| Belton High School | |
|---|---|
| Location | |
| 600 Lake Road Belton, TX 76513 United States |
|
| Information | |
| Type | Public high school |
| Motto | Every Kid A winner |
| School district | Belton Independent School District |
| Principal | Kathy Cook |
| Grades | 9-12 |
| Enrollment | 2,345 (as of 2011) |
| Color(s) | Red & White |
| Athletics | UIL Class AAAAA |
| Team name | Tigers |
| Website | Belton High School website |
Belton High School (BHS) is a high school that serves the city of Belton, Texas, parts of Temple and Morgan's Point Resort, and the Belton Independent School District (BISD). The High school's motto is Every Kid A Winner. BHS is fully accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools and the Texas Education Agency. A charter member of the Texas Mentor School network, BHS is noted for strong academic, sports, media technology, career studies, and fine arts programs.
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The school colors are red and white with black being an unofficial accent color on school merchandise. The school song is titled "Belton High School Alma Mater" and is performed by the school band The Marching 100.
The school fight song is known as "Texas Taps" and is set to the tune of University of Texas's "Texas Fight" but with altered lyrics.
Belton High School currently fields football, volleyball (girls), cross country, basketball, soccer, softball (girls), powerlifing, swimming, tennis, track, baseball, and golf teams in UIL 5A competition.
Belton High School currently has an Academic Team in the UIL 5A competition. The contests include Accounting, Calculator Applications, Current Issues & Events, Literary Criticism, Mathematics, Number Sense, Ready Writing, and Social Studies, as well as Speech and Debate.
The Marching 100 is the Belton High School Band. Previous achievements include winning the 1995-96 UIL 4A State Marching Contest, and obtaining 4th place at the 2001-02 UIL 4A State Marching Contest, and winning the Central Texas Marching Contest in 1999, 2000, 2001, and 2002. They did not defend their title the next year, as the directors felt more competition was necessary for band development.
The band got its name when the locals started to call it the marching 100, when there were 100 people in the band. The band is now on average 300 people. And for concert season they have four different bands that play music based on their ability.
One of the most notable band directors for the Marching 100 was Richard Crain. Mr. Crain became the band director for the Marching 100 in 1965. Belton Color Guard is very good at what they do. While band director, the Marching 100 performed in the 1974 Tournament of Roses Parade and television special with Doc Severinsen. The Marching 100 also participated in a special performance, under the direction of Mr. Crain, for former President Lyndon B. Johnson. In 1983 the Marching 100 played for President Jimmy Carter at Waco's TSTC airport during a rally. During Crain's tenure the Marching 100 band won honors at numerous festivals and contests in Colorado, Florida, Louisiana, and Virginia, as well as throughout Texas. They also won several sweepstakes awards for concert, sight-reading, and marching contests and were Honor Band for their region each year they were eligible. Under Mr. Crain's direction, the Belton High School Band won first place in the Parade of Champions Marching Contest and the Astroworld Marching Contest.
In May 2008 the Marching 100 performed at Laura Bush's rehearsal dinner in Salado, Texas.
The school mascot is a tiger named Tigo. Most often Tigo makes appearances at pep rallies and football games. Most of the middle and elementary schools in the Belton ISD use a variation of Tigo as mascots. In 2000, staff for the school paper were at the Belton, Texas city library researching an article when they found an old Belton High year book from 1921 called "The Bronco". When this was reported in the school paper several weeks later many speculated that it was possible that the true BHS mascot was a bronco due to the fact the current name of the year book was "The Lair". However, no further evidence supporting this claim was found.
Belton's rival is the Temple High School Wildcats. This is most visible during the yearly Belton-Temple football game. The cities of Belton and Temple in the past have shared years of animosity towards each other, possibly from the founding of Temple by the Santa Fe Railroad.
This spilled over onto the football field during the 20s & 30s. It was not uncommon for fights to break out between fans in the parking lot after the game. After the 1936 game this almost turned deadly. Several people were taken to the hospital and one was hospitalized with critical injuries. Given that the fights had increased in violence over the last 3 years and commerce between the two cities was starting to suffer a county judge made a decree that the two schools shall not play each other for a minimum of 50 years. The two schools would not meet again on the football field until 1995.
In general the rivalry is friendly in nature today. Custom shirts are usually printed up by both sides to mark the event. Sometimes pranks, small acts of vandalism and general shenanigans occur in the week prior to the game. Most of this is minor in nature and are perpetrated by the students involved in the games.
The first artificially-lighted football game played in the state of Texas was the 1921 Belton-Temple game played at Wildcat Field.
In 2009 the rivalry with Temple was nationally televised on ESPNU at Wildcat Stadium, Tiger were victorious over Temple for the first time since 2005.
Belton High School's Media Technology Program was started in 2007 with the addition of a new teacher, Mark Fitzwater, and almost $100,000 worth of new equipment. The Media Technology tapes every football game from four camera angles and then edits together their own football highlight show entitled "Inside Tiger Football" which is broadcast on Time Warner Cable on demand.