program encourages students to challenge themselves with the most difficult curriculum possible in preparation for higher levels of education. Students of Manatee High School are also actively involved in the Dual-Enrollment program where high school students have the opportunity to take courses at the local Manatee Community College. In 2007, Manatee received a grade of D (on an A-F scale) in the Florida Department of Education rating of school quality. [8]

[edit] Technology Students Association

The Technology Students Association in Manatee High School is very active in its community and around the nation. MHS TSA has attended many national conferences over the past years and attends TSA-U, CTSO (Manatee County), and Florida TSA competitions, taking 1st places. In 2006, MHS TSA raised over $12,000 for the ACS and plans on rasing $25,000 or more in 2007 for the American Cancer Society. MHS TSA also provides a laser service for making stickers, school items and pens to the Manatee County Area. TSA also provides adopt-a-family every year at Christmas with gifts for the children. MHS TSA provides many ways for the teens of MHS to get service hours, use their skills to compete and make new friends. MHS TSA host club meetings every Wednesday in Room 902 at 7:00AM till 7:45AM.

[edit] Athletics

 This section does not cite any references or sources. (July 2007)
Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources. Unverifiable material may be challenged and removed.

The Manatee Hurricanes, headed by coach Joe Kinnan, have enjoyed modest success in their football program since the 1980s and early '90s, when the Hurricanes won four state championships. Howie DeCristafaro was the Hurricanes head football coach for four years missing the playoffs in his final season before leaving to pursue another career. Kinnan has since resumed the role of Head Hurricane. Currently Manatee High's varsity football rival is Southeast High School.

As it goes for wrestling, although it doesn't bring in as many fans as the football team, but its still one of if not the best Athletic team Manatee High has. In the 2006-07 season they were County champs, 2A District 10 champs, 2A Region 3 Champs, and were runner up in the 2A state division. The team is headed by coach Andrew Gugliemini "Gug" , with help from coach Fair (JV Coach), Coach David Mason, and Coach Dan Gysle The line up For 2006-2007 was:

103 lb- Michael Torres (4th at state)
112 lb- Jacob Gregory ( state runner up)
119 lb- Kyle Ballard (regional qualifier)
125 lb- Reco Simmons (5th at state)
130 lb- Chris Meier (4th at state)
135 lb- Dainel Betz ( state runner up)
140 lb- Jon Espinoza (match away from states)
145 lb- Isaac Riley ( state qualifier)
152 lb- Brice Guy (a match away from states)
160 lb- James Lloyd ( match away from placing)
171 lb- Kobie Reynolds (regional qualifier)
189 lb- Andrew Fulk (3rd at States)
215 lb- Richard Cunningham ( state runner up)
285 lb- Richard Dahlin ( match away from states)


Manatee Hurricanes Girls' Cross Country
2006 State Finalists
2005 Regional Qualifiers
2004 County Champions and Regional Qualifiers
2003 County, District, and Regional Champions and State Finalists

Manatee Hurricanes Girls Weightlifting (Official)
129 lb - 2004 State Champion, Samantha DeCristofaro
199 lb - 2005 3rd Place, Alexa DeCristofaro
199 lb - 2007 6th Place, Hannah Crowe
Team Placing 5th in 2004
--Information from the FHSAA.org website

Manatee Hurricane JROTC Raider Teams
Female Team-(Shannon Stanley, Stephanie Thacker, Jessica Savageau, Shannon Stephens, Sarah Burger, Leann Wilson, Johanna Nunez and Nicole Shaul) placed first at the State Raider Meet 2008.

Male Team-(Steve Kelley, Scott Aldridge, Allen Paquin, Michael Mooreside, Jeffrey Gresko, Nic McGlaughlin, James Murray, Mark Logan and Marcelo Presa) also placed first in the State Raider Meet Competition.

[edit] References

  1. ^ School District of Manatee County Florida
  2. ^ Manatee High School Alumni Directory, 1912-1996, 1996, Norfolk: Bernard C. Harris Publishing Company, Inc., pp. iv-v
  3. ^ Manatee High School Alumni Directory, 1912-1996, 1996, Norfolk: Bernard C. Harris Publishing Company, Inc., pp. iv-v
  4. ^ Manatee High School Alumni Directory, 1912-1996, 1996, Norfolk: Bernard C. Harris Publishing Company, Inc., pp. iv-v
  5. ^ Manatee High School Alumni Directory, 1912-1996, 1996, Norfolk: Bernard C. Harris Publishing Company, Inc., pp. iv-v
  6. ^ Manatee High School Alumni Directory, 1912-1996, 1996, Norfolk: Bernard C. Harris Publishing Company, Inc., pp. iv-v
  7. ^ Manatee High School Alumni Directory, 1912-1996, 1996, Norfolk: Bernard C. Harris Publishing Company, Inc., pp. 330-339.
  8. ^ http://schoolgrades.fldoe.org/default.asp?action=detail1&cosch=410181&type=3&thisSchoolYear=2006-2007&schoolNumbers=410181&allSchools=&districts=41&schoolYear=2006%2D2007%2C2005%2D2006%2C2004%2D2005%2C2003%2D2004%2C2002%2D2003%2C2001%2D2002%2C2000%2D2001%2C1999%2D2000%2C1998%2D1999&school_grade=&report=SG&level=School.

[edit] External links