Poudre High School

Coordinates: 40°35′10.9″N 105°7′16.9″W / 40.586361°N 105.121361°W / 40.586361; -105.121361

Poudre High School, located at 201 Impala Drive, Fort Collins, Colorado, is one of six public senior high schools in the Poudre School District. The school serves approximately 1,900 students, and has a staff of about 135 faculty. It houses the rigorous International Baccalaureate (IB) program as well as many Advanced Placement (AP) classes. PHS was founded in 1964 with blue and silver as its school colours and the Impala as its mascot. The cornerstone of PHS was laid June 1, 1964 by the Grand Lodge Colorado, A.F. and A.M. The first class graduated from PHS in 1965 when the original building was 142,000 square feet (13,200 m²), had 43 teaching stations and housed 1150 students from Fort Collins, Waverly, Loveland, Greeley, Wellington and LaPorte. After a major addition which opened in the fall of 1995 PHS increased in size to 275,000 square feet (25,500 m²).

History of the Impala Mascot

Poudre High School was formed in 1963 by the consolidation of Wellington, Timnath and Cache la Poudre high schools. The first class graduated in 1964. The first principal Reid Pope allowed the student body to pick the mascot. The students got the idea of the Impala from a National Geographic article.^[1] Dr. Robert Parke donated an actual Impala to the school after a safari in Africa. The impala is encased in the school's entrance.

Competitions and extracurricular activities

Poudre High School won the State Football Championship in 1970.

The Poudre Science Olympiad team has placed at the National level. Many of the members of Science Olympiad (2008-2009) are also in the IB program. They conduct research and participate in self-study programs in order to prepare themselves for the competition.

In the National Ocean Sciences Bowl competition of 2006, this school, in a landlocked state, took second place in competition with many schools from coastal states, besting its previous third-place finish in 2004. Poudre High School competes in the Trout Bowl Regional Competition.

Poudre High School regularly competes in the National Science Bowl as well, competing regionally in the Rocky Mountain Science Bowl Region. In 2003, Poudre was the first high school nationally to compete in the National Ocean Sciences Bowl, National Science Bowl, and National Science Olympiad. In 2004 Poudre became the first school in the nation to place in the top ten in all three nationals: finishing with 3rd in National Ocean Sciences Bowl, 7th in National Science Olympiad, and 9th in National Science Bowl. In 2007, Poudre High School's Science Bowl took first place in the nation, winning a trip to Sydney, Australia to attend the Professor Harry Messel International Science School.

In FIRST Robotics, 2002, Poudre High School competed under the moniker Alpine Robotics as Team #159 at the Seattle regional competition. There they won the coveted Chairman's Award, which is given to the team that shows outstanding local participation and team spirit. Since the conception of this after school club, Alpine Robotics has successfully gone to nationals almost every year. More recently, in the 2010 FIRST Robotics competition, Breakaway, Team 159 earned the Outstanding Robot Design award.

In 2004, the Poudre High School Boys Soccer team won the 5A state championships.

Poudre's theatre program is recognized on the world level ^{[citation needed]}. Poudre was invited to attend the "Fringe" festival in Edinburgh, Scotland in the summer of 2006. However, due to lack of funding, the theatre students were unable to participate in the event. The Thespians also run an Improvisation Troupe, Playwrighting Club, and the "Theatre in the Classroom Program." The program continues to produce some of the highest quality plays and musicals in Colorado. Musical productions have included Seussical (2008), Once Upon a Mattress (2007),Oklahoma! (2006 and 1995), 42nd Street (2005), Damn Yankees (2004), Crazy for You (2003), Guys and Dolls (2002 and 1996), Carousel and Pippin (2000), Annie Get Your Gun (1999), Anything Goes (1998), and Fiddler on the roof (1994), while recent plays have spanned from the French story of Cyrano de Bergerac (2004), to Aristophanes' ancient Greek comedy The Birds (2005) to the American classic, Our Town (2006), into the realm of Brecht with The Caucasian Chalk Circle (2007), and into the genre of melodrama with Under the Gaslight (2008). In the summer of 2006, PHS housed an innovative new program called "Shakespeare in the Summer". This was a summer intensive open to all Poudre School District students from grades 7-12 in which students studied and produced a Shakespearean piece under the guidance of a guest director.

Also in 2005, Poudre High School's cheerleading team won third place in the 5A co-ed division at CHSAA's annual cheerleading state competition held in Denver, Colorado. The team later went on to again take third at a national competition in Las Vegas, Nevada. The team also placed in the top ten in later years at the CHSAA State competition with places as follows:

• 2006 - 7th Place
• 2007 - 9th Place

Poudre Fight Song

Poudre High will hit the line like thunder,

And we'll shout for you to win.

Poudre High will plow the foe right under,

Never, never to give in.

Silver, blue our colors shining brightly,

Guard them well throughout the game.

Heads up! Drive on! Until we've won!

And then they'll all know the victor's name.

Notable alumni

• Challen Boehme, professional american football running back
• Deric Yaussi, professional american football kicker.
• Jeff Bibbey, Published Author "Off the Mat"

School Awards and honors

Kaleidoscope Magazine

• American Scholastic Press Association (ASPA) ^[2]
  • First Place with Special Merit - 1999, 2001-2006
  • First Place - 1998, 2000
  • Second Place - 1997
  • Most Outstanding High School Literary Art Magazine - 2003, 2007, 2012
  • Outstanding Art - 1998; 1999; 2004, for "Marilyn" by Blake Barney

• National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE)
  • Highest Award - 1998, 1999, 2000
  • Superior Award - 1996, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005
  • Excellent Award - 1997

Science Olympiad

• 12th place in nationals - 2010
• 12th place in nationals - 2009
• 4th place in nationals - 2008
• 9th place in nationals - 2007
• 12th place in nationals - 2006 ^[3]
• 12th place in nationals - 2005
• 7th place in nationals - 2004
• 6th place in nationals - 2003
• 5th place in nationals - 2002

Science Bowl

• 5th place in nationals - 2010
• 2nd place in regionals - 2009
• 1st place in regionals - 2008 (but unable to attend nationals due to a conflict with IB testing)
• 1st place in nationals - 2007 ^[4]
• 10th place (tie) in nationals - 2006 ^[5]
• 1st and 5th places in regionals - 2006
• 2nd and 5th places in regionals - 2005
• 9th place (tie) in nationals - 2004

National Ocean Sciences Bowl

• 9th place in nationals - 2013
• 2nd place in regionals - 2012
• 7th place in nationals - 2010
• 2nd place in regionals - 2009
• 1st place in regionals - 2008
• 1st and 3rd places in regionals - 2007
• 2nd place in nationals - 2006 ^[6]
• 1st and 4th places in regionals - 2006
• 3rd place in nationals - 2004

FIRST Robotics

Alpine Robotics Team 159

• 2010
  • Outstanding Robot Design Award (Colorado Regional)
• 2008
  • Regional Chairman's Award (Colorado Regional)
• 2007
  • Regional Chairman's Award (Colorado Regional)
  • Best Website Award (Colorado Regional)
• 2006
  • Regional Chairman's Award (Colorado Regional)
  • Radioshack Innovation In Control (Colorado Regional)
• 2005
  • Regional Finalist (Colorado Regional)
  • Delphi Driving Tomorrow's Technology (Colorado Regional)
  • Daimler-Chrysler Team Spirit (Colorado Regional)
• 2004
  • Regional Engineering Inspiration Award (Colorado Regional)
  • Picked for Regional Finals (Colorado Regional)
• 2002
  • Chairmans award at Seattle Regional
  • Fourth in division at Nationals
• 2001
  • Best Design Award at San Jose Regional

Music Department

• The choir, band, and orchestra have played at Carnegie Hall^{[citation needed]}

• Poudre's Jazz I ensemble attended the 2013 New York City Jazz festival. The group played in the Allen Room at Jazz at Lincoln Center.

National recognition

• Poudre High School has been repeatedly ranked in the top 1000 US schools by Newsweek^[7]

• Poudre High School was the only American high school with students competing in nationals for Science Olympiad, Science Bowl, Knowledge Bowl and Ocean Bowl in 2010.

The IB Program

• It just is.

List of extracurricular activities

• Art Club
• Badminton^[8]
• Band
• Cheerleading
• Colorguard
• Class Council
• National Forensics League Speech, Interp, & Debate Club
• Jazz Band
• Environmental Club
• FIRST Robotics Team 159
• Gay Straight Alliance
• IB Student Council
• Jazz Band I
• Jazz Band II
• Dixie Land Jazz Band
• Marching Band
• Maths Club
• Model U.N.
• Mock Trial
• National Science Bowl
• Award Winning Pep Band
• Plays and Musical Productions
• Poudre Business Leaders (FBLA/DECA)
• Sign Language Club
• Science Olympiad
• Student Council
• Tennis
• International Thespian Society

References