Wakefield High School (Raleigh, North Carolina)

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Wakefield High School
Just Think First
Address
2200 Wakefield Pines Dr Raleigh, North Carolina 27614
Information
School number	343244
School board	Wake County Public School System
Principal	Mark Savage
Enrollment	2,400 (2006)
School type	High school
Grades	9-12
Language	English
Mascot	Whodie (Woody) the Wolverine
Team name	Wolverines
Color(s)	Maroon, Black & silver
Founded	1999
Homepage	http://wakefieldhs.net/

Wakefield High School, is a high school located in Raleigh, North Carolina. The school is situated next to Wakefield Elementary and Wakefield Middle schools.

[edit] Schedule

The school year at Wakefield High School starts in late August and ends in early June. The class schedule, commonly referred to as "block scheduling", has students take four different classes each semester, each period being approximately ninety minutes long. This completes a course in one semester instead of one year and having four new classes in the second semester. Six minutes are given in between classes with a forty minute lunch period. Students take exams in mid January and again in early June.

Wakefield High School offers numerous Advanced Placement(AP) courses. Some students are placed on A/B scheduling, in which they have classes for an entire year with alternating days. Most cases of A/B scheduling only causes one period of alternating classes, with a normal remainder of the day. The most common case is having both AP United States History and AP English III at the same time. Students with these two classes would go to AP US History one day, then the next go to AP English III for an entire year instead of one semester.

Additional AP classes offered at Wakefield include AP English IV, AP Statistics, AP Calculus AB, AP Calculus BC, AP Computer Science AB, AP Environmental Science (often called "APES"), AP Biology, AP Chemistry, AP Physics, AP European History, AP Human Geography, AP United States Government and Politics, AP Economics, AP Psychology, AP French Literature, AP French Language, AP Spanish Literature, AP Spanish Language, AP Latin, AP Music Theory, AP Visual Arts-Drawing, and AP Visual Arts-3D Design.

Regular Schedule:

 1st Block: 7:25-8:53
 2nd Block: 8:58-10:32 
 3rd Block: 10:37-12:45
          -Lunch A: 10:37-11:17
          -Lunch B: 11:20-12:00
          -Lunch C: 12:05-12:45
 4th Block: 12:50-2:18

[edit] Wakefield North

A new addition to Wakefield High School for the 2007-2008 school year is a new campus, known as "Wakefield North". This campus will serve as a Freshmen Center, and is intended to ease the overcrowding that has been a recent issue at the school. Wakefield North is located at the former Winn-Dixie supermarket just a few minutes from Wakefield's main campus. Freshmen enrolled in fine arts classes or higher level academic courses are shuttled to and from the main campus periodically throughout the day, since these courses are only taught on the main campus.

[edit] Athletics at Wakefield

Wakefield's students compete in the NCHSAA 4A classification in the CAP 7 conference (through 2009). Wakefield's biggest rivalry in sports is with the cross-town Wake Forest-Rolesville Cougars. Another big rival is the Millbrook Wildcats.

Wakefield currently has the following sports programs -

Fall Sports - Cross Country, Men's Soccer, Football, Women's Golf, Women's Tennis, and Women's Volleyball

Winter Sports - Men's Basketball, Women's Basketball, Cheerleading, Women's Gymnastics, Indoor Track, Swimming, Wrestling, and Diving

Spring Sports - Baseball, Men's Golf, Men's and Women's Lacrosse, Men's Tennis, Track, Women's Soccer, and Softball

Year Round - Sports Medicine, Cheerleading

Basketball - The men's basketball team has won the state 4A title twice. (2004 & 2006) In 2004, they capped an amazing run to the championship by beating perennial power RJ Reynolds. The team included 8 future college basketball players.[1]. In 2007 the basketball team won sectional in Men's varsity. The girls basketball team has won the CAP 7 conference the last three years in a row.

Football - The football team had a prolific season in 2005, remaining undefeated until they reached the state semifinals.

Lacrosse - Lacrosse with both men's and women's teams began at Wakefield during the 2003 school year. Wakefield was one of eight high schools in Wake County to have a lacrosse program in 2003. A JV men's team was added in 2004. A JV women's team was added in 2007. There are now more than 130 students participating in lacrosse at Wakefield. The men's team won the Capital City East Conference Title in 2006. Both the men's and women's teams earned their way to the state championship playoffs in 2006.

Wrestling - In 2004, the Wrestling Team won the CAP-7 Conference Tournament. At the 2007-08 CAP-7 wrestling tournament, the Wolverines placed 4th out of 7th thanks to help from Captains Gray Gerald and Andrew Killion with their 1st place wins, junior Andrew Barnes with a 3rd place win, and sophomore Jeff Fisher and freshman Eric White with their 4th place wins.

[edit] Wakefield Theatre Company

[edit] History

Wakefield Theatre Company was established in 2000 with directors Paul A. Orsett and J. Michael Beech. Both Orsett and Beech have taught acting classes and directed all of the plays. Orsett has also taught technical theatre classes. Beech was well loved throughout the theatre department but left the school in the 2006-2007 school year. As a result, Jennifer Buelin was hired to teach all of the tech while Orsett took over acting. The program has become very successful over the years and has earned the reputation as being one of the best in the county. Last year at Capital Awards (theatre awards), they won awards for Best Costume Design and Best Technical Excecution for their production of The Wizard Of Oz.

[edit] Plays

2005-2006:

Alice in Wonderland, written and directed by J. Michael Beech.
Treasure Island, Directed by Paul A. Orsett.
Cinderella, directed by Paul A. Orsett and choreographed by J.Michael Beech.

2006-2007:

The Wizard of Oz, directed by Paul A. Orsett and choreographed by J.Michael Beech.
The Good Times Are Killing Me, directed by J. Michael Beech
Tarzan of the Apes, directed and choreographed by Paul A. Orsett.

2007-2008:

Damn Yankees!, directed by Paul A. Orsett and choreographed by J. Michael Beech
The Women, directed by J. Michael Beech
Lord of the Flies, directed by Paul A. Orsett.

[edit] Other Performances

In addition to plays, there is a Murder Mystery Dinner put on each year by the Studio A class. This class also does "30x60", a project in which 30 student written and directed skits are performed in sixty minutes. In the 2007-2008 year matinée performances, usually done with the main stage productions, for children in middle and elementary school was scheduled as a student-directed series. They were Sleeping Beauty, directed by Amanda Kouri; Excalibur! The Story of Young King Arthur, directed by Dustin Doing; and How to Eat Like a Child, and Other Lessons in Not Being Grown Up, directed by Paul Orsett.

[edit] The Marching Band Program

The Wakefield High School Marching Band was established in 2001 under the direction of Mr. Joshua K. Potter. Over the years, Wakefield has been able to establish itself as one of the leading bands in the region. Since 2003, it has successfully hosted a competition (called "Heart of Carolina") for local bands, and in 2006 became one of only 4 bands in North Carolina to proceed to the Finals round of a Bands of America Regional Championship, finishing 7th overall out of a field of 25 bands.

In the most recent competition season, the Wakefield Marching Band enjoyed much success. Starting off the season competing at Clayton High School, the band received several awards, including 1st place in class 3A. Its next competition took place at West Johnston High School, and the band also did well in the awards, taking 1st place in class 4A. For its national competition, the band had planned to travel to New York to participate in the Bands of America Regional there, but due to weather concerns changed plans at the last minute, instead traveling to Atlanta, Georgia for the Bands of America Super Regional. Due to the higher caliber of bands attending this regional (many went on to the Bands of America Championships), the band was not able to make finals. For its final competition, the band attended Cary Band Day at Cary High School, participating in both the parade and the field show. Again, the band enjoyed much success with a great performance allowing them to take 1st place in class 4A, among many other awards, closing out a very successful season.

[edit] External links

• Wakefield High School official site
• Wake Country Public School System
• School board directory
• Wakefield Bands site
• Wakefield Theatre Company site
• Wakefield High School Lacrosse Website