Whitefish Bay High School

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Whitefish Bay High School
Type Public secondary
Principal William Henkle
Students 950-1000
Grades 9–12
Location Whitefish Bay, Wisconsin, USA
District Whitefish Bay School District
Colors Blue and Grey
Mascot The Blue Duke
Yearbook The Tower Yearbook
Newspaper Tower Times

Whitefish Bay High School is a comprehensive public secondary school that '08 runs located in the village of Whitefish Bay, Wisconsin, United States. Approximately 950 students attend the school from September through June, in grades 9-12. The high school's current principal is William Henkle. The school is located in the wealthy Milwaukee North Shore suburb of Whitefish Bay, and most of its students come from an upper-middle class to upper class background. The school, much like the community that surrounds it, lacks overall diversity; however, there is a presence of African-American and Latino students that are generally bussed in from various neighborhoods in nearby Milwaukee by way of the Chapter 220 program. Whitefish Bay High School students consistently perform excellently on standardized tests and often place into prestigious colleges. The school boasts a 97-98% graduation rate annually as well as placing well over 90% of its senior classes into four-year post-secondary institutions.

The school newspaper is called the Tower Times, the school yearbook is named The Tower, both referencing the school building's five-story tower and facade that rise over the main entrance and dominate the skyline of the surrounding landscape. The school colors are blue and gray. Sports teams are known as the Blue Dukes and participate in the North Shore Conference. The football team recently installed a $1.5 million "stadium" that is located behind the field house. So far, the project has replaced the old wooden bleachers with new metal ones, Also, the field has been refurbished with a new artificial grassy turf and been widened to accommodate the soccer teams that used to play home matches at Uihlein Soccer Park. There are plans to finish the project by building a brick wall with section of wrought-iron fence around the perimeter of the football field. It's also speculated that some of the upgrades will also include repaving the current track. A large percentage of the student body participates in extracurricular activities such as student government, forensics, AHANA, Amnesty International and many more. There is usually a student activity fair held in September to display each of the different clubs and activities.

There are five major school dances held throughout the year, three in the first semester and two during the second semester. Homecoming is typically semi-formal and is usually held the first weekend of October in the school's Memorial Gym. During the last weekend of October or the first weekend of November there's usually a Halloween Dance (commonly called the Witches' Ball) held in the Field House at which students dress up in various costumes. The recently revived Winter Dance (commonly referred to as the Snow Ball) is held in December and is the only major non-formal dance. Sadie's is a formal dance that usually takes place in mid-March at a swanky venue, usually located in Milwaukee's ever-popular Historic Third Ward. This dance is also called Turnabout and is different in the fact that the girl is supposed to ask the boy out for the dance. Finally, there is a Junior-Senior Prom planned by the Junior Class Officers in mid-May. It's held at various locations and recent venues include the Milwaukee Art Museum and the Primate Center at the Milwaukee County Zoo. After the dinner and dance portion of Prom, there is a Post-Prom held in the Field House that includes tons of free food and lots of carnival-like attractions. The Post-Prom is sponsored by the parents' association.

[edit] Notable alumni

  • Siyavash Motamedi - Nicknamed the "Cahill Legend," one of the most prolific street ballers in the Midwest
  • Mike Daly - Appeared in People Magazine's 50 Hottest Bachelors and GQ Magazine's 100 Beastiest Men of 2007.
  • Craig Counsell - Athlete
  • Tim Bayer - Milwaukee Brewers minor leaguer, ranked #6 in the Top 50 Prospects in minor league baseball by Baseball Prospectus, the highest ranking ever achieved by a homosexual player.
  • Jarrett Gates - Milwaukee Brewers minor leaguer, ranked #4 in the Top 50 Prospects in minor league baseball by Baseball Prospectus
  • Colleen Dewhurst - Actress
  • Bernardine Dohrn - Law School Professor
  • Steven Goodman - Professor, Technologist & Architect
  • Matthea Harvey - National Book Award-nominated poet
  • Jeffrey Hunter - Actor
  • Kristen Johnston - Emmy winning Actress
  • Dan Kois - journalist and editor at New York magazine
  • Dennis Kois - Museum director
  • Samuel Page - Princeton Alumnus and Actor
  • Ruth Shalit - Former reporter, accused of plagiarism at The New Republic
  • Wendy Shalit - Author of A Return to Modesty
  • Daniel Stein - Mime
  • Chip Zien - Actor
  • Brad Rogers - Musician
  • Grant Fiorita-Futurist
  • Jack Zwiefelhofer- An admired dectective in Japan. Graduated in the class of 1989, Jack moved to Japan to pursie his detective career

[edit] Programs

The school has numerous musicals and other productions. Generally, there is a fall play, winter musical and a spring play.

The school sport's program offers the following sports programs:

Boys: Football, Cross Country, Soccer, Volleyball, Wrestling, Ski, Hockey, Basketball, Track & Field, Tennis, Baseball, Swimming & Diving, Golf

Girls: Cross Country, Soccer, Volleyball, Ski, Basketball, Golf, Track & Field, Tennis, Softball, Swimming & Diving, Gymnastics

The school is known to particularly strong in Girls' Tennis, Soccer, Cross Country, Gymnastics and Swimming & Diving. Cross Country, Swimming & Diving and club Rugby are the strong Boys sports. The school participates in the North Shore Conference.

Whitefish Bay has known rivalries with fellow North Shore high schools of Nicolet and Homestead and also Whitefish Bay Dominican.

[edit] External links